eurailpool
eurailpool is a German - Austrian joint venture in which the German company GSG Knape Gleissanierung GmbH and the Austrian Swietelsky have bundled their activities in the field of underground rehabilitation of railway lines.
The company was founded in 2001 and is ISO 9001 : 2000 certified . She also has a prequalification of the Deutsche Bahn and the Austrian Federal Railways .
The origins of the mechanical underground rehabilitation go back to 1982, when the company Plasser & Theurer built the first underground rehabilitation machine for GSG Knape Gleissanierung GmbH with the PM-200. Today the company has three large machines with different working methods. What all machines have in common is that they only work on the track whose subsoil is to be rehabilitated, while operations continue on the other track. Rails and sleepers are not exchanged when the subsoil is being renovated, but rather the renewal of the ground underneath, which is often restricted in its load-bearing capacity by environmental influences and no longer enables a stable track position. In addition, the track ballast is cleaned and partially replaced. Depending on the composition and number of material trolleys, the underground rehabilitation machines can reach a length of up to 400 meters.
PM 200-1
The first of the three machines is still in operation in several European countries today. In the work area, the track is raised and a large excavation chain removes the ballast and the soil under the ballast. The old material is transported to the material conveyor and silo wagons (MFS) via a system of conveyor belts. A geotextile is now being laid. New sand for the subgrade protective layer (PSS material) is brought in from the other end of the machine using bucket cars and gantry cranes, then installed and compacted by the machine. New ballast is now brought in using the Kübelwagen and installed. Finally, the track is lowered again and tamped by the integrated track tamping machine so that it can be driven immediately at speeds of up to 70 km / h . The working speed is between 50 and 100 meters per hour, depending on the ground conditions. Thanks to new modules that can be integrated into this machine, it is now also possible to break up the removed ballast and, by adding appropriate gravel-sand mixtures, to recycle it directly on board to make PSS material and to reinstall it.
PM 200-2R
This machine is a further development of the PM 200-1. It has two excavation chains and modern recycling technology for railway ballast. She too first lifts the track grid in the work area. First, the ballast excavation chain removes the ballast and feeds it to a complex cleaning and recycling system. The ballast is passed over various vibrating screens, metallic objects are separated out. Then the gravel is washed, the water required for this is cleaned and reused in the on-board sewage treatment plant. This is currently unique in the world. The soil under the ballast is excavated by a second chain and conveyed to the MFS wagons. A geotextile is being laid. PSS material is fed and installed via bucket or MFS trolleys. The ballast recycled on board is reinstalled as sub ballast and supplemented with new top ballast. Then the track can be lowered and tamped down again.
AHM 800R
The machine, which mainly works in Austria, has two excavation chains like the PM 200-2R. However, it pursues a different concept: In contrast to other railways, ÖBB does not want to use recycled ballast. That is why the gravel and the soil are removed, sieved, broken and processed into PSS material with a new gravel-sand mixture and then reinstalled. Then new ballast is installed and the track is lowered and tamped down again.
MFS trolley
According to its own information, the company is the largest provider of MFS systems. These material handling and silo wagons were developed in the 1980s for the PM 200-1 and can also be used for other work in track construction, for example in connection with machines for ballast cleaning.
Loading and unloading facilities
The construction site logistics required to operate the underground rehabilitation machines, MFS and Kübelwagen must always be individually tailored to local conditions. Logistics places must be available at suitable locations on which the MFS and Kübelwagen can be loaded and unloaded, provided that the old and new materials are not moved over long distances. Occasionally, the excavated material is used to build up a noise barrier near the construction site along the route. Special rail-mounted loading and unloading devices are available for all of these applications.
swell
- ↑ TÜV certificate
- ↑ DB Certificate ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
