For many years, rail transportation has remained the most sought-after way of moving goods and people. Trains travel not only to other parts of the world and remote corners of Russia, but also to nearby villages. They transport industrial goods and deliver travelers to the countryside. At the same time, the directions of Russian Railways are changing, equipment is being improved, but the roads themselves remain unchanged: rails, sleepers and crushed stone. It turns out that the scattering of crushed stones on the tracks is the ballast of the rails, and it performs an important function.
Crushed stone along the railway
Even the most knowledgeable travelers have repeatedly wondered why the area around the railway rails is everywhere covered with chopped dissimilar stones.
Crushed stone is needed in order to keep the rails in place, to reliably fix the existing railway tracks. This is not an easy task, because sleepers and rail lashes tend to shift for a number of external reasons. And stones, despite their apparent instability, help to condense the area around the railway gauge. This material is today recognized as the most convenient and economical basis for strengthening highways. Crushed stone helps the tracks to not move and clearly maintain their place during operation.
Reasons for Rail Offset
The instability of the position of the railway track, its structural violations can be triggered by various factors. Among them:
- soil settlement;
- change of weather: heat or frost;
- exposure to high temperatures;
- earthquakes;
- vibration:
- ground movement;
- overgrowing with weeds and others.
Ballast protects the railway from all troubles. This term is borrowed from marine practice. There stones are used to fix ships in place.
