Subjects › Transportation
Railway Engineering
Track, alignment, stations and high-speed rail.
Topics by level
Basics
School, diploma and first-year level: the ideas in plain words.
- Parts of a track
- Rail and temperature planned
- Gauges planned
Intermediate
Degree and exam core (GATE, ESE level).
- Points and crossings planned
- Curves and cant planned
- Ballast and formation planned
- Signalling basics planned
Advanced and Design
Professional design practice.
- High-speed rail track planned
- Ballastless track planned
- Freight corridors planned
Research
Frontier topics for researchers and postgraduates.
Videos
Why rail tracks have gaps
Steel grows in heat; gaps and modern welded rail handle it differently.
Sabarmati bullet-train river bridge
How the high-speed rail viaduct crosses the Sabarmati: foundations in the riverbed, piers, then spans placed on top.
Bairabi–Sairang railway: 45 tunnels in about 51 km
A hill line in Mizoram where tunnels and tall bridges replace curves.
Codes and standards
| Country | Designation | Scope (our words) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | IRS Concrete Bridge Code (RDSO) | Design and construction of concrete railway bridges. | current |
| India | IRS T-12 (RDSO) | Indian Railway standard specification for flat-bottom rails. | current |
| India | Indian Railway Standard Bridge Rules (RDSO) | Loads for railway bridges. | current |
| India | Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual | Standards and practice for track laying and maintenance. | current |
| USA | AREMA Manual for Railway Engineering | North American railway engineering recommended practice. | current |
| Europe | EN 13230 (series) | Concrete sleepers and bearers for railway track. | current |
| Europe | EN 13674 (series) | Railway rails. | current |
Listed in a fixed country order; no standard is ranked above another. Scopes are our summaries. Buy the standards from the issuing body for exact text.
References and further reading
Standard texts, listed in no order of merit. We do not copy text, figures, tables or solved problems from any book; our explanations and examples are original.
- Satish Chandra, M. M. Agarwal, Railway Engineering, Oxford University Press, latest edition.
- C. Esveld, Modern Railway Track, MRT-Productions, 2nd edition.