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ChiangMai Train Station. No Trains... No Travelers... A Close Aerial View larded with some ground

rcpilot

By rcpilot
in Chiang Mai

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rcpilot Explorer Member

rcpilot

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A Close Aerial View larded with some ground shots.

October 2013. The railroad to and from Chiang Mai (TH) is closed due to the bad condition of the track.

As in any country, trains do derail in Thailand. During this year more than once a month while there is only roughly 4000 km of track.
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SDH Advanced Member

SDH

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I think they may need more than new track, maybe the ballast would be the root cause of the loose tracks, loose tracks damage very easily, especially ones that have been in use forever....

Large rocks and boulders are piled along the route (or "road" as we call it) on the ground, then the "berm" is built higher with ballast (in other words, railroad gravel). Then, wooden crossties are spaced out along the route with a 1-foot gap between each tie. Steel rails are then laid on the ties, secured to the crossties with spikes and "tie plates". Afterwards, more ballast is spread to fill the gaps between the ties.

Most of these answerers were right about drainage and stability... without these features the track would shift and immediately become unstable under the enormous weight of trains. A typical train engine weighs 398 thousand pounds and there are usually six of those pulling every freight train. A loaded train car is often around 150 thousand pounds. Imagine trying to lay the tracks on dirt... the tracks would sink, shift and fall apart, especially once the dirt became wet from rain. Even with ballast, the rugged rails bounce up and down like flimsy ribbons of steel under the weight of a moving train.

Everyone who mentioned the environment was clever, but wrong. We've been using ballast since the 1860s in the Civil War era... nobody cared about pollution back then, and ballast has no "kitty litter" properties (although that was a very clever guess). In fact spilling chemicals, grease, fuel and all manner of "acceptable contaminates" spill along the tracks and wash down through the ballast.

As you probably have imagined, new ballast must be spread on the tracks periodically as the berm (false hill the track is built on) slowly shifts and spreads to each side under the vibration of trains.

Most railroads own rock quarries to create their own ballast. Also, crossties are soaked in creosote, like telephone poles, to prevent rotting, but eventually must be replaced.

These built-up routes, which are berms, are called "fills". Places where the route must dig through the land like a trench are called "cuts". The removed dirt and rock from cuts are used to help build the base of the fills further down the line. You'll notice if you look closesly at a railroad that even in "cuts" the cut is made deeply enough to contain a small berm (mound of ballast along the route); this allows drainage, even though the railroad is recessed below normal ground level (it still has to have at least a mini-ditch down in there on each side of the tracks).

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elektrified Diamond Member

elektrified

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Superb video!

I would be very nervous to ever ride a train in Thailand again. The last time we went to Lampang on the train there were problems and it made me feel very nervous. With Air Asia promotions at less than the cost of trains and buses it doesn't make sense to travel any other way.

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