On-the-fly Rail Renewal

Anyone standing at the high-speed Cologne-Rhine-Main railway line would be able to count up to 16 ICE trains per hour, each of which travelling at 300 km/hour. Around 33,000 passengers rely on the fast link between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main every single day. Line closures affect 70% of long-distance traffic, either directly or indirectly. “Double quick” was therefore the No. 1 priority for the first rail replacement measure since the line went live in 2002. The job involved Vossloh supplying two rail replacement trains, two rail loading trains to load the old rails as well as two flash-butt welding machines with a hydraulic rail-pulling device for traction-compensation purposes. And three locomotives were also needed to ensure efficient construction site logistics. The challenge for each 30-man team lay in having to destress the rails – with means laying the rails at a specific tension temperature – prior to welding with the aim of creating seamless rails. It took only four double-shift weekends to renew the rails on nearly 100 km of railway line.