Wooden Railway Research Articles

Behavior of back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth walls as railway embankments

Twelve physical model tests were carried out to investigate the role of the type and arrangement of reinforcements on the behavior of back-to-back mechanically stabilized earth walls (BBMSEWs) supporting railway tracks. Six metal-strip reinforced BBMSEW models and six geogrid reinforced models were prepared with different reinforcement arrangements and then were vertically loaded to failure using wooden railway sleepers. The findings indicated that the reinforcement stiffness played a more prominent role in improving the bearing capacity than the pull-out capacity. The connection of two opposing walls with continuous reinforcements and the complete separation of them from each other were found to be the best and worst reinforcement arrangements, respectively, for improving the bearing capacity and reducing wall deformation in BBMSEWs. The respective use of these two arrangements mobilized the maximum and minimum forces in the reinforcements. Moreover, the creation of a proper connection between the opposing walls using continuous inextensible reinforcements or those with a sufficient overlap length were found to be efficient solutions to preventing the propagation of a failure plane across the back-to-back MSE walls.

Pyrolysis and Torrefaction-Thermal Treatment of Creosote-Impregnated Railroad Ties as a Method of Utilization.

A fundamental issue of waste management and the rail transport industry is the problem of utilizing used railroad ties. Wooden railroad ties are treated with a preservative, usually creosote. Due to their high toxicity, railroad ties are considered hazardous waste and must be utilized under various directives. It is proposed to utilize the troublesome waste by using the pyrolysis and torrefaction process. The research proves that the thermal method is effective for disposing of this type of waste. Torrefaction up to 250 °C gives high efficiency of impregnation removal, while pyrolysis up to 400 °C completely neutralizes waste. A series of experiments were conducted for various final pyrolysis temperatures to determine a minimum temperature for which the obtained solid products are free from creosote. Extraction with the use of the Soxhlet technique was performed for the raw materials and the obtained solid products-chars. The oil content for liquid fraction was also examined for each sample. As a result of the thermal treatment of the waste, fuel with combustion parameters better than wood was obtained. For a high final temperature of the process, the calorific value of char is close to that of hard coal.

О коллективной откладке яиц у тигрового ужа (Rhabdophis tigrinus) (Reptilia, Colubridae) на Дальнем Востоке России

The paper presents the case of discovery of 60 eggs of the tiger keelback (Rhabdophis tigrinus) in the vicinity of the Dunay settlement (Primorsky Krai, Russian Federation) under a wooden railway sleeper on July 27, 2022. The authors suggest that it was a collective clutch of eggs from three females. Incubation in artificial conditions, from the discovery of this collective clutch to the release of juveniles from the eggs, lasted 17–20 days. Given the synchronicity of the hatching of young snakes, it is assumed that the eggs were laid by different females almost simultaneously. The youth emerging from the eggs had a mass of 1.60–4.78 g, a body length of 152.4–211.3 mm and a tail of 28.4–48.1 mm.

Myths and Realities of the Salt Lake Temple Foundation

Myths and Realities of the Salt Lake Temple Foundation

Railway tie deterioration interval estimation with Bayesian deep learning and data-driven maintenance strategy

Wooden railway ties still occupy a significant proportion of the North American railway network. Many existing tie maintenance schemes are performed using expensive field tests. Using tie deterioration prediction to estimate the required tie inventory is a cost-efficient solution for tackling tie maintenance issues. This study proposes an improved multilayer neural network model using Bayesian deep learning (BDL-MLP). Balanced and efficient interval estimation of the tie deterioration rate was achieved by analyzing weather and historical detection datasets. A comprehensive evaluation metric, cover width deviation and error (CWDE), was also proposed to evaluate the result of prediction interval (PI). Using this metric, the CWDE value of the BDL-MLP model reached 0.9324, and the interval coverage rate was 97.50%. Compared with the combined model, the CWDE index increased by 1.48–5.40%, and the interval coverage rate increased by 4.21–22.15%. Finally, a deterioration data-driven maintenance strategy is established based on the quantile regression principle. This method estimates the tie-replacement inventory under different deterioration types, resulting in economical maintenance solutions.

