On the evening of October 25, 2021, the rail welding and stress relief and locking tasks of the Ruoqiang-Minfeng section of the Heruo Railway in Xinjiang were completed. The seamless connection of thousands of miles of rails laid the foundation for the full opening of the world's first ring-desert railway.

Heruo Railway Project

The Heruo Railway has a total length of 825.476 kilometers. It is a national key railway project connecting Hotan in southern Xinjiang with Ruoqiang County in Bayingoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture. Construction officially started at the end of 2018, and full track laying will begin in May 2020 and September 2021. The track laying was completed on 27th.

China Railway 14th Bureau Group is responsible for the prefabrication and erection of 2,326 T-beams on the Ruoqiang-Minfeng section of the Heruo Railway, and the track laying and welding of the 535 kilometers of the main line. The track laying and welding mileage account for 65% of the total length of the line.

The climatic conditions along the Heruo railway are severe, with frequent sand and dust storms, inconvenient transportation, poor communication, severe cold in winter, scorching heat in summer, and large temperature difference between day and night. The daily temperature difference of steel rails can reach up to 50℃. There is a great hidden danger of rail expansion. Weld rail construction The quality of safety brings challenges.

In order to reduce the risk of rail expansion, the China Railway 14th Bureau Group strictly controls the rail temperature and arranges the rail welding construction to be carried out at night as far as possible during the high temperature in summer. At the same time, according to the temperature of the rail laying on the day, the expansion and contraction space of the steel rail is reserved in advance to eliminate the hidden danger of rail expansion. At the same time, the Heruo Railway is a single-track line with heavy locomotive transportation. They rationally arranged the construction and driving plan, used the driving gap to organize the welded rail release construction, to maximize the conditions for the rail welding operation, and ensured the simultaneous completion of the 4 km unit every day. Welding and stress relief lock construction.

The quality of the rail welding head directly affects driving safety and the comfort of passengers. According to Zhang Gang, the head of the China Railway 14th Bureau and Ruo Railway Project, in order to ensure the quality of the rail welding, they adopt advanced mobile flash welding technology. Professional and technical personnel operate strictly to ensure that each welding head has to go through multiple steps such as end grinding, welding, rough grinding, heat treatment, and fine grinding, and pass the ultrasonic flaw detection "physical examination" before it can be "employed". In addition, they introduced the domestic advanced intermediate frequency train into the heat treatment construction of the welding head of the desert railway, which effectively improved the welding quality and ensured the construction safety, and successfully completed the welding of 2,160 joints.

It is reported that after the completion of the unit welding and stress relief construction of the Heruo Railway, heavy machine fine ramming and fine line adjustment will be carried out to further improve the smoothness and stability of the rail after the railway operation, and the comfort of passengers. Editor/He Yuting