A computer model for cane railway track design and maintenance

The paper describes the application of a PC-based track design and maintenance module (TDMM) to cane railway track. The module uses several empirical and theoretical relationships developed for larger gauge railway systems in Australia and overseas and has recently been modified to suit the smaller infrastructure and vehicle parameters found on cane railways. The TDMM is a flexible technical and economic tool for assisting with comparative evaluations of alternatives for new track structures and for assessing the effects of changes in operating conditions such as increased axle loads on existing track structures. Although developed principally for larger track gauge, higher axle loads and speeds, and therefore likely to be deficient in some areas for the lower operating regimes of cane railways, the TDMM in its present format offers cane railway engineering staff their first access to a computer-based design and maintenance tool instead of the present methods which in many instances are based on established but very subjective concepts and methods.