Incising and Double Impregnation of Beech Sleepers—Investigation of an Alternative Preservation System for Wooden Railway Sleepers

For nearly 200 years wooden railway sleepers are impregnated with creosote. After initially using vacuum pressure processes for impregnation, empty-cell processes have been developed quickly and are used until today. Because of political developments and its alarming properties against human health and environment the use of creosote is already restricted to certain industrial and commercially used products and will probably be banned on the European market and elsewhere in the near future. Today, most of the sleepers in track are concrete sleepers, but wooden sleepers are still essential for particular applications such as tracks with narrow curve radii, mountain tracks with uneven underground conditions and low ballast bed thicknesses, for switches, for railway bridges and for shunting stations. Without a successor product, wooden sleepers have to be installed either again without adequate protection against wood destroying organisms or will possibly be replaced by sleepers made from alternative materials like concrete, steel or polymers. The Fürstenberg-System-Sleeper, which combines a mechanical pre-treatment (incising), a double impregnation of sleepers including an alternative oily wood preservative and a water-borne copper salt as well as a modernized quality control shall on the one hand serve as an alternative to creosoted sleepers and on the other hand ensure future use of wooden sleepers in track superstructure. Incising reduced the formation of checks regarding their length, width, and depth in sleepers made from European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) until they are sufficiently seasoned for impregnation. A decrease of the seasoning speed was not observed. During seasoning, the average global moisture content (MC) as well as the local MC showed hardly any differences between incised and not incised sleepers. Additionally, incising showed no influence on the dimensional stability, which would have reduced the number of sleepers being culled based on excessive deformation. Furthermore, positive effects on preservative retention and penetration were observed, where incising doubled the penetration depth up to over 30 mm and increased the mean retention from 46.5 to 72.0 kg/m3. During double impregnation with the water-borne preservative first and the oily preservative afterward, it became evident, that a gross weight of at least 950 kg/m3 was needed for penetrating the peripheral area of the sleepers to achieve an additional homogenous envelope treatment during the second impregnation with an average retention of approximately 30 kg/m3.

Vol4 num3-6 Eco Sustainable Rail: production of sustainable railway sleepers from mixed plastics waste

Mixed plastics waste (MPW) constitute a material of extreme recycling difficulty due to their heterogeneity and contamination level. As a consequence, a large fraction of MPW is landfilled. It is imperative to find new applications for MPW that bring new value as a raw material, with application in high added-value products. The restrictions on the marketing and application of biocidal products such as the creosote treatment performed on wood railway sleepers, introduced by Directive 98/8/EC, triggered the replacement of several products traditionally produced in wood. Currently, there is a global need to find solutions for replacement of wood railway sleepers for specific railway applications. The present study investigates the application requirements and proposes a new solution based on MPW composites for the production of eco-friendly railway sleepers. The composites are mostly based on MPW and glass fibers. The prototype composite sleepers were produced by intrusion processing and tested in simulated mechanical and environmental operating conditions. Overall this new circularity approach will largely contribute to reduce the deposition of MPW in landfills, responding to a current need of the railway sector, and will contribute to implement circular economy and resource efficiency.

Mathematical Model Coupled to Neural Networks Calculates the Extraction Recovery of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Problematic Matrix.

Unknown extraction recovery from solid matrix samples leads to meaningless chemical analysis results. It cannot always be determined, and it depends on the complexity of the matrix and properties of the extracted substances. This paper combines a mathematical model with the machine learning method—neural networks that predict liquid extraction recovery from solid matrices. The prediction of the three-stage extraction recovery of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from a wooden railway sleeper matrix is demonstrated. Calculation of the extraction recovery requires the extract’s volume to be measured and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons’ concentration to be determined for each stage. These data are used to calculate the input values for a neural network model. Lowest mean-squared error (0.014) and smallest retraining relative standard deviation (20.7%) were achieved with the neural network setup 6:5:5:4:1 (six inputs, three hidden layers with five, five, and four neurons in a layer, and one output). To train such a neural network, it took less than 8000 steps—less than a second––using an average-performance laptop. The relative standard deviation of the extraction recovery predictions ranged between 1.13 and 5.15%. The three-stage recovery of the extracted dry sample showed 104% of three different polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The extracted wet sample recovery was 71, 98, and 55% for phenanthrene, anthracene, and pyrene, respectively. This method is applicable in the environmental, food processing, pharmaceutical, biochemical, biotechnology, and space research areas where extraction should be performed autonomously without human interference.

