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August 2024
Compiled by Michael Popke
L.B. Foster Co. designs and develops vulcanized rubber-bonded, direct-fixation fastener technology for the North American transit industry. The company’s Transit Products Division “draws upon more than 50 years of fastener development expertise advancing specialized product solutions to market to meet specific customer needs,” company officials said in an email.
Over the past five decades, L.B. Foster has designed and qualified more than 60 direct-fixation fastener products and delivered more than 5 million fastener units to transit agencThe fasteners are engineered to provide greater resilience, noise and vibration mitigation, improved electrical isolation, and a reduced number of assembly components to improve construction and maintenance efforts.
Fastener models are available to match existing anchorage locations for easier replacement. They offer lateral adjustment for ease of installation, canted and non-canted rail seats, varying rail seat heights, left- or right-hand rail clip installation to meet customer requirements, company officials said.
L.B. Foster also remains focused on developing next-generation track fastener products and systems with improved performance characteristics based on customer needs.
Lewis Bolt & Nut Co. produces a range of conventional drive-on rail anchors, a variety of screw spikes (such as the Evergrip G2® and Permagrip®), track bolts, recessed head timber screws for grade crossings, frog and switch bolts, and a range of bridge fastener hardware.
The company’s newest offering is the Viper-1® drive-on rail anchor. Developed in collaboration with freight railroad partners, the anchor is designed to address critical anchoring challenges faced by railroads, enhancing performance and sustainability, company officials said. Key features include increased holding power, deeper tie anchoring and a larger anchor-to-tie bearing surface.
Those attributes help reduce longitudinal movement of the rail and eliminate tie/plate cutting to extend the life of the ties while reducing wear and tear on the infrastructure, company officials said.
Moreover, the improved jaw design of the Viper-1 enables the anchor to be removed and reapplied multiple times without yielding any holding power, they added.
Lewis Bolt & Nut operates three manufacturing facilities in the United States to better meet industry demands.
The lineup of rail fixation systems for freight- and transit-rail customers continues to expand at voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak. The company focuses on harnessing and expanding manufacturing resources and design expertise to address customer needs, Nortrak officials said.
The company’s product portfolio includes concrete ties, rubber vulcanized direct-fixation fasteners and resilient fastening components for special trackwork and mainline applications.
In 2023, Nortrak commissioned a new rubber vulcanization production line at its facility in Pueblo, Colorado. The company now can manufacture all the components for rubber-bonded direct-fixation fasteners, including the ductile iron components from its Decatur, Illinois, foundry.
The production line addition is in response to Nortrak’s development of customer-driven direct fixation designs, including a series of high-attenuation fasteners for special trackwork and mainline products, company officials said.
It provides Nortrak with a full complement of special trackwork direct-fixation fasteners with nominal stiffness ranging from 58,000 to 140,000 pounds per inch to match the requirements of most ground-borne noise and vibration mitigation measures, they added.
The company is supplying a variety of fasteners for the Maryland Transit Administration’s Purple Line project in Baltimore, including FA 140 high-attenuation and guard rail fasteners for mainline track.
Nortrak also is providing standard and high-attenuation fasteners for multiple special trackwork configurations highlighted by the double crossover in the noise-and vibration-sensitive Plymouth Tunnel between the Manchester Place and Long Branch stations.
“Using our fully integrated trackwork and fastening design and manufacturing capabilities, we determined that our high-attenuation DF fasteners are the optimal solution to address the customer’s noise and vibration reduction needs, given the close proximity of the above-ground dwellings to the track,” said Tara Ross, product manager of Nortrak’s fixation systems.
In view of rising rail temperatures due to extreme temperature fluctuations, lateral track stability is becoming even more critical for railroads, Vossloh Fastening Systems America officials said. To avoid speed restrictions or even track closures, “more forgiving” infrastructure components are emerging as problem-solvers for operators, they added.
Vossloh’s M-Generation tension clamps feature a geometry with outwardly curved spring arms that offer contact points farther apart on the rail base.
They also offer greater robustness against such external influences as vibrations due to rail irregularities or higher rail temperatures, company officials said.
Additionally, the M-Generation clamps lead to a multiplication of the torsional resistance, helping to improve the lateral track stability of the concrete-tie ballasted track structure without disturbing the ballast.
The stability of the track can be further increased in areas of buckling risk if the M-Generation tension clamp is combined with the HTR angled guide plate.
Michael Popke is a Madison, Wisconsin-based freelance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com.
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