Application guide 09 / 12
Rail Traction Sand
Locomotives drop sand on the rail ahead of the wheel to stop it slipping. The sand has to flow through the sander every time, so it must be dry and sized.
Our product: Kiln-Dried Sand
MRP traction sand for rail
MRP supplies kiln-dried traction sand to rail operators. Steel wheel on steel rail has very little grip. Under heavy traction — starting a loaded train, climbing a grade — and under hard braking, the wheel can slip or lock. Locomotives carry sand in hoppers. Sanding systems drop it onto the rail just ahead of the driving wheels, where it is crushed under the wheel and restores grip. On wet, greasy or leaf-covered rail it is the difference between moving and not.
What we have to get right
It has to flow. Sand goes from the hopper through pipes and nozzles by gravity and air. Any moisture makes it bridge and block, and a blocked sander is a locomotive with no grip when it needs it most. So the sand must be dry. It must be sized to a fraction that feeds reliably and crushes under the wheel; rail operators specify the grading. And it must be clean and hard: quartz grains, with no silt, clay or organic matter to cake in the hopper.
The MRP product
Kiln-Dried Sand — washed quartz sand, dried in our kiln and screened to a close fraction between 0.3 mm and 6 mm — is produced to the operator's sanding specification and supplied dry. Washing removes the fines that would cake. Drying and screening give a free-flowing sand at the size the sander is set up for.
Supply
Bulk supply to rail operators, rolling-stock maintainers and their contractors. Tell us the grading your sanders need, the tonnage and the delivery point.