Under the contract, ARM will:
- utilise its optical rail management system to conduct a pre-grind survey
- develop a five-year grinding strategy
- implement and oversee the annual grinding programme, and
- conduct an annual post-grind assessment to ensure the plan meets its outlined objectives.
ARM’s grinding plan will be designed to remove existing corrugations on the network, and inhibit its regrowth. The contractor will employ a range of techniques depending on the condition of the rail, including grind pattern selection, template design, variations in grinding speed and grinding motor horsepower.
“The ultimate goal of the five-year grinding plan is to help MTS move from corrective to preventative grinding,” says ARM’s president, Mr Gordon Bachinsky. “The programme will reduce rail and wheel wear, noise and vibration and derailment potential, and will improve ride quality for passengers.”
In addition, ARM, alongside its project subcontractor, National Research Council of Canada (NRC), will review wheel profiles on the light rail network to ensure compatibility with the existing rail profile design. NRC will then develop grinding templates that enhance steering on curves and generate multiple wheel/rail contact bands to distribute wear in tangent track.
“We are excited to work with ARM again,” says Mr Fred Byle, SDTI’s superintendent of wayside maintenance. “During the previous contract, ARM developed a rail grinding plan to remove surface defects and control the contact band on a curve with a 41kg rail that was experiencing severe gauge-face wear. ARM’s efforts significantly reduced the wear rate, allowing us to get two additional years of life out of the rail.”
