Short Note on Maintenance of Insulated Joints.

Maintenance of insulated joints.

For efficient and trouble free maintenance of insulated joints, following precaution should be taken:

i. Insulated joints must be maintained as square joints and in any case the distance between staggered joints should not exceed the minimum wheel base of the vehicles.

ii. Rail ends, where insulated joints are fitted must be square and true. Battered ends must be eliminated by cropping and the gap between the rails, if excessive, must be reduced.

iii. Fish plates at the joints must be kept tight and the sleepers well packed in the vicinity of the joints to prevent movement of rails, adequate creep anchors should be provided.

iv. Rail ends must be kept free from dust dirt, sand rust and other foreign materials etc. All rough edges and burners at the rail ends must be removed.

v. The head of dog-spikes should not be allowed to touch the fish plates: Keys of anti- creep Dearing plates on adjacent sleepers of the insulated joints should not be allowed to touch each other as they may cause short circuiting. Particular care should be taken to ensure that the spikes do not protrude below the sleeper, as this may cause leakage of track circuit current through moisture in ballast. 

vi. Shims should not be provided at insulated joints.

vii. To avoid crushing of centre parts of insulation joints creep should be effective assessed. At least one rail length on either side of the insulation joint should be box anchored.