Development of Ballasted Ladder Track Equipped with a Vehicle Guide Device

The authors proposed a ballasted ladder track equipped with a vehicle guide device to minimize damage in the event of vehicle derailment by a large-scale earthquake. The guide device is joined by a hinge to the outer-gauge side of the longitudinal beams on the track. In this study, the authors verified the load-bearing performance of the vehicle guide device through drop-weight experiments and evaluated its performance and buckling safety by numerical analysis. In addition, ballasted ladder track equipped with the vehicle guide device was laid experimentally on a loop line within the premises of the Railway Technical Research Institute, and its tamping performance was verified.