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Railway superstructures:
track renewal and maintenance

Railway superstructures: Maintenance

Our experience

Alignment and levelling of tracks, tamping and profiling of the railbed and track stabilisation are vital operations for ensuring safe railway transport.

Especially with the advent of High Speed and High Capacity, line maintenance has become imperative for the railway line operators.

GCF S.p.A. has responded to this requirement for many years with impressive professional responsibility, with significant investments in training of qualified personnel as well as to expand the availability of the machines and technological equipment used in routine and special maintenance tasks.

Acquired experience and the accuracy of works carried out with continuity for lots regularly assigned in Italy by RFI (Italian railways) are the reason why the maintenance segment also took us abroad - where GCF has won important contracts in recent years, in railway and metro sectors alike.

Our competitive edge

  • Flexible organisation of personnel.
  • Technological equipment: computerised measuring systems on an absolute base.
  • Efficiency: extensive fleet of machines, unique of its kind in Europe.
  • Performance: quality and speed of execution.

Railbed tamping

Railbed tamping is performed using powerful machines that work using effective vibro-compression hammers capable of inserting crushed stone underneath sleepers.

GCF S.p.A. has about 30 tamping machines for lines and points (type Plasser 09/32/4S, Matisa B66U, Matisa B50D, Matisa B45D, etc.) that are also capable of performing track alignment and levelling thanks to efficient computerized technological equipment performing measurements on an absolute base and thereby ensure minimal error margins.

Profiling

A fleet of 18 Matisa R21 profiling machines is able to handle any type of final ballast outline with a yield of 15 km/h.

Final stabilisation

Five Plasser DGS62N stabilising machines ensure permanent stabilisation of renewed tracks with performances of up to 3 km/h ensuring maximum immediate and durable stability, thereby extending the life cycle of the initial geometry.

In this way, not only can lines be re-opened immediately to rail traffic but there is also an approximately 30% increase line seal, thereby reducing the need for maintenance.

  • National network, Italy
  • Railway network, Turkey
  • Levelling, Switzerland
  • Metro and Tram Maintenance
  • National network, Italy

    Maintenance national network, Italy

    Systematic maintenance of the Italian national railway network is one of the "historic" sectors of activity of GCF S.p.A.

    We have worked continuously in RFI Compartments (Italian Railway Network) for several decades, especially in the Centre-North of the country to ensure the efficiency and safety of conventional lines and High-Speed and High Capacity lines.

    Our track geometry and alignment monitoring systems integrate automatic and progressive adjustment of reference parameters so that we can perform cyclic maintenance to ensure perfect restoration of the original conditions of tracks along the entire section of line.

  • Railway network, Turkey

    Maintenance railway network, Turkey

    In the western part of Turkey, GCF S.p.A. has performed maintenance on over 3,800 km of line.

    Work on 2,900 km of conventional lines and 900 km of High-Speed lines was carried out in Zones 1, 2, 3 and 7 of the Turkish railways (TCDD), corresponding - among others - to the Ankara, Konya, Izmir, Balikesir and Eskisehir areas.

    In order to comply with quality and efficiency requirements, GCF provided qualified personnel and high-performance machines (Matisa B45D and Plasser 09/32/4S tamping machines, Matisa R21L profiling machines and Plasser DGS62N stabilising machines).

  • Levelling, Switzerland

    Levelling, Switzerland

    In February 2015, GCF S.p.A. was awarded an important 10-year contract by Swiss Railways SBB BLS for tamping and profiling work on railways lines in the Swiss Confederation.

    Performing these tasks involves making available a latest-generation tamping machine fitted with 32 hammers: this ensures very high production levels in flatness and vertical adjustment of track.

    GCF will use the latest addition to its fleet of machines, the Matisa type B66UC currently under construction in the Matisa factory in Lausanne.

  • Metro and Tram Maintenance

    Metro and Tram Maintenance

    Especially in Italy a segment of the maintenance activity of GCF is dedicated to metropolitan and trolleybus-tram lines.

    Qualified personnel and purpose-built and specific equipment operate continuously to perform the maintenance tasks required to ensure constant efficiency and safety of urban transport.

    GCF operates in major Italian cities at the service of network operators:

    • ATM (Agenzia Trasporti Milanese) - Milan
    • GTT (Gruppo torinese Trasporti) - Turin
    • ATAC (Agenzia per il Trasporto Autoferrotramviario) - Rome
    • Metro - Rome

Rincalzatrice GCF in opera nei pressi di Trieste

Rincalzatrice GCF in opera nei pressi di Trieste