EN 17397-1:2020

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-januar-2021
Železniške naprave - Napake na progi - 1. del: Upravljanje železniških napak
Railway applications - Rail defects - Part 1: Rail defect management
Bahnanwendungen - Schienenfehler - Teil 1: Handhabung von Schienenfehlern
Applications ferroviaires - Défauts de rails - Partie 1 : Gestion des défauts de rails
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 17397-1:2020
ICS:
93.100 Gradnja železnic Construction of railways
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 17397-1
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
November 2020
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 93.100
English Version
Railway applications - Rail defects - Part 1: Rail defect
management
Applications ferroviaires - Défauts de rails - Partie 1 : Bahnanwendungen - Schienenfehler - Teil 1:
Gestion des défauts de rails Handhabung von Schienenfehlern
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 28 September 2020.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2020 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 17397-1:2020 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
1 Scope . 4
2 Normative references . 4
3 Terms and definitions . 4
4 Abbreviations . 7
5 Defect management system . 7
5.1 General . 7
5.2 Defect types . 7
5.3 NDT inspection of rails . 7
5.4 Management of NDT inspection results . 8
6 Limits of rail condition . 8
6.1 General . 8
6.2 Definition of limits . 8
6.3 Rail defect immediate action limits L . 10
IA
7 Risk mitigation . 10
Annex A (informative) Description of rail defects . 11
A.1 Definition and description of rail defects . 11
A.2 Characterization of rail defects . 15
A.2.1 Transverse cracking . 15
A.2.2 Horizontal cracking . 19
A.2.3 Longitudinal vertical cracking . 25
A.2.4 Squat . 29
A.2.5 Head checks . 33
A.2.6 Other rail head surface conditions . 35
A.2.7 Corrosion . 50
A.2.8 Wear . 54
A.2.9 Other rail defects . 59
Annex B (informative) Immediate action limits L . 67
IA
Bibliography . 69

European foreword
This document (EN 17397-1:2020) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 256 “Railway
applications”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2021, and conflicting national standards shall be
withdrawn at the latest by May 2021.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of
North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the
United Kingdom.
1 Scope
This document specifies the defect management system the infrastructure manager uses to control the
risk of severe accidents due to degradation of internal or surface defects on rails complying with
EN 13674-1, EN 13674-2, EN 13674-4 and EN 15689:2009 (excluding grooved rails EN 14811 — which
need alternative systems).
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
EN 16729-3:2018, Railway applications - Infrastructure - Non-destructive testing on rails in track - Part 3:
Requirements for identifying internal and surface rail defects
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
3.1
plain rail
zone comprising all parts of the rail located away from the rail ends and the welding zones
3.2
rail end
part of the rail located within the length of the fishplates
3.3
welding zone
weld material itself plus 20 mm from each end of the weld collar (for aluminothermic welding and
electric arc welding) or upset (flash-butt welding)
Note 1 to entry: Any defect occurring in this zone is classified as a welding defect.
3.4
defective rail
rail which, for reasons of integrity or profile (including wear), requires management (examples in
Annex A)
3.5
damaged rail
rail which is neither cracked nor broken, but which has other defects
3.6
cracked area
part of the rail with a localized material discontinuity
3.7
broken rail
rail which has separated into two or more pieces (see Figure 1 and Figure 2) or any rail from which a
piece of metal becomes detached from the rail head, with a gap of more than 50 mm in length and more
than 10 mm in depth resulting in a running band less than 30 mm in width (see Figure 3)

Figure 1 — Example of a broken rail separated in two pieces

Key
l horizontal length
Figure 2 — Example of a broken rail with a gap at the rail end

Key
a vertical depth
l horizontal length
c non-cracked area
Figure 3 — Example of a broken rail with a gap
3.8
rail surface defect
defect which initiates on any of the surfaces of the rail
3.9
rail head surface defect
defect which initiates on or within 5 mm from the running surface of the rail
3.10
rail internal defect
defect which initiates from within the rail section but may grow to become visible on the rail surface
3.11
NDT Method
discipline applying a physical principle in non-destructive testing
[SOURCE: EN 13938-5:2004, definition 3.2]
EXAMPLE: Ultrasonic testing.
3.12
wheel/rail interaction
effect of rolling and sliding contact and direct forces from the vehicle wheels which can cause damage to
the rail
3.13
environmental degradation
damage to the rail caused by external environmental factors
3.14
geometrical planes of the rail
see EN 16729-3:2018, 3.10, Figure 4
3.15
infrastructure manager [IM]
body or organisation responsible in particular for establishing and maintaining railway infrastructure,
as well as for operating the control and safety systems
3.16
track maintenance engineer [TME]
engineer with “safety of line” responsibility for a defined track area
4 Abbreviations
For the purposes of this document, the following abbreviations apply.
Abbreviation Definition
RDM rail defect management
S&C switches and crossings
TME track maintenance engineer
IM infrastructure manager
NDT non-destructive testing
CWR continuously welded rail
RAMS reliability, availability, maintainability, safety
LCC life cycle costs
5 Defect management system
5.1 General
An infrastructure manager shall put a framework in place to monitor the condition of its assets. If the
infrastructure becomes deteriorated, it needs to be renewed or repaired. This can be for economic
reasons or, typically at a later state in the development and propagation of the defect, due to safety
reasons.
5.2 Defect types
There are a wide variety of rail defects that lead to damaged or defective rail. These defects can be
grouped and categorized by a system.
The classification of the defect types along with the internationally widely used numbering scheme can
be found in the Annex A of this document.
5.3 NDT inspection of rails
The IM shall implement a testing framework (appropriate NDT methods and inspection frequencies) to
inspect rail to detect the defects considered relevant by the IM. The testing frequency should be
designed to mitigate the risk that a detectable defect propagates to a critical size leading to failure.
The standard EN 16729-3:2018 describes how several of the most relevant defects can be detected
using various methods of NDT.
5.4 Management of NDT inspection results
Actions shall be taken depending on the results of the inspection. Several limits can exist that lead to
different actions. Immediate action has to be taken, if the defect has reached a safety critical size.
Smaller detected defects shall be managed (by repair or removal) to prevent them from reaching a
safety critical size.
The infrastructure manager shall record the lifecycle of each defect from detection, monitoring, to
removal.
6 Limits of rail condition
6.1 General
A methodology to analyse rail condition should take into account the economic optimum of reliability,
availability, maintainability, safety (RAMS) and life cycle costs (LCC). Diffe
...