Development of a fibre composite turnout sleeper

Hardwood has been the preferred material for railway sleepers and maintenance work on existing timber sleeper track continued to be provided by hardwoods. Over the past decade, it has been increasingly difficult to get good quality hardwood in quantities to keep up with demand. This trend is set to continue and will become critical within the foreseeable future, hence the need to develop a sleeper product made from renewable resources. A collaborative effort between the Centre of Excellence in Engineered Fibre Composites (CEEFC) and Austrak Pty Ltd aims to develop an optimised fibre composite turnout sleeper for replacing deteriorated hardwood sleepers in railway turnouts. The building block of this alternative sleeper material is a new generation composite sandwich structure made up of glass fibre reinforced polymer skins and high strength core material. This paper provides an overview of the on-going research and development on this alternative sleeper material and the consequent issues in using this material for replacement sleepers in railway turnouts