Revolution in turnout transport

This will be the longest train car in Poland. KZN Bieżanów, a manufacturer of railroad turnouts, is finishing the project of a comprehensive system for transporting and assembling railroad turnouts in blocks. The company has built new tipping train car platforms, which are now undergoing tests in the Railway Institute.

The turnout incorporation technologies that have been applied so far can be considered obsolete. The old technology was based on disassembling the finished turnout in the manufacturing plant, transporting the elements – rails, turnout sleepers and control elements – and reassembling the turnout on the construction site. Sometimes, the turnout is reassembled directly on the incorporation site, but sometimes the reassembly takes place on the first available space on the construction site.

This solution is simple but entails high risk of failure. The key risk is the limited control over the quality of assembly on the construction site both by the manufacturer and by PKP PLK. During transport and unloading, the turnout elements are at risk of deformation and defects. The devices, which are manufactured according to strict technical requirements, on the construction site are often pulled down from the trailers by excavators, which could compromise the geometry of the turnouts. This is particularly problematic given the increasing speed limits on Polish railways to 160 km/h, 200 km/h, or even 250 km/h. The margin of error is obviously very small. Another disadvantage of the standard method is the prolonged time necessary to reassemble the turnout, and the need for appropriate storage conditions.

All those issues have already been diagnosed several years ago by PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe, who has also indicated that the preferable method would be transporting the finished turnout elements in blocks on platform-type train car, as it is generally done in Western European countries. The railway management authority currently indicates this solution as recommended, but the concept of making this system mandatory is already in the works. However, it is required to introduce and test this technology in Poland first.