Design Life-Cycle
assess.design.(don't)consume
Train Tracks
Nelsy, Perez
DES 40A
Professor Cogdell
Life Cycle of Train Tracks
The Amtrak railroad is a railroad that helps transport people all over the country. We are mainly going to be looking at the railroad from Sacramento to Davis, California. Like most items, railroads must be made from a process using raw materials and secondary materials from manufacturers. The raw materials of the Amtrak railroad are used in the beginning to start the manufacture, whereas after it begins the distribution, it is continued by maintenance, the materials are recycled and the rest is disposed of in some sort of waste. We also kept in mind that what is needed to make a train and track now is not what it will be in the future, so this only pertains to the present day. For example, iron is a nonrenewable resource meaning that once it is gone there is no way to get it back or make more. Without iron we can't make steel which is another important material used in railroad tracks all, so a substitute would have to come in to replace iron.
All of the parts used for a basic railroad track consist of rails made from steel in an I-looking shape to be able to guide the wheels, crossties, or railway crossties which are made up of wood planks that are laid down to keep the rails straight. Spikes are used to connect the wood with the rails above it, also made up of steel or iron, then there's the track switch which is usually made up of the same materials as the rails but will help change the lane that a train is going. More electronically is the Controller which will have all the track switches connected to it including signals and light switches. More generally is the foundation which will typically be gravel/ ballast or concrete injection, which is what the rails and the crossties will be laid on, as well as a drainage pipe. Ballast consists of crushed stones like granite, trap rock, quartzite, dolomite, or limestone. This will be able to hold wooden cross ties, which hold the rails in place, and besides that helps the growth of vegetation and the drainage. Ballast is very important in order to help drain if there is water, or else it would create a big puddle on the surface.
It is important to look deeper into the products used to make railroad tracks as well as how we could reduce the use of raw materials or waste. The typical raw materials used in general train railroads are separated into three different categories of steel: carbon steel, alloy steel, and heat-treated steel. There is a medium carbon steel with 0.7% carbon and 0.7% manganese, and manganese steel which is made of Hadfield steel which is a steel alloy with 13% manganese. Although according to Science Direct there is research going on about trying to find a steel replacement, that way it will reduce the toxic waste that is released and is a lower-cost production. Carbon, Silicon, Manganese, Copper, Phosphate, and Sulfur are some of the most important elements used in train track steel, in addition to Iron. By using these components, the tracks can be made more resistant and stronger. over the world.
The process of the manufacturing starts with the wood beams, then the steel rails which typically are hot rolled steel which are the more modern rails used and is more effective than a cold-rolled steel which isn't as high energy-intensive. The steel must be a high-quality iron alloy since it will be consistently being worn down because of the weight and the train's wheels.
Manganese crossing is also an important one because the steel part is a component of the rail turnout. Adding manganese into the steel alloy will restrict the metal's resistance, helping it maintain more oil on the surface to create an easier glide. This is pretty much the only information that I was able to obtain on the actual manufacturing process of the tracks.
The way that the construction of the tracks begins is, it usually will start with clearing the land then the ballast, but it can also have something called a sub-ballast that will just increase the drainage. After the sub-ballast and the ballast is laid down on the cleared land there is a drainage system that was made easily. Then the crosstie or the wood will be laid over the ballast and the rail shaped like an I will be placed over the crosstie. Spikes will be inserted into the fasteners that hold the rail and the crosstie all together, and there you have a railroad track. If there is an extra step it would be to add a concrete injection after the ballast.
The maintenance needed for railroad tracks is pretty simple, it does not consist of too much. The tracks will occasionally get oiled, but primarily there is not much manual labor as the majority of the work is done by machinery. When there is maintenance it consists of cleaning, replacement of parts, flattening, re-fasting, spiking, and replacement of the ballast. Grinding of the rails can also be done instead of oiling the tracks to smoothen.
The process of recycling is generally easy as most of the materials used to build the tools and the parts are made from raw materials, most of the materials are generally reused if possible or disposed of accordingly. According to IOP Study, a study has been performed for the CAHSR Authority to evaluate the feasibility of deploying wind and solar electricity to meet system-wide electricity demands and strategies have been developed to power the stations and trains with 100% renewable energy. Trains are typically used to transport waste, mainly toxic waste; Waste in the railroad industry is pretty dangerous, most railroads can carry very hazardous waste occasionally. They can transport waste in odorless and sealed containers and are disposed of in a landfill safely. Also, a lot of old railroad ties can contain toxic contamination that can damage the wildlife, soil, and plant life nearby. If the materials get contaminated the materials cannot be recycled and reused (ex. wood).
