Holding it all together

Pandrol fasteners at work.

L.B. Foster Direct Fixation Fasteners are used on the new Phoenix Metro.

NorFast is using new steel chemistry and a different heat-treating process for more strength.

Vossloh's new Skl 30 clip is designed for heavy-haul service.

Billions of fasteners of all shapes and sizes are at work on railroads every day, meeting challenges from heavy traffic and severe curves, but getting the job done. Below, our annual fastener feature describes the latest offerings in the fastener market.

AirBoss/UNIT RAIL

A lot has been happening lately at UNIT. Recently its 80-plus-year-old name changed from UNIT Rail Anchor Company to UNIT RAIL. With this has come a complete change in its company identity, advertising, and market strategy.

“With the acquisition of AirBoss Railway Products in late 2008, UNIT RAIL has committed itself to what it believes long-term is a growing track fastener market,” said Wes Hodges, general manager.

The AirBoss lineup of wood, steel, and concrete tie resilient fasteners greatly expands UNIT’s role beyond its traditional product lines.

“We have repositioned ourselves as a company that engineers, outsources and manufactures fasteners for every kind of crosstie,” Hodges said.

In May, UNIT RAIL opened its new offices in Overland Park, Kansas. This facility will house the former AirBoss staff, engineering, sales and customer service personnel. The company’s core business is still rail anchors.

Advanced Track Products

“We have successfully completed delivery on two major Standard Direct Fixation projects,” said Scott Osler of Advanced Track Products. “Our Trackmaster Model TM-24D for DART in Dallas and our Trackmaster ACL-24 for Long Island Rail Road. The benefits of our Trackmaster design come from the containment design philosophy. Unlike the typical sandwich type DF that depend on the rubber-to-metal bond to secure the top plate to the base plate, our Trackmaster design contains the top plate inside on outside containment frame. While the elastomer bonds the two castings together there are internal design features to restrain the top plate in all lateral and longitudinal directions.

“Our Loadmaster DF continues its excellent performance in the slab track at TTCI,” Osler said. “After more than five years of 40-ton axle service and approximately 300 mgt, the Loadmaster continues to maintain Class 9 track. We know of no other DF in the industry that can match this kind of ruggedness while providing a very desirable track modulus.

“ATP has a healthy backlog of products in development,” he noted. “We are following a number of projects that seem to have DF as part of the mix. However, with most projects being design/build, it is difficult to be sure what can be expected from them. In the overall, we see a dip in the action, but feel there are enough projects coming along that we remain cautiously optimistic.”

L.B. Foster

According to Hakan Eksi, general manager, transit products, L.B. Foster Co., there have been several positive developments within the company’s fastener product line over the past year.

“We are very excited about a license agreement for North America with Delkor Rail, part of the Vossloh Group,” Eksi said. “These fasteners will be used by transit agencies as well as by heavy-haul railroads. They will complement our existing product offerings and allow us to provide a broader and more complete product line to our valuable customers.

“We have also been successful in growing our traditional products nationwide on projects in Miami, Washington, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles, just to name a few,” he pointed out.

Korhan Ciloglu, research and development manager, said: “Another key reason for our success is our ability to customize fasteners for specific customer requirements. Enhanced R&D efforts, including finite element analysis, rapid prototyping and in-house testing capabilities, allow us to accelerate fastener design and qualification. We work intimately with our customers to develop tailored design solutions to meet their particular requirements.”

Added Eksi, “Finally, utilizing our nationwide direct sales network, we can closely service our customers’ overall needs. We also work with regional sources near the project at hand to improve pricing and deliveries. Our sales team and regional sources allow L.B. Foster to offer the ‘best value’ for our customers.”

With regards to current and future opportunities within the transit industry, Eksi stated: “We had a significant number of open quotations in late 2008. Fueled by President Obama’s Stimulus Package, we have seen a large portion of these open quotations become orders. We continue to see high levels of activity and anticipate the full effect of the Stimulus Package to hit in late 2009. There has been a paradigm shift in the view of the importance of mass transit to economic health within the U.S. With the expected passage of a new, expanded transportation bill later in the year, we believe that our markets will remain strong for the foreseeable future.”

