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Maintenance from 1945 to 1980
19 February 2008
- One of the first hydraulic tamping machines.
- (Photo : PLASSER and THEURER)
These works were conducted mainually using very basic tools.
Thanks to a better understanding of the railway environment and improved track components it was possible to implement new maintenance methods and develop overhaul programmes that are appropriate for the nature and age of the tracks and the quality of materials employed.
Inspection techniques were improved for:
- the state of the track,
- its geometry using the Mauzin measurement car,
- the quality of the rails using ultrasonic monitoring to detect flaws in the metal. Grinding of the rails to remove surface defects followed using specially equipped trains.
Consequently, by using a sequence of recorded measurements it has become possible to check the effectiveness of maintenance operations, improve them, schedule them and lastly mechanize them.