Evgeny O. Paton (to the 150th anniversary of the birth)

The article is dedicated to Evgeny Oskarovich Paton, an outstanding Soviet scientist with brilliant engineering talent. It was he who created a unique school of bridge building. The most famous creation of Evgeny Oskarovich bears his name – the famous Paton Bridge in Kiev.E. O. Paton is the author of more than 300 scienti fic papers and several theoretical courses on bridge building and welding: «Calculation of end-to-end trusses with rigid joints», «Iron bridges» in 4 volumes, «Wooden railway bridges», «Automatic bare electrode welding under a layer of flux», fundamental textbook «Course of bridges» in 5 volumes and others. Organizer and editor-in-chief of the journal «Automatic welding» (1949–1953). Many of his textbooks are still being used in the study process.The beginning of Evgeny Paton’s professional, research and teaching career was directly related to transport and railways, teaching at the then MIIT, where the future great scientist headed the department «Bridges and Tunnels» (founded in 1896). It was there that Evgeny Oskarovich worked until 1904. Paton’s laboratory has survived to this day and even continues to be used in teaching, and documents and photographs related to the scientist are carefully kept in the university museum.

Utilization of Wood Railway Sleepers Using a Supercritical Fluid Extraction Process

In this work, we propose an alternative method for the utilization of sleepers, based on the use of a supercritical fluid extraction process. The preference for the implementation of a supercritical fluid extraction process for “extractable-extractant” systems exhibiting I–II types of phase behavior is given. On the example of supercritical fluid extraction of the impregnation material of spent wood railway sleepers, the efficiency of replacing the carbon dioxide participating as an extractant with a propane/butane mixture, which provide the desired change in the type of phase behavior in relation to such components of the impregnation material as phenol, anthracene and naphthalene is shown. The phase equilibria of thermodynamic systems involving carbon dioxide and a propane/butane mixture on the one hand and coal oil components such as phenol, anthracene, and naphthalene on the other are studied. The proposed method of processing spent railway sleepers allows you to select from it up to 97 % of the mass impregnation source material.

Influence of creosote-polluted substrate on the bioremediation-potential microscopic fungi in the rhizosphere of plants

Wooden sleepers used in railways are impregnated with preservatives with fungicidic and bactericidic properties, which contain a large amount of harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The aim of this research was to reveal the type of fungi in the rhizosphere of plants, which tolerate pollutants and can be involved in bioremediation process of creosote-contaminated used wooden railway sleepers. Tagetes patula grown in the substrate with 12.5% creosote impregnated used wooden sleepers chips additive is characterized by the most intensive root development and the biggest population of active fungi, therefore it is recommended for further investigation. Number of colonies of fungi in the rhizosphere of investigated plants decreased in many cases by increasing the amount of sleepers chips additive in substrate, however it was greater in the substrates with creosote treated wooden sleepers chips additives (12.5, 25 and 37.5% wooden sleepers chips) than in the pure substrate and various substrates with additives of pure Pinus sylvestris chips. This is a pioneering study searching for the local fungi species in Lithuania, which can be further utilized for the bioremediation of PAHs.

Complex Contamination Research and Hazard Assessment of the Waste of the Wooden Railway Sleeper

Before being put to use, wooden railway sleepers are impregnated with creosote to increase their longevity and protect them from any adverse environmental impact. Creosote consists of a number of chemical substances, and some of those substances, namely, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenolic compounds and heterocyclic aromatic compounds, are potent carcinogens. Apart from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phenolic compounds, during their use, sleepers are mostly contaminated with heavy metals and petroleum products. Upon railway reconstruction, wooden railway sleepers become the waste, which must be handled by the current legislation of the European Union. After determining the concentration of contaminants with laboratory research, it is possible to identify their hazard level and classify them as hazardous or non-hazardous waste. After conducting laboratory research on the waste of wooden railway sleeper analysed, they are classified as hazardous waste.

Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Wooden Railway Sleepers

Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Wooden Railway Sleepers

Composite Railroad Ties Obtained by the Energy Efficient Recycle of Wooden Railroad Ties

The article presents the result of research in the field of processing wooden railroad ties and thermoplastic polymer household waste with obtaining composite railroad ties under conditions of energy efficiency of technological processes. The wood of the used wooden ties contains a significant proportion of chemical compounds based on creosote. As a result of the thermal and mechanical action, the creosote compounds in the wood form hydrophobic surfaces, thereby fulfilling the function of the bonding additives. Under the above-mentioned conditions, hydrogen bonds are formed between the components of the wood composite, that, in its turn, allows achieving the task of creating a functional composite, which varies in the compound of elements and the modes of production processes. Experimental studies were held on the nature of justification and correction of theoretical studies. The experimental stand of composite production is realized on the principle of energy efficient cooling cycles of the obtained composite with heat transfer for heating the initial components. The obtained results of experimental studies exceed the regulation values by every measure. The comparison justifies the quality of the experimental samples obtained with respect to these values.

Eco Sustainable Rail - Valorization of Mixed Plastics in the Development of Eco-Sustainable Railways

The mixed plastics, by their heterogeneity and contamination characteristics, constitute the extreme situation of difficulty in recycling, which has greatly contributed to a high fraction of mixed plastics landfilled. This situation is a cause for concern, and it is imperative to search for new application solutions for these wastes and its valorization as a raw material of high value-added products. Currently exists in Portugal and globally a need to find solutions for railway sleepers, to be a viable alternative to the replacement of wood railway sleepers, which usually have a special application and cannot be replaced by cement solutions existing on the market. Thus, the ECO SUSTAINABLE RAIL project intends to meet the listed requirements, through the mixed plastics valorization in the development of the eco-sustainable sleepers, mostly made of mixed plastics, to be tested in real scenario of operation in Infrastructures of Portugal. The ECO SUSTAINABLE RAIL project will be supported in the development of three research lines (research and development of a new material mostly of mixed plastics, research of a sleeper geometry, research of a new production process), the development of life-cycle analysis and environmental assessment of the sleepers real scenario and the sleepers testing in real operating condition. For the project execution, it was established a set of entities consortium, with experience and complementary skills, including the leading EXTRUPLAS company, the Innovation Pole in Polymer Engineering (PIEP) and the Centre for Waste Valorization (CVR), that with the technical support of Infrastructures of Portugal (IP) will be able to develop and test a new railway sleeper of quality and with less environmental impact. Overall the project ECO SUSTAINABLE RAIL will contribute to reduce the deposition of mixed plastic in landfills, to respond to a need of the railway sector, and to allow the expansion and differentiation of the EXTRUPLAS products portfolio, which will strengthen its position in the plastic recycling sector. Keywords : Mixed plastics, Valorization, Eco-sustainable railways

Drawings

Drawings Rackstraw Downes Click for larger view View full resolution Obsolete Gas Tanks, Bayway, NJ (1996), graphite on gray/brown paper, 20 1/2 × 31 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution Smith Street Station and New Drawbridge Over Gowanus Canal (1999), graphite on tan paper, 23 1/2 × 39 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution The Music Hall from the Stage (1999), graphite on speckled green paper (three parts), 25 3/4 × 33 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution View East from the Levee, with Old Wooden Railroad Bridge (Presidio, TX) (2008), pencil on tan paper, 11 7/8 × 48 1/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution The projects from Park Ave. & 102nd St. (2008), graphite on light gray paper with blue threads, 14 × 42 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution North River Water Pollution Control Plant at 145th Street (2008), graphite on pink paper with red and blue threads, 16 × 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution Studio Interior Looking East (I) (2014), graphite on paper with blue and red threads, 16 × 22 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Click for larger view View full resolution Presidio-Beehives Near a Canyon, On Camino Del Rio (2004), graphite on gray cream paper with blue threads, 9 5/8 × 44 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. Copyright © 2018 Rackstraw Downes

