Study on Effectiveness of Selection for Railway Ballast : Case Study on A Quarry in northen France

The specification for selecting railway ballast in France is introduced in this study and the effectiveness of selection for railway ballast is studied for the case of a quarry located in northen France. The quality of railway ballast is, in general, estimated depending on the grain distribution and mainly of the resistance against abrasion. The resistance against abrasion is obtained by both Los Angeles abrasion test and Micro Deval test, which determine the ballast quality suitable whether for high speed railway or classical railway. This study analyzed the correlation between the abrasion index obtained from the abrasion tests for the aggregates sampled at three different stages among ballast production procedure at the quarry. A high correlation is determined between Los Angeles Abrasion index (LA) and Micro Deval index (MDA) and also between abrasion indices of different aggregates. Particularly, this correlation between the abrasion indices allows to estimate the quality of ballast at the final stage from the aggregates at the site in a quarry within the margin of error.