An extract from the September 1969 issue of The Railway Magazine describing experimental paved track constructed by British Railways. The report details the design and investigation work carried out at Radcliffe-on-Trent.
Introduction and Purpose
MAKING THE WAY PERMANENT
Experimental paved track at Radcliffe-on-Trent could substantially reduce maintenance costs
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IN conjunction with the Office for Research & Testing (O.R.E.) of the International Union of Railways, British Railways has constructed a length of experimental paved track, in which the rails are secured direct to a reinforced concrete slab, no sleepers and ballast being used. The test site is between Bingham and Radcliffe-on-Trent stations on the Grantham-Nottingham line. Until recently there were four tracks between Saxondale Junction and Radcliffe, but part of goods lines on the south side has now been lifted and the experimental length of paved track laid on the site of them.
Six different types of track have been laid together with a “control length” of conventional ballasted track. Each individual section is 72 metres (236 ft. 3 in.) long and paved track of Netherlands, French, and Swiss railways is included, together with London Transport and two sections of British Railways track. The B.R. sections comprise a design for the proposed Channel Tunnel, and a “direct laying” design, in which an 8 ft. 6 in. wide × 1 ft. thick reinforced concrete slab is laid by a converted road-laying machine called a slip form paver, the rails being secured to the slab by Pandrol clips, modified shoulders for which are glued with epoxy resin into holes drilled in the slab. The rail is continuously supported on a flexible rubber-bonded cork pad, with nylon insulators between the rail foot and the Pandrol clips. Acoustic, vibration and strain measurements will be made.
British Railways investigations are being combined with those of O.R.E. Committee D87 for the investigation of tracks without ballast for underground railways, and other systems under investigation have all been specifically designed for tunnel or viaduct use. A considerable contribution to the cost of the investigation has been provided by O.R.E.