In conclusion, there is the creation of the physical parts using the raw materials, which consist of the primary and secondary materials. Overall the tracks are made up of a solid foundation, a drainage pipe, rails, crossties, spikes, track switches, and a controller. Once those are put together they are pieced together to create the tracks. The specific parts that are manufactured are the wood beams, the steel rails, and the manganese crossing. The train itself will have a railroad track made to transport materials from manufacturers back and forth. Maintenance is more machine-based labor whether than manual labor for humans, and the general maintenance that needs to be done is that tracks will get oiled/grinded, parts will be replaced/re-fastened, spiking, retightening of parts, cleaning, tamping, and lastly replacement of the ballast. I would assume that they don't remove all of it, instead remove the top layer and add in new and clean ballast. Once the raw materials are used and need to be disposed of, they get recycled and reused if possible and if not they will typically end in the landfill, in pieces. The recycling of the pieces should be generally pretty easy as the pieces are made up of raw materials I would assume.
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Lily Hallman
DES 043
Dr. Cogdell
AmTrak Railroads, Imbued Energy
When discussing potential alternatives to fossil fuel based transportation, especially cars, the gaze of many people land on trains. While incredibly important to transport around the globe, many people forget the infrastructure that must be in place to support trains. While trains are slowly becoming more and more green, outdated and environmentally costly techniques and technologies are used to build and maintain the rails that trains thunder down. Seemingly simple, tracks are marred by energy use throughout their manufacturing, transportation, use, maintenance, and removal. In terms of energy, the manufacturing and use of steel Amtrak rails consumes energy from primarily potential chemical energy through use of fossil fuels, thermal energy from the use of engines and fossil fuels, kinetic energy through use of machinery and vehicles, and electrical energy from the use of machinery as well as the inherent energy used in electronic components within track switches [Points and Crossings].
Manufacturing is a key component of the hidden energy within railroad tracks. However, to assume that manufacturing is a single step is a deceptive explanation of manufacturing. Manufacturing refers to both the collection of raw materials and the assembly of said materials. What’s more, manufacturing includes the manufacture of secondary materials such as steel. Steel especially is a vital component of tracks, and in the case of AmTraks, hot-rolled steel. To manufacture steel in this way, there are two main raw materials, iron and carbon. Both of these materials are extracted from the earth, generally using kinetic energy to chip away at the rock from mining machines that use diesel to run. Upon extraction, the raw materials are transported using predominantly shipping. As will be discussed later, shipping is a major source of emissions, and primarily uses chemical and kinetic energy to function. Once the raw materials are collected, they are mixed together using the Bessemer Process [Elliot], and are cast as a pure liquid into long sheets that are then rolled, hence hot-rolled steel. Another key material in the manufacturing process is wood. Lots of wood, predominantly oak wood, is used in the manufacturing of tracks. To harvest the wood, diesel powered vehicles are used to quickly chop down forests [Magnus]. Diesel powered vehicles use potential chemical energy to function, and lose much energy through thermal energy [Diesel Vehicles]. These raw logs are then fed into machines that use electricity and therefore electrical energy to function. Like most steps, energy is lost through thermal energy. These machines form the wood into the long slats that are necessary for production [Magnus].
Once the individual pieces are created, they are shipped to an assembly factory. Prior to manufacturing in its most understood form, however, the energy required to ship raw materials must be taken into account. Similar to the tree chopping machines, ships use diesel engines [Diesel Vehicles] to power the massive amount of transportation required to move all the raw materials [Long Rail]. This comes with the potential chemical energies that are necessary for the engines to function. The inside of an engine takes the diesel fuel and ignites it, releasing the stored chemical energy, turning it into thermal energy and kinetic energy in the form of an explosion. The important part of this reaction is the kinetic energy, which forces pistons to move, which turns an axle. The thermal energy is considered lost. Shipping is the major source of lost energy, as engines can rise thousands of degrees in temperature while running, all of which directly relates to energy lost [Diesel Vehicles].
