Inspection and planning: Keys to NEC maintenance

Amtrak runs North America’s only existing high speed rail corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. Maintaining the more than 450 miles along the Northeast Corridor presents its share of challenges in the form of time coordination, machine productivity, and long-lasting, quality maintenance.

Dave Staplin, deputy chief engineer-track for Amtrak, says good maintenance on the NEC begins with inspection.

“A lot of our work is tied up in inspections. We do switch inspections every 30 days and we do a big annual inspection. It takes more people on the Corridor to do inspections because of the issue of train movements,” says Staplin.

He offers New York’s Penn Station as an example of inspection challenges that present themselves because of a live third rail, in addition to overhead wires and tight track centers, which means Roadway Worker Protection is given extra emphasis.

Staplin also points out that the way inspections are performed differs depending on traffic density and notes that finding a rhythm to inspection, as well as knowing where the traffic gaps occur are important factors to efficient inspection.

“Between New Haven and Boston we [inspect] with a high-rail vehicle in between trains. With the train schedules, inspectors know where they can set and go first during a day and then second and so forth because if you just get on at New Haven subdivision and high-rail to New London, sequentially, you’re probably not going to get there. You have to know where the gaps are in the traffic,” says Staplin.

In addition to ground inspections, Amtrak also depends on a geometry car and Gauge Restraint Management System for additional data on rail wear, which allows for extended maintenance planning.

“Both the geometry car and the GRMS have cameras that allow us to measure rail wear. We look at that data run over run and develop wear progressions for different locations. We then look and see what [track work] is coming due in the next two-to- three years,” says Staplin.

He continued by noting the magnitude inspections play to NEC maintenance, budgeting, and planning because transporting, for example, a single string of rail to a place like Providence, R.I., from a welding plant in the Midwest can increase costs to high levels. Instead of unloading one string every year, if planned properly, a whole rail train can be unloaded for work that will cover multiple years.

When it comes time for larger maintenance projects, manufacturers such as Plasser American Corp. advance the work by developing machines that offer speed, efficiency, and safety.

Plasser points out that working on tracks with a high density of traffic “requires machines that are capable of traveling to and from the work site quickly and safely, as well as requiring track maintenance equipment capable of very high production rates, allowing a high level of work to be completed in a short amount of time.”

According to Plasser, the company has developed a number of machines and systems for use on the NEC. Among these are a switch panel installation system for high speed (no. 32.7) crossovers and a tamping system where two Plasser switch tamping machines are connected together via an umbilical line, allowing both machines to tamp both sides of a crossover on the same plane, resulting in a smooth transition when trains change tracks. Amtrak also uses Plasser’s MTW-100 Catenary Maintenance Vehicles, Dynamic Track Stabilizer, and Ballast Distribution System, which is used with Plasser’s MFS Ballast Hopper/Conveyor Cars to increase material storage capacity during surfacing operations. The MFS can also be used with ballast undercutting/cleaning machines for handling new ballast or spoils. The company also notes that Amtrak was the first railroad to use Plasser’s MDZ system, which allows multiple machines that are coupled together to be controlled and driven from one location, increasing safety by avoiding equipment collisions, as well as improving utilization of a track work window through high travel speeds.

Plasser believes high speed track requires a very high level of long-lasting quality and notes that its product line of tamping machines provides high quality and long-lasting track after tamping operations. As an additional quality factor, Plasser’s Dynamic Track Stabilizers, which are used immediately behind tamping, provide a controlled settlement of the track, allowing trains to run safely and at higher speeds after tamping is completed. This reduces slow orders and helps Amtrak maintain a higher level of on-time performance.