L.B. Foster is a supplier of fastening systems throughout North America and also provides systems globally, serving customers in these market segments for more than 30 years. The company also provides other products to heavy and light transit and commuter rail markets such as special trackwork direct fixation fasteners, contact rail systems, rail boot systems, two-block concrete tie systems, ballast mats and other ancillary products.

Lewis Bolt

“To improve gauge retention in curves (and to improve holding power in turnouts), more and more customers are switching to the new, patented Evergrip™ Spike,” said Dave Barry, vice president sales for Lewis Bolt & Nut Co. “They are finding that traditional screw machines, even the newer torque-based equipment, actually cause a high percentage of screws to be either under-torqued or over-torqued. When under-torqued, screws are left elevated, exposing the weakest portion of the screw. When over-torqued, the screws spin, leaving a wallowed-out hole and little effective contact with the tie. Either way, the screws tend to break due to uneven loadings.

“The Evergrip is driven in with automated (or portable) spikers such as the Nordco Model CX or SS,” Barry said. “They are not turned in like typical screw spikes. This ensures that each Evergrip is installed perfectly every single time. You cannot under- or overdrive them as they stop turning automatically when the flange meets the plate. This permits the Evergrip to develop the maximum strength that is available from the tie. Other advantages include very fast installation, elimination of high cost and high maintenance lagging equipment and the associated labor, as well as quick removal using ‘beefed up’ spike pullers.

Barry added: “CSX Transportation and Canadian Pacific Railway continue to use Evergrips in their respective curve/maintenance programs. Many other smaller roads, as well as transits, are now adopting the Evergrip.

“Lewis continues to see adoption of its Frog and Switch bolt line due to the importance of purchasing and using high quality domestically manufactured fasteners at these very demanding locations,” Barry said. “Our customers have commented to us that their frog bolt consumption has decreased since converting over to Lewis. Using only domestic material in our manufacturing processes combined with our in-house heat treatment ensures that our customers always receive the highest-quality fastener possible.”

NorFast

“We have a design for a concrete-tie fastening system we are in the process of getting off the ground,” said Dave Kelly, president of NorFast, Inc. “One problem area with the concrete tie has been the insulator, particularly in curvature. The insulator wears out, creates problems and allows movement of the rail, which leads to seat abrasion and other problems. Our design does away with that situation. We end up with a double shoulder plate on the concrete tie with a pad underneath it. We also have the post that is insulated inside the concrete tie. We are working with some railroads to incorporate the design on their track and run a test. We are also working with concrete tie manufacturers. We have great hopes for this product within the next one to two years. It will have our same clip design. Everything will come pre-loaded, just as many of the concrete tie-fastening systems do today. With the assembly on the tie, you simply put the tie in, and then have a clipping machine clip them up.

“We do have our insulated joint plate with what we call the P-clip, which is a positive fastening system for insulated joints,” he added. “This is a positive fastening system that marries that joint to the tie with our P clip. The installation, of course, is with a sledge hammer.”

NorFast now uses a new steel chemistry for its clips.

“After some breakage, we did extensive research and decided to use different steel and a different heat-treating process,” he said. “Since we’ve taken these steps, we haven’t had any broken clips.”

“We’re working with a Central Illinois foundry that gives us a better transportation setup for our products,” he noted. “We can ship by way of deadhead company freight on three Class 1 railroads from this site. This helps us with cost competitiveness. Previously, we had to truck from the foundries in Wisconsin and in Toronto, which did not have good access to rail service.

“We do work with commuter lines as well and continue to work with Class 1s to give them a fastener system with life-cycle costs benefits, which will reduce the amount of maintenance such as regauging and provide greater strength that will ultimately end up in cost savings for the railroad in rail wear and tie deterioration, especially in severe curvature.

“We also do some work with shortlines,” he said. “Shortlines are lower speed and lower traffic, but many shortlines transport heavy-axle-load commodities such as coal and, of course, HAL is right up our alley because of our higher clip strength and higher toeload.