Upon arrival at the assembly factory, the steel is formed into the I-shape that rails require to latch onto the train [Webb]. To do this, the steel is pressed into shape using hydraulic presses. Hydraulic presses generally use electrical energy to function, and work by applying pressure on a liquid, usually water, to force the clamps shut with high pressure. This exact process is also used for the fasteners, bolts, spikes and screws used in the assembly of the track [Kensenko]. This manufacturing process also has a large loss of energy since the resistance that steel puts up creates thermal energy. Wood will also be treated during this step, and notably, the wood will be pre-holled by drilling small spots for the fasteners to be inserted [Webb].
Following the manufacturing process, there is installation. To begin with, the land is terraformed using more diesel powered machines, and therefore per usual using potential chemical energy, to level and prep the ground. Then, the newly levelled land is filled using grout. This grout is used to help stabilize the tracks [Ren]. This grout is either laid by human effort combined with trucks, or by machines to automatically lay grout. Either way, the burning of diesel is used. Next, the cross ties are laid down. Crossties are the wooden beams that are perpendicular to the beams and make sure that the track is parallel to each other. Then, the major brackets are added, fastened, and spiked. This secures the brackets to the wood and the grout. Spiking and fastening can be done automatically by machinery running off of diesel fuel, incurring the same energy requirements as the other diesel powered machinery [Diesel Vehicles].
Use and maintenance of tracks is fairly minimal in energy use. During use, the only energy incurred is the small amount of electrical energy used in track switches [Points and Crossings]. This electrical energy is converted into kinetic energy as the track switches. However, maintenance of the tracks does incur a higher amount of energy. To safely operate the track, a machine is run along it which automatically tightens the bolts along the track as well as re-spiking the brackets to the ground [Shedd]. There is also the addition of extra grout, which is usually done manually. This only has an energy bill of the transportation of the grout and people to the afflicted area. These energy sources would primarily be diesel fuel from large trucks, and therefore similar to all the other energy sources [Ren].
Finally, there is disposal of old tracks. While some steel is recyclable, not all of it is, due to the fact that metal recycling plants are specialized and may not be available in the area. Steel, similar to iron, as it will slowly rust, turning into iron oxide. Iron oxide is hazardous, although many of us have regular interactions with it. This creation of iron oxide is a chemical reaction, and therefore involves chemical energy. Wood will also biodegrade. Generally this is through biological means, and induces a chemical reaction. The chemical energy produced is actually metabolized inside the bacteria, moss and dirt, and therefore has a net positive impact on the surrounding environment [Magnus].
Therefore we can see that diesel fuel combustion, and therefore potential chemical energy transferring to thermal and kinetic energy is the most common form of energy transfer. While there is also notable kinetic energy formed from human labor as well as electrical energy turning into kinetic energy, nothing quite compares to the amount of energy used in transportation of materials, as well as the preparation of land.
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Evelyn Chan
DES 40A
Shantu Landore
Life Cycle of Railroad Tracks: Wastes and Emissions
Railroad tracks are the foundation of all train based freight transport, and accounts for about 40% of America’s long distance freight volume today (AAR, 2021). Although transporting goods by train is three times more fuel efficient than truck freighting and contributes 2% of US transportation related greenhouse gas emissions, there is still much to be accounted for in terms of the wastes and outputs that the railroad production industry produces. The waste management and emissions of train tracks, though not complex in parts, requires a special industrial waste removal process that must handle a substantial amount of metal, gravel, and wood that can be extracted, depending on how long the track is. Train track components also have the added benefit of consisting of secondary raw materials and being largely produced domestically, reducing its greenhouse gas potential. The railroad tracks referred here will address the traditional track structure that's the most prevalent in North America today; with steel “I” rails supported on timber beams attached by concrete sleepers laid on a crushed stone ballast.
