The present disclosure generally relates to a railroad chassis vehicle having independently operable workheads for carrying out rail maintenance operations on non-uniform sections of railroad tracks. Related methods of operation of the railroad chassis and associated maintenance of ballast beds underlying railroad tracks are also described.

An autonomous ballast consist for unloading ballast along a railway and methods for unloading ballast thereby. The consist includes a plurality of ballast cars and at least one control car. The control car includes a controller, a navigation system, and electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic generators that power the hopper cars. The controller employs the navigation system to determine the location of the consist relative to a track survey indicating locations and amounts of ballast to be unloaded. The controller instructs the hopper cars to open/close ballast doors to dump appropriate amounts of ballast in desired locations. The controller also monitors the status of the hopper cars and the accuracy of the navigation system to automatically adjust the operational state of the consist relative thereto. The unloading operation is carried out automatically, without need for operator intervention, and without risk of damage to railroad facilities.

In the course of rehabilitation of a ballast bed of a track, while creating a track construction site (10), old bulk material (6) to be removed is stored on a plurality of storage wagons (2) connected to form a loading train (7). Parallel thereto, new bulk material (9) pre-deposited on a plurality of storage wagons (2) connected to form a loading train (8) is introduced into the track construction site (10). The introduction of the new bulk material (9) into the track construction site (10) is controlled automatically in dependence on a volume of the old bulk material (6) removed from the track construction site (10)

A rail boot for encasing preselected engagement portions of a rail, including a base segment, for encasing a rail foot of the rail, and field and gauge side segments connected with the base segment. The field and gauge side segments are for encasing the field and gauge sides of a rail web of the rail respectively. Also, the field side segment is formed for encasing a first preselected portion of the field side of a rail head of the rail. The gauge side segment is formed for encasing a second preselected portion of the gauge side of the rail head. The rail boot also include an outer segment extending outwardly from the gauge side segment and defining a bottom side and an outer side of a flangeway, in which flanges of rail wheels rolling along the rail are receivable.