The Stobart Rail & Civils’ Ballast Undercutters and the process in which they are used has been developed and improved so that ballast can be excavated and replenished without the requirement to remove the track from the Infrastructure.

The machines working alongside road rail excavators and a team of highly qualified operators can efficiently remove ballast from underneath the following:

• Plain line
• Single line
• Switches and crossings
• 3rd and 4th rail

They can also be used for:

• Track lowering
• Wet beds
• Removal of contaminated ballast
• Applying cross fail to the formation
• Improvement of drainage.

Capable of removing spoil 70m2 per hour and at a depth of up to 350mm below bottom of sleeper. This method has been proven time and time-again to be a cost-effective way of improving the infrastructure without the need for major disruption caused by time consuming blockades where the track must be removed to allow ballast removal by conventional methods.

To enhance the procedure used, these machines can be delivered to remote accesses using Stobart Rail & Civils’ specialised road transport where they can be on track using level crossings or approved RRAP’s thus removing the complex planning required to get plant to site via the rail infrastructure.