Author: Arthur1960

My book on railway ballast (post 3) 2026-2-2.

In my previous post I indicated that the functions of the railway ballast were defined more than 30 years ago. By this I was referring to the work of the ERRI D-182 when a large number of European railway companies drafted the functions in this working group.

These functions, in a nutshell, are: longitudinal and transverse stability, drainage, elastic support, transferring and spreading loads to the subsurface, dampening noise and enabling easy maintenance of track geometry.

But how do these functions compare to the past and more important to the present? Are they still valid and complete? Do these functions determine all the requirements we place on railway ballast? What do you think about this? I go into this in more detail in my book.

At the moment I am struggling with the chapter “the history of the railway”. There is so much literature available where these regularly contradict each other. I have therefore decided to consult a number of books and use a chronological timeline based on that. For railway ballast it is not important who “invented” the standard gauge, or the wheel flange, or even the “first” railway, but it is interesting reading!

#Railway ballast #Aggregates #Quarries #Rail #Railinfrastructure #Railprofessionals

My book railway ballast (post 2) 2026-1-20.

As promised in my first post, I’ll now provide an insight into the topics covered in my book on railway ballast. Why railway ballast still deserves serious attention. Railway ballast is often seen as “just stones”, but in reality, it is one of the most underestimated components of the railway system. Naturally, I’ll include a bit of history about the origins of the railway and then delve more deeply into the development of the ballast bed. I’ll also discuss in some detail the work of the ORE D-182/ERRI-D-182 (of which I was a member), a working group under the umbrella of the UIC that aimed to establish uniform delivery conditions for railway ballast. Although this work was carried out in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, it was essential for the development of the EN 13450 Railway Ballast from 2002 (still the current version) because it provided the input for this standard. I also served on this CEN working group, but the main difference from ERRI was that now not only the railway companies (users) were represented, but also the industry (producers), initially evenly divided among seven people per group. It’s clear that economic interests played a role in this from country to country. However, this wasn’t the case in the Netherlands, as we didn’t have any quarries that produced railway ballast, only a gravel pit in Linne. This concludes the history of the development of the current EN 13450, but we’re not there yet. What isn’t addressed in these working groups is the problem of dust. My book delves into this in depth, as it dominated my work at ProRail for the past five years. I promise you surprising outcomes and decisions. Of course, attention is also paid to the bonding (gluing) of railway ballast in one form or another. “Olivine,” a mineral that can bind CO2 under certain conditions, is also discussed, but is it actually suitable for railway ballast or related products? In my next post (nr 3) I will give more insight into the functions of the ballast bed which basically were defined more than 30 years ago and whether they are still valid.

What are your thoughts about the railway ballast in the picture? Any clues?

#Railway ballast #Aggregates #Quarries #Rail #Railinfrastructure

My book on railway ballast (post 1) 2026-1-2.

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a healthy and happy 2026, as a great way to start my very first post on LinkedIn and my website ViaSaxum.eu. I’ve been retired for a year now, but I haven’t been sitting still. One of the things I couldn’t let go of was a question from my manager about what I wanted to “leave behind.” I’d already agreed with a previous manager to document my knowledge, but I kept running out of time. So, in mid-2025, I finally decided to get started with a book, but about what? I’ve had the opportunity to work on many aspects of the railway track, including, without being complete, turnouts, switch point heating, sleepers, point machines, rail lubricators, track on bridges, passage of small wheels, CCTV at level crossings and railway ballast. I chose railway ballast because it represented almost 80% of my work during the last five or six years of my active career at ProRail, de Dutch railway company. I still remember well that in the late 1980’s I was commissioned to rewrite the 1952 ProRail delivery conditions for railway ballast and at the same time was appointed as the secretary of the Dutch chairman of the ORE D-182, of which the end product formed the basis for the EN 13450 Railway ballast (2002). I plan to publish my book at the end of this year 2026. The last couple of months I was occupied with gathering all the information I possibly need for this book, so I have 3 carton boxes full of documents (yes I am a “paper”-man, I need to be able to write on a document, questions and comments, and yes I still use a paper agenda which makes my family and some old colleagues laugh at me, so what). And I also called myself lucky to have kept the diskettes we used in the nineties. The working title for my book is momentarily “Railway ballast, the silent force of our railway track”. I am planning to post once at least every month, but maybe more often. No marketing talk — just practical observations, engineering fundamentals, and lessons learned from real projects. If you work in: railway engineering, track maintenance, asset management, or infrastructure design, I hope these posts will spark recognition, discussion, and maybe even some healthy debate. In my next post (nr 2) I will give some insight into the topics covered in my book.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-book-railway-ballast-post-1-2026-1-2-arthur-kappers-gmu8e