“We’re also marketing the use of our positive fastener systems in road crossings,” Kelly noted. “We have used the system in several areas on the West Coast that yielded great results. In our view, our greater strength means it should be standard on high-volume crossings with high-speed truck traffic. The high strength you get from a positive fastening system is a big plus in the longevity of road crossings.”

Kelly continued: “We’re all suffering from cost-cutting measures across the board, but we remain optimistic about the future of the railroad industry and about our being a part of it. Whenever the economy does come back, railroads will serve a very important part, and they will need premium components that will give them the best possible life-cycle cost benefit. We’re part of that quality product process.”

Pandrol

“There is no doubt that rail freight is much more efficient on a ton per mile basis than truck transportation,” said Frank Brady, recently named president of Pandrol USA. “Accordingly, the new emphasis on going green will stand railroading in good stead in the years ahead. As the economy once again gains its stride, freight railroads will find themselves in a position of needing to increase their capacity. This will certainly be good for the elastic fastening market, which is best able to address the needs of higher-speed and higher-capacity trains.

“The economic stimulus package, currently being presented by the Obama administration, will give a boost to long distance passenger service and transit systems as the efficiency and the carbon footprint of these systems become increasingly advantageous. Transit projects have already been announced that will have a positive impact upon our business by the fourth quarter of this year,” he said.

“We will be introducing a number of new products this year,” noted Brady. “PANDROL FASTCLIP FE is a newly-designed fastening system that creates a high-strength, lower-cost assembly. The new system is based upon the proven technology of the original FASTCLIP system. The FASTCLIP FE system provides transit and commuter rail operators and contractors with reduced costs for installation, destressing and maintenance. An optimized clip shape results in a cost savings and the newly-designed and strengthened shoulder reduces weight and provides a lower profile. The new and innovative collar, which combines the side post insulator and heel seat for the clip, has excellent insulation properties and its high lateral stiffness and durability give excellent gauge retention. As with all FASTCLIP assemblies, all components are pre-assembled on the tie at the tie plant and arrive at the site ready for installation.

“The second new product is designed to make de-stressing rail easier, more efficient and safer,” Brady said. “This product, called the VORTOK De-Stressing Roller System is already in use in Europe and has generated rave reviews. The system reduces the time it takes to complete the de-stressing operation, reduces the number of people required, operates in a much safer way and results in higher quality track. It replaces old techniques that required three different pieces of equipment. It is an under roller, side roller and lifting device all in one.

“The Vortok De-Stressing Rollers provide a low-friction system that vastly improves the quality of the de-stressing operation with even distribution of tension along the length of the rail,” he pointed out. “The fact that the rail is supported over its entire length and that the system is self-locking adds to the overall safety of the system. In addition, the life expectancy of the rollers is at least 10 times that of conventional rollers. Therefore, over the life of the equipment, significant savings can be achieved.”

Brady continued: “In addition, we are ramping up production of our PANDROL VICTOR system designed for use on wood ties. The PANDROL VICTOR system, which offers the durability of an AREMA tie plate and the advantages of Pandrol’s line of resilient fastenings, has completed field trials with flying colors. It will be marketed in a version for use with the PANDROL FASTCLIP and a version for use with the Pandrol ‘e’ clip. Among the advantages of the VICTOR system are a 30-percent greater bearing area than the standard Pandrol rolled tie plate, which results in a significant reduction in plate cutting. The system also provides a significant reduction in gauge widening under load.

“We also continue improving our existing product line,” he said. “For example, we are now offering re-designed insulators for SAFELOK I fastenings that will work with the SAFELOK Long Reach clip designed for use on high-degree curves where shoulder wear and insulator wear are most prevalent.”

Vossloh

“Vossloh Fastening Systems has developed a new generation of clips and invented the new clip Skl 30 for heavy haul that has an even higher toeload than the existing clip,” said Alan Briggs, vice president sales. “During the development of this clip Vossloh also increased the fatigue limit to allow for an even longer lifetime expectation and maintaining a longer sufficient toe load.

