01 July 2005
	SIDELINES MAKING TRACKS FOR THE NAMIB

Fruit farmers from the fertile Orange River area will soon have a new export port available to them - Luderitz. To tempt them to the port, the Namibian government is upgrading the rail link between Keetmanshoop and Luderitz. It has started on the first 25 km, between Luderitz and Aus, home to Namibia's famous wild horses, using a unique railway track system designed, developed and patented by SA firm Tubular Track Technology. The track system is made up of twin reinforced concrete beams, linked with steel gauge bars, on which rails are continuously supported. To insulate the system from shock when trains pass, rubber-bonded cork pads have been placed continuously between the rails and the beams. The rail system replaces the conventional track of sleepers and ballast (the stones that absorb the force of the train as it passes). "The continuous support is the key," says marketing manager Bob Jansen, "as it means you don't have a bending moment, and lateral forces are distributed more evenly." Lighter rails can be used (in this case 30 kg) and maintenance costs are reduced significantly. This system is well suited to the steep gradients, sharp curves and extreme temperature variations that characterise the desert area. These features add stress to conventional railway tracks, but it is the extensive sand dunes encountered as the line approaches the port of Luderitz that create problems for ordinary railway lines. However, because it's a ballastless system, Tubular Track avoids many of the problems created when sand covers the ballast. The technology was developed by railway engineer Peter Kusel. While building the railway line from Ermelo to Richards Bay he became convinced that there had to be a better way of supporting railway lines. He developed the technology in 1989. The Namibian project is the first time this technology has been used in a national railway line. However, the company has installed hundreds of kilometres of its tracks in mines. The system has also been in use for some years in coal-loading and other sidings, as well as at Metrorail passenger platforms, where consistent rail to platform heights are achieved. This has been done in close co-operation with engineers from the SA Rail Commuter Corp. It is also used in some Canadian and US mining operations. Of course the Tubular Track beam-track railway system does have its critics, who favour the traditional system. However, after recent laboratory testing approval has come from the Spoornet Track Testing Centre, and further in-track main line testing is being done between Rustenburg and Thabazimbi on a line carrying heavy iron ore and coal traffic.