Production is organized at Rail Welding Plant No. 1, where 100-meter rails are joined into 800-meter continuous welded rail strings. This technology minimizes the number of joints. According to Sergey Kirilenko, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Central Track Maintenance Directorate, passengers need a completely jointless track for comfort. Moreover, fewer joints mean safer operation.
EXPERTISE AND TECHNOLOGY
Rail Welding Plant No. 1 underwent extensive modernization to work with high-speed railway rails. Key factors affecting welding quality include maintaining stable temperature, humidity, and air purity in the workshop. All these parameters are continuously monitored using state-of-the-art systems installed at the facility. A specialized welding crew has been assembled, with additional training and certification. These specialists possess unique expertise required for high-precision welding technologies.
OPTIMAL WELDING CONDITIONS
The production process begins with incoming inspection of 100-meter DT350VS400 grade rails manufactured by EVRAZ under contract with Russian Railways. According to Sergey Sintsov, EVRAZ Vice President and Head of Sales and Business Development, these are Russia's first domestically produced high-speed railway rails. "They're designed for track superstructure supporting speeds up to 400 km/h," he explains. "They exceed global standards in profile precision and straightness, withstand dynamic loads, and operate in various climates from -60°C to +60°C."
Russian Railways received the first batch of high-speed rails in late August: 7,000 tons delivered from Novokuznetsk to Predportovaya Station in Saint Petersburg. "The first phase of the Moscow-Saint Petersburg high-speed railway will require over 160,000 tons of rail products—enough to fully supply the new railway construction," noted Sergey Sintsov.
Each 100-meter rail weighing 6.5 tons moves onto the conveyor system from the Rail Welding Plant No. 1 warehouse. First comes electric welding: an electric arc forms between rail ends, melting the metal and compressing it under pressure. The welded string then proceeds to rough grinding, with rails moving simultaneously on dual conveyors.
"The metal at joints has different properties requiring normalization and hardening," explains Alexander Izmailov, General Director of RSP-M LLC. "The welded joint is heated to 945°C for normalization, then the rail head is air-cooled for hardening. This equalizes properties between the joint and base rail metal, achieving specified joint hardness parameters." Subsequent finish grinding of the joint is done automatically, completing the technological process.
According to Alexander Izmailov, each joint must withstand 200 tons of static load without failure. To ensure adequate reliability, the specialists at All-Russian Research Institute of Railway Transport (VNIIZhT) developed welding procedures specifically for high-speed railways. Deviation from straightness in the joint zone cannot exceed 0.2 mm per meter. Every joint undergoes multi-level quality control after welding.
"The complete welding and processing cycle takes no more than 50 minutes. The facility produces 800-meter strings ready for installation on the first high-speed railway section," notes Alexander Izmailov.
SPECIALIZED EQUIPMENT FOR RAIL STRINGS
Finished 800-meter rails will be loaded onto specialized rolling stock—rail carriers—and transported to installation sites.
The first high-speed railway section with installed rails is scheduled to launch in 2027, enabling testing of Russian high-speed trains on actual infrastructure according to the approved project timeline.
Sergey Pletnev
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