“Vossloh also made further developments for high-speed and super-high-speed passenger applications,” Briggs said. “Due to new clip designs it was possible to further reduce the stiffness of the rail pads. With this higher elasticity a smoother riding comfort for the passengers and lower stress to the track is ensured. Transit agencies can also benefit from these developments as they also reduce noise and vibration.”

Vossloh Fastening Systems is maintaining its relationship with a number of major freight railroads with solutions for both concrete and wood tie problems.

VFSA increased the staff in the Chicago office in both technical and commercial areas. Rigi Chackanad, a graduate in civil engineering, recently joined the Vossloh USA team. Vossloh Fastening Systems America is further looking to expand the team in Chicago within the next 10 months.

“It looks like the fastener market will be stable for this year,” Briggs noted. “For 2010, we have to see how the economy is developing and what influence the stimulus packages have on the freight and transit markets.”

Anchor update

“Portec Rail Products successfully launched its new Exi™ Rail Anchor at the 2008 AREMA conference in Salt Lake City,” according to Mike Yared, Portec Rail Products, Ltd.’s manager of sales and marketing. "The industry has been waiting for some time for a second anchor supplier for the style of anchor most commonly used in the U.S. by the Class 1 railroads. Our goal was to produce an anchor that delivered superior performance with added value. The new Exi™ anchor delivers an advantage over those of its competitors, which is our Over-Drive Stop feature.

“The Over-Drive Stop has been a trademark feature on all Portec rail anchors since we began making anchors more than 100 years ago,” Yared explained. “Its function is simply to prevent the anchor from being overdriven onto the base of the rail.”

Overdriving a rail anchor spreads opens the anchor’s jaw grip area and, over time, limits the holding power of the anchor. This reduction, in turn, limits the amounts of time the anchor can be reapplied, thus reducing the useful life and adding to its overall costs due to reduced life cycle. The overdrive stop prevents the anchor from being “sprung” and enables it to have a longer useful life of reapplications.

Yared emphasized, “We have worked closely with the Class 1 railroads and have been successful ensuring our Exi™ Anchor can be applied using their existing anchor applicator machines, rendering a seamless transition with no switch-over costs.”

Portec Rail Products not only manufactures the new Exi™ Anchor, which comes in various sizes in both Standard Duty and Heavy Duty models, but continues to manufacture the Improved FAIR® and the XL-1 FAIR® anchors, which still provide the largest tie bearing area of any rail anchor in the industry.

“We are excited about the new market possibilities opening up,” Yared said. “Railroads have been asking for competition and second suppliers and we are now ready with a product that gives them that choice.”

“UNIT’s goal to be the world’s best is driving even more changes,” Wes Hodges, general manager, noted. “Our rail car loadings have grown dramatically over the past few years. This is due largely to Class 1 railroads changing to bulk (loose) anchor handling and installation equipment. Bulk car condition, handling and loading has made a real impact on our business. We have seen trucking of rail anchors reduced from two-thirds of our annual production in 2004 to less than one-third today. That represents 15 million more anchors riding the rails instead of the roads. This shift necessitated a timely capital outlay to keep pace with our customers’ needs.”

In 2008, UNIT added another 1,000 feet of storage track, new car scales and a Trackmobile to its Atchison, Kan., plant to quickly load and turn around rail cars.

UNIT RAIL anchors are currently used by all North American Class 1 freight railroads. UNIT’s Continuous Improvement Commitment continues in 2009 with a multi-million-dollar investment in continuous heat treat/cooling systems for its anchor presses.

“Combine our new, continuous heat-treat process with new, improved conveying and packing lines and UNIT RAIL’s annual manufacturing capacity exceeds the world’s rail anchor consumption in a peak year,” said Joe Balich, sales manager. “We are prepared for whatever the rail industry asks of us going forward.

“We cannot predict the fastener market even for the rest of 2009, but our continuing strong sales show that North America’s railroads continue to invest in track improvements and capacity expansion in these hard economic times,” Balich said. “UNIT RAIL is likewise investing in the ways it can play a larger role in the future of railroading and in the means to deliver our products better and faster than anyone else.”