How Rhomberg Sersa uses its expertise and experience in commercial track construction to secure its customers' infrastructures. An example from Germany
In commercial track construction, accuracy and compliance with all dimensions for all track gauges are essential. Only in this way can the operational safety of the track system be guaranteed.
And this is the only way to prevent the most serious of all accidents with a technical background: derailments. If they do occur, however, it is essential to have perfect command of the wheel/rail system in order to get to the bottom of the cause and ensure a reliable solution.
This happened in November/December 2019, when repeated derailments with one type of vehicle occurred in a curve in the Stadtverkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (Oder), SVF, network after 17 years of service. Rhomberg Sersa Deutschland, which was called in to help, was able to prolong the service life of the track in a short-term closure by replacing the rails of the upper and lower curve, re-tamping the ramp and retrofitting a check rail, while at the same time providing the customer with long-term safety against derailment.
The innovation here was extra guard rail support blocks specially developed for the UIC33 rail, which also allow the groove width to be adjusted. For this purpose, the supports were retrofitted in the sleeper area to the existing S49/ S54 rail in the lower curve. As is so often the case, the best solution was also the most logical one: if you imagine a conventional guard rail in a switch and a check rail mounted in the sleeper area on a double ribbed baseplate, then the retrofittable guard rail support base for a check rail is the next logical step. This is because the UIC33 check rail fulfils its anti-derailment function with 60 mm from the groove entry and, by reducing the groove width to 36 mm in special cases, prevents the wheels from climbing when changing bends and inclinations in the direction of travel.
