Want to know what railway track consist of ?

           Had a journey by train? Ever wondered what the railway track consist of or how it looks like.Lets not waste our time and take a look at railway track to understand what it actually consist of.

            Let it be a metro train,bullet train,narrow gauge, meter gauge, broad gauge or a toy train the basic items used in its track mainly consist of the following items

• Rails-This is the primary component on which the rolling stock (wheel of train) moves
  
• Sleeper-The rails are directly placed on sleepers with a rubber pad in between them.The main purpose of the sleepers is to transfer load of the train coming from rail to the ballast below. 

• Track Ballast-Track ballast are bigger than the ballast that we use in normal building works.The main purpose of the ballast is to provide elastic medium because of track ballast our rides in train are much smoother.                                                                                       If the track is directly placed on the formation without ballast it will be a bumpy horse ride for us.In addition to this ballast helps in maintaining proper line and level of track.
  
• Fastening-These are the component of the track which holds the rail and tie them with sleepers. In India ERC (elastic rail clips) are used but in many other countries vassloh clips are used. 
  

Elastic rail clips (ERC)

• Formation- The whole above assembly is placed on a treated or naturally strong soil base. For testing its eligibility various tests are conducted and various treatments are given to make it fit for plying thousands of passengers and tonnes of loads.

                So, this is what railway tracks consists of. Hope you enjoyed reading the article.Looking forward for making more such articles. 

Thank you ....