Maintenance Reduction by the Development of Resilient Sleepers for Ballasted Track with Optimal Under-sleeper Pads

Under-sleeper pads (hereinafter called USPs), which are mainly made of rubber in Japan, have been developed for certain purposes such as controlling track subsidence, and their effects have been confirmed. We conducted tests such as subsidence characteristics of resilient sleepers for ballasted tracks with USPs which we developed in this research. The tests were conducted using a full-scale track tester. The results indicate that resilient sleepers for ballasted track have the effect of controlling subsidence of track compared with sleepers without USPs. And, lateral ballast resistance forces of sleepers with USPs increase at a rate of 20% compared with sleepers without USPs. Development of resilient sleepers for ballasted track with the optimal USPs will allow wider choices of materials suiting conditions on individual sections, significantly reducing material costs and maintenance work.