Fastest rail level crossing installation

By Jim Hughes and Matthew Hayward – JD Rail Solutions

Welcome to the 21st Century of new generation designed Rail Level Crossing where 3 linear metres can be installed in less than 13 minutes, completely locked down with only 2 personnel to carry out the installation.

“The JD Rail Solutions Advan-Bridge Panels are a universal design that will fit wooden, concrete and steel sleepers of any contour, narrow, standard, broad gauge, dual gauge configurations and radial curves.”

JD Rail Solutions have designed, developed and manufacture such a Rail Level Crossing making the job easier to install, by providing a product that is safer for the commuters who use them.  As an important start point the JD Rail Solutions Level Crossing is manufactured as pre cast concrete panels.  We know what you are thinking pre cast panels for Level Crossings are nothing new, this is where you are wrong.  We realize that concrete has no strength unless it's incased into a steel structure with rigid reinforced mesh and suddenly you go from a concrete panel to a bridge section. 

JD Rail produces a product that will be around as long as most bridges that exist today that were here last century and the century before. We call it the Advan-Bridge Rail Level Crossing, and we know it can take the punishment as we have 250 tonne HaulPac mining trucks passing over, hundreds of times a day. It was this demand by industry that JD Rail Solutions came into existence - engineering a Rail Level Crossing that would allow 250 tonne Haulpacs pass over the track structure without imposing any damage.  From this success we designed our 2nd generation Advan-Bridge which could be used in Mining, Highway, Shire, Port / Yards, Agricultural and pedestrian crossings developed from feedback from rail personnel across all sectors.

When designing our 2nd generation Crossing we did not want to clip or attach onto the rail in any way shape or form, nor did we want to drill any holes into the sleeper, nor did we want to interfere with natural drainage, as we felt as soon as you cross this line you are interfering with original engineering design and introduce potential failures. Most Level Crossing designs commonly attach onto the rail to hold gauge and field side panels into place. So every time a road vehicle passes of the Level Crossing it applies pinpoint loading pressure to this point on the rail, this increases the potential of fatigue crack. Not only can road traffic cause a problem, we must realize when a train is travelling along the track the rail produces resonance vibration. When you anchor to the rail you are interfering, as a result you will change the harmonics at that given point, in which if you achieve the right resonant vibration it could again produce a fatigue crack. The time will come one day when a commuter train passes the point of the anchor; the fatigue crack reaches breaking point which in turn causes a train derailment. As a result Innocent commuters could be fatally injured all because a Level Crossing was interfering with the original engineering design. To overcome the need to anchor onto the rail or drill into the sleepers JD Rail Solutions designed a patented system that uses saddles locate onto the sleepers. When in place the Advan-Bridge panels are lowered into place and locked in, the gauge and field side panels become one entity, completely interlock between the road surfaces. 

The JD Rail Solutions Advan-Bridge Panels are a universal design that will fit wooden, concrete and steel sleepers of any contour, narrow, standard, broad gauge, dual gauge configurations and radial curves.  In order to have our Advan-Bridge panels fit to all these configurations without losing strength or damaging the natural track structure we use the medium of rubber to go-between.  The recycled rubber is custom molded to fit between the void of the bottom of the panel and the contour of the given Sleeper, this rubber is also molded to the saddle to complete the support.  Using rubber allows the strength of the Advan-Bridge Panels to be present at surface level, this provides cushioning and distributing road vehicle loadings over six Sleepers per panel set.

A important feature of the Advan-Bridge Crossing is our unique Lock Down System, not only does it provide a method of locking the field side and gauge panels together it also prevents any panels moving out of place from both road vehicles and train. We lifted a 3 metre section of Advan-Bridge Level Crossing with seven and half tonnes of weights hanging from the Lock Down System and it held the weight with no problem.  Since we know it can hold weight with no problem, when integrated as part of the system of the Level Crossing panels are fixed into place, it will not shift from vehicles impacts nor lift panels from the vacuum created from high speed vehicles.

The Advan-Bridge Level Crossing can be either an open flange or a closed flange depending on your needs.  With the closed flange option we use rubber to close the gap, others designs engulf the rail in rubber or asphalt, our design only lightly touches the head of the rail, so it will not impose any unnecessary forces.  Many alternative systems use rubber butted hard against the rail or enclosed on the rail, in which is said to assist in protecting the rail from corrosion.  The question to ask is 'does it protect the rail it or does it encourage corrosion?'  The rubber can prevent moisture touching the rail, though it can also trap the moisture making it a perfect environment for corrosion to occur. 

The JD Rail Solutions Advan-Bridge Level Crossing was designed and manufactured for the requirements for safety and the needs of the rail industry, engineered by looking at the big picture.  Installation times are incredibly fast compared to alternative systems, only basic tools are required no degrees needed to install - easy fit (1 hour = 12 metres installed), no need for hammers, come-a-longs or crowbars to lever panels in or out, and even quicker to remove and install at times of track maintenance - 7 minutes per 3 metres.  So the question is to ask with all the benefits available, why you would want install anything but the JD Rail Solution Advan-Bridge Level Crossing.  

Contact

JD Rail Solutions Pty Ltd

47 Austin Avenue

Maddington, Western Australia 6109

PO Box 306

Maddington, Western Australia 6989     

Tel: +61 8 9452 2844

Fax: +61 8 9452 2855

Email: info@jdrail.com.au

Web: www.jdrail.com.au