Much of the train track components consist of a steel alloy, molded using a hot rolling method that heats the metal until it is pliable enough to be rolled into beams or pressed into brackets, spikes, or switches. The high energy intensity required to melt and heat the steel produces approximately 24% of the total environmental impacts of the steel making process, mostly attributed by sourcing the energy from non-renewable sources that emit the most greenhouse gasses and particulate matter (Olmez, 2016). Under life cycle assessments, steel production has been deemed as extremely hazardous to all respiratory categories under human health, followed by significant impacts on global warming, terrestrial ecotoxicity, terrestrial acidification, and carcinogen outputs. (Lee, 2010)
In terms of the production process of making the steel components of railroad tracks, the majority of steel manufacturing plants utilize recycled metals to produce construction grade beams. The metals can be variably sourced from scrap yards, municipal recycling centers, or be simply pulled from the scrap pile produced by the same plant during the steel cutting process. Since railroad tracks are industrial structures and are laid in outdoor settings, the steel isn’t required to be high grade as compared to metal used in more complex or delicate products and could be entirely composed of recycled scrap metals. If a given railroad track is sourced from a plant that uses recycled metal, the emissions generated in the production process could be reduced significantly considering that the harvesting, transportation, and ore extraction of new raw metals would be removed. This also prevents a bulk of metal scraps from remaining in a landfill as a long lasting waste product.
The evenly laid wood beams typically seen on railroads is the most prominent feature that ties the track together. The individual beams are called sleepers or crossties, which support the rails on the tracks by transferring a passing train’s weight and pressure from the rails to the ballast and ground below. They are also vital in keeping the steel rails in the correct position, which would curl or expand due to fluctuating temperatures and humidity if they were placed without sleepers. The sleepers referred here will be the wooden variety, as they are the traditional and most commonly used worldwide. Concrete, steel, and plastic composite sleepers are used in modern metropolitan railway systems, however they compose of less than ten percent of all railway tracks (Simmons Boardman, 2013).
The harvesting of forest-based biomass contributes a significant amount of energy towards America’s total energy consumption, which includes planting, growing, maintenance, harvesting, and lumber processing operations. Much of the lumber industry’s impacts stem from using non-renewable sources of energy such as fossil fuels to operate harvest machinery, power factories, and transport products (Johnson, 2016). Once the lumber is cut in the correct dimensions, they are transported to the railway assembly facility in which 3,250 boards are laid per mile of track (Wilcock, 2013). Depending on the railroad company, a form of wood preservative would be applied to the sleepers to extend their lifespan. However, such chemicals have been known to contain carcinogenic creosotes that have been known to leach its aromatic hydrocarbons into local water tables, which is extremely hazardous to human and wildlife health (Yahya, 2012). Once the sleepers have been considered worn enough for replacement, the wood is chipped and recycled to serve another purpose outside of the railroad industry,
The development of a train track system doesn’t stop at the steel and wood components. We must also consider the foundations and the actual land they are placed upon as well: the gravel path called the ballast. The ballast can be made of a variety of stone materials depending on the terrain and type of train meant to cross, however it is most commonly composed of large pieces of crushed stone and gravel. The ballast layer ranges from six to twelve inches deep, which ensures that the vibrations caused by the passing train wheels are dampened enough to prevent damage to the surrounding environment and structures. It is also vital that the vibrations do not cause the soil underneath to loosen as it could alter the path of the track or cause the track to sink. The coarseness of the stones must be irregular rather than smoothed, which prevents the stones from shifting against each other and, again, dislocating the laid tracks.
It should be noted that though the integration of gravel does suppress the emitted vibrations of the train going over the track, it does little to address the noise pollution that can propagate to human or animal environments and disturb inhabitants to a harmful degree. The reason for this is mainly an economic decision as the tracks must cover an extremely long expanse of land and committing any additional materials, especially any that can degrade in the outdoors, are very costly and energy intensive to integrate. Softening or changing the composition of the iron rails in order to dampen the noise or vibration from the passing train wheels is also unfeasible as this would negatively alter the tracks’ durability and resistance to damage over time. If the problem of sound pollution emitted by trains is to be truly addressed beyond the gravel ballast, soundproof barrier walls made from absorptive materials could be erected or the train horn itself could be replaced with another device that can communicate the train’s presence without exuding a damaging decibel threshold. To remove the problem of noise pollution entirely is to upgrade the tracks entirely from a simple outdoor track system into an underground subway system track that utilizes special sleepers that set the rail into a concrete path itself without the use of a ballast layer. Such systems are much more energy intensive to construct, much more expensive to fund, and consume a significant amount of concrete. However they tend to have a longer lifespan, reduce the need for constant maintenance, and provide a smoother ride without emitting sounds or vibrations at a hazardous level. Without ballasts and the fact that it is built in an indoor setting, these types of railways also have no concern over drainage or leakage problems, which nullifies water consumption used for cleaning ballasts as well as any chemical leaching problems that may occur as opposed to outdoor tracks that use ballasts.