Environmentally Friendly Process for Recovery of Wood Preservative from Used Copper Naphthenate-Treated Railroad Ties

Removal of copper naphthenate (CN) from used wooden railroad ties was investigated to improve the commercial viability of this biomass as a fuel source and avoid alternative disposal methods such as landfilling. Bench-scale thermal desorption of organic preservative components from CN-impregnated ties was followed by extraction of the copper fraction with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, 1-hydroxy ethylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid, or 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acid (PDA). Naphthenic acid (NA) and carrier oil were recovered at desorption temperatures between 225 and 300 °C and could potentially be recycled to treat new ties. The thermal treatment also mimicked torrefaction, improving the biomass properties for use as a thermochemical conversion feedstock. Chelation with PDA, a biodegradable chelating agent, after desorption had the highest extraction efficiency of copper and other naturally present inorganics, extracting 100% of the copper from both the raw and 225 °C-treated samples. Optimized desorbed mat...

Recycling railroad ties with benefits

A little-known fact: Some 21 million wooden railroad ties are taken out of service in the U.S. each year. What happens to them? Many of the used ties, which on average are 30 years old, are burned to produce heat and electricity, and the remainder are recycled as landscaping timbers or disposed of in landfills, according to Nicole Labbé, Pyoungchung Kim, and their colleagues at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Renewable Carbon. However, changing environmental rules on burning and reusing the chemically treated wood combined with the low cost of natural gas has meant railroad ties are increasingly being landfilled. This situation led the Tennessee researchers to work with wood-preservative company Nisus to develop a commercial-scale thermochemical process that increases the value of used railroad ties and reduces the environmental impact of disposing of them (ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02666). The process involves chipping the ties and

Two-Step Thermochemical Process for Adding Value to Used Railroad Wood Ties and Reducing Environmental Impacts

A two-step thermochemical process combining a thermal desorption at 250–300 °C and a pyrolysis at 500 °C of used creosote-treated wooden railroad ties was carried out to recover preservative and produce a high quality bio-oil and biochar. Under optimal temperature between 280 and 300 °C, high preservative removal efficiency (70–74%) was achieved with a high proportion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, 80–82%) and a large portion of the original wood mass (67–70%) was retained. This thermally treated biomass had higher heating value (HHV; 19.9–20 MJ/kg) than the starting material. The physical properties of the preservative, such as viscosity and density, and its toxic threshold against a common decay basidiomycete fungus were similar to those of commercially available P2-creosote. Pyrolysis of the thermally treated ties produced bio-oils with lower water content and total acid numbers, and a higher amount of lignin-derived compounds than that of untreated ties. Biochars derived from the thermally...

Contamination of soils with Cu, Na and Hg due to the highway and railway transport

Contamination of soils with three metals due to the highway and railway transport was studied. Copper was selected as a suitable indicator for both kinds of transportation. Sodium served to assess the level of contamination resulting from the road salting in winter. Mercury was determined in samples taken close to the railway in order to test its release from impregnated wooden ties. All analyses were determined using the methods of the trace element analysis; values are expressed as dry matter. The highest concentrations of copper, sodium and total mercury in soil samples were 52.7 mg/kg, 770 mg/kg and 0.181 mg/kg respectively. The highest copper content was observed in soils taken close to the railroad and the highway. Elevated sodium levels originated from winter road salting – the highest winter value was 770 mg/kg as compared with maximal summer value of 416 mg/kg. The concentration of total mercury in soils depended on the type of railway ties used – the highest values for location with wooden and concrete ties were 0.181 mg/kg and 0.145 mg/kg, respectively. Wooden railroad ties are considered as a potential source of mercury because of impregnation with antifungal mercury compounds.