Some dos and don'ts of rail grinding

In the past 10-20 years rail grinding has become an accepted rail maintenance practice in Railway Systems throughout the world, ranging from higher axle load heavy haul to lower axle load passenger. This paper discusses examples of some dos and don'ts associated with rail grinding, when applied to achieve specific goals and/or strategies, including: Corrective or defect grinding, which primarily aims to remove/reduce rail defects; Preventative or cyclic grinding, which primarily aims to eliminate or at least control rail defects and maintain the surface condition and the preferred rail profiles; Transitional grinding, which primarily aims to establish a preventative grinding regime over a number of grinding cycles; Grinding to reduce the sensitivity of vehicles to hunting in tangent track and shallow curves; Grinding to reduce the generation of noise associated with wheel/rail interaction. It will be shown that each of the above objectives requires different grinding strategies and practices, which if not applied will reduce the positive economic and technical benefits of grinding or even lead to negative benefits.