Rail Milling - the Start of a New Era in North America’s Rail Maintenance

This will be the first time ever that a mobile milling unit is used to re-profile rail under a contract in all of North America – and we’re mighty proud of that!

TTC tendered out the work late 2017 as a result of not being able to keep up with the maintenance of their subway network solely by grinding technology.

Work will be carried out in a partnership with Linmag, a sister company of the milling train manufacturer Linsinger.

Depending on the machine used, the milling process can take off as little as 0.1mm and as much as 1.5mm in one pass alone with an automatic surface finish of maximal 5 microns or less restoring the rail to a perfect finish.

In addition, a huge benefit of milling, especially when working in tunnels, in urban or wooded, dry rural areas is the “shaving/planing” process compared to the abrasive grinding system, which does not create either dust or sparks. This eliminates the high risk of fire in tunnels and dry areas.

The milling unit from Austria has already arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is currently on the way to Toronto. After an initial testing phase the milling is planned to start work this December.