Turnout technology on developing railways planning path for progress

The turnout population on developing country railways is usually dominated by one or two types of turnouts having low speed potential and poor maintainability. While rapid strides have been made in this field in the advanced railway systems, turnouts continue to stay as a weakest link in the railway tracks of developing country railways. Technology up-gradation in turnout design on advanced railway systems has been directed to achieve higher speeds, better maintainability, low life cycle cost, reduced failure in service, better safety and comfort. The technology up-gradation has been achieved by making improvement in turnout geometry and structural soundness in switch portion and crossing areas. Sophisticated monitoring techniques are also being employed for continuous monitoring of the condition of the turnouts. Technical improvements that have been made in turnouts on world railways are outlined. Attention is given to the specific areas requiring improvement and a pragmatic approach is suggested for accelerating the pace of modernization in this important field of railway infrastructure for the developing railway systems. For the covering abstract see ITRD E125214.