What is ‘beater packing’? What is included in the maintenance carried out by gangs commonly seen on the tracks?

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What is ‘beater packing’? What is included in the maintenance carried out by gangs commonly seen on the tracks?

July 19, 2019, 12:08 PM

The most common system of routine manual (non-mechanized) track maintenance is known as through packing or beater packing (from the name of the tool used for packing ballast, a ‘beater’). This includes the following steps:

Opening of the road : ballast is unpacked, fittings and fastenings of the rails loosened
Examination of track : Rails, sleepers, fastenings are carefully examined for signs of wear, corrosion, rust, dust and dirt, etc. Wire brushes are used for cleaning; jimcrows and other tools to rectify minor kinks or other defects. Sleepers are examined for signs of splitting or decay. Minor repairs such as replacement of fastenings, rail lubrication, etc., are performed.
Squaring of sleepers : Sleeper hammers are used to adjust sleepers to the proper position.
Slewing of track to fix the alignment of the rails.
Gauging : the gauge between the rails is carefully measured and adjusted as necessary.
Sleeper packing : Each sleeper is uniformly and firmly packed so the rails are the correct relative levels and to ensure the sleepers have no voids between themselves and the trackbed. This is where ‘beaters’ are used. These are long rod-like tools with an end used to pack the ballast. The beater is held by the hands and raised to about chest level and then plunged downwards to pack the ballast.
Re-packing of joint sleepers
Boxing the ballast section and clean-up.
Another system of manual ballast packing called ‘measured shovel packing’ used to be common but is now not in use.

In addition to ballast packing, gangs perform a variety of other cleaning and maintenance jobs, such as maintaining drainage, adjusting cess level (too high affects drainage, too low results in ballast spread and wastage), removing weeds and stones, etc.

Crews also pick up slack in the track. Slack refers to the condition where there is insufficient ballast or a gap developing between the track and the trackbed, or subsidence of the track, because of a yield formation in high banks and cuttings, at approaches to bridges, on badly aligned curves, where ballast is poorly laid or insufficient, or where there are drainage defects causing subsidence problems. Slack is picked up by opening the track and repacking the ballast.

Track Defects
An explanation of track defects in general is beyond the scope of these pages. Please consult any current reference book on permanent way technology. A list of track defect indications is provided at the signs and symbols page.

Source – IFRCA.org

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