Ballast laid tracks are different from high speed tracks that utilize electric assisted rails. Unlike tracks that guide modern technologically advanced trains, the traditional tracks used for old steam, gas, or coal powered trains that are laid upon flat gravel do not contain additional complex parts nor any electronic components. Once laid, the gravel and stone does not emit gases or hazards unless disturbed. However, in the event that a ballast section is especially contaminated or fouled by fuel leakage, general debret, or an oil spill, a cleaning operation must be arranged in order to ensure that both the passing trains and the surrounding environment is impacted minimally. The cost, labor, emissions, and the concentration of the remaining contaminant depends on the type of contaminant and how much is deposited over an area. At the minimum, large debris can be removed and the ballast can be sprayed with water to remove ballast clogging using manual or mechanical labor. In scenarios in which chemicals have leached inside the ballast, the gravel cannot be physically cleaned and therefore must be treated with chemical cleaners that can remedy certain spills (Gajdoš, Vojtech, and Král, 1995). Of course, any volume of synthetic fuels, oils, or chemicals that are poured and flushed into the ground are at risk of impacting the surrounding environment. This damage can range from polluting local water tables or bodies of water to disturbing soil microbial activity endemic to the landscape (Banat, 1995). If a ballast section within a train line is cleaned too many times, the individual pieces of stone are considered to be too smoothed to interlock effectively and is in danger of sinking and displacing the track. Once this occurs, the ballast must be entirely removed and replaced with new stone and gravel material.
If we were to dive deeper beyond the steel tracks and ballast layer, the land that is being occupied by the laid tracks can be taken into account. The ground underneath the gravel ballast is called the sub-grade layer, which although isn’t introduced with a new material, must be processed to suit the train track system’s needs. Once the proper legislation or property rights have been negotiated by the governing body to allow the construction of a train track line in a piece of land, the strip must be cleared of any vegetation, wildlife, or physical obstacles. This can be done with a various selection of large construction vehicles and mechanical equipment, which certainly disturbs the local environment through habitat division and soil compaction. Most often a type of herbicide is applied to prevent vegetation from reversing the compaction of the railroad strip, as this could be detrimental to the structure of the line.
Through the combined assembly of all railroad components, train tracks have an average lifespan of thirty years before they must be replaced. Measured in traffic, a typical track has a capacity of tolerating 1,300 million gross tons or 35,000 passing trains at the highest weight capacity (Setsobhonkul, 2017). There are many factors that contribute to varying lifespan values such as the frequency of trains a line receives, the weight of the freight the train is delivering, whether or not the rail is curved or straight, the incline in which it’s laid, the type of added lubrication to the rail, its maintenance consistency, and the intensity of local weather conditions. Once a section of track is deemed too worn to perform adequate standards, the metal is separated as scrap metal and is sent to be remelted. This remelting process consumes significantly less energy and conserves an abundance of materials compared to disposing the tracks and producing new ones (American Iron & Steel Institute, 2017).
The railway infrastructure in America today is certainly contributing to the global warming potential, the bulk of which is perpetuated by the greenhouse gas emissions produced largely by the lumber, mining, steel, and train freight industries (Koks et al., 2019). In order to address this problem at the source, the government must ensure that mitigation measures are taken to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from every industry relevant to the production, construction, and maintenance of railroad tracks. Although the energy intensive nature of harvesting and processing such a bulk of raw materials that accommodate the transportation needs of America cannot be avoided, we can always implement newer and more environmentally driven processing techniques with more technologically efficient mechanizations. There must also be a stronger communication between suppliers, customers, and workers in the supply chain so that solutions can be formed to the benefit of all parties. Traditional wood and steel railroads themselves are a dated invention, yet are still the most commonly used type of railroad in America (Huang, 1996). We must make an eco conscious analysis of how we can best utilize our materials and energy through design if we are to achieve true carbon neutrality and sustainability in our transportation industry.
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