Earthtrack Solutions - Rail Sleeper Replacement, Track Maintenance and Construction

Earthtrack Solutions prides itself on offering customised solutions for all its clients’ rail projects. We specialise in sleeper replacement, track maintenance and track construction using a fleet of low-hour leading-brand track excavators, hi-rail excavators, integrated tool carriers and skid-steer loaders.

Track excavators fitted with rotating tilt hitches

Earthtrack owns the largest number of track excavators fitted with rotating tilt hitches of any operator in Australia. All our machines are equipped with innovative attachments for a wide variety of rail maintenance and construction applications.

To complement this diverse fleet of equipment, our team of experienced operators and ground personnel play a key role to ensure that all work is undertaken safely, to specification and in the timeframes required by our primary contractors for all types of rail maintenance and construction projects.

Sleeper replacement

Earthtrack specialises in sleeper replacement Australia-wide. Since 2007 we have replaced in excess of 700,000 wooden sleepers with concrete and some 45,000 wooden sleepers with steel for the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) throughout Victoria and New South Wales.

Where required, Earthtrack can provide a complete package of machines, operators and supervisory personnel to enable us to achieve the required targets while still implementing a strong focus on quality and safety.

The method of sleeper replacement uses the ‘Platypus’ attachment, which can be fitted with or without an inside clip-up ram to enable the inside clips on the sleeper to be secured as part of the operation rather than requiring a labourer to do this. This increases productivity while reducing labour costs.

The ‘Platypus’ is fitted to track excavators that sit ‘on-track’ while working. Using this method Earthtrack can maintain an active work-site on a live track, maximising track time with minimal disruption to train time-tables. This offers our clients a very competitive and cost-effective option to the more traditional methods.

Rail track maintenance services

Earthtrack’s extensive range of machines and attachments enables us to offer cost-effective and time-efficient rail track maintenance services, including rail renewal, undercutting, sleeper replacement and ballast upgrade.

Our track maintenance hi-rail is fitted with a rail threader, ballast broom, ballast plough, platypus, fork grab and undercutter. This package, with its increased productivity and reduced running costs without compromise in quality, has attracted high demand from some of Australia’s largest rail contractors.

Rail track construction machines and attachments

Our initial focus was on sleeper replacement and track maintenance as the two generally go together. However, in recent months there has been an increasing demand for us to provide innovative equipment for track construction. As a result of which, we can now offer a range of machines and attachments for this purpose. These include rail threaders, tampers, fork grabs and various sleeper laying attachments to suit the different sleeper configurations in use around the country; all these attach easily to our 13t-17t excavators.

Eight-sleeper layers

We own and operate one of the few eight-sleeper Octopus sleeper layers, which is currently in use with our Komatsu PC300-8 excavator in Western Australia on a major rail construction project. This is proving to be complementary to the traditional methods of sleeper laying, and enabling restricted areas to be accessed more easily. We are continually working to develop more effective and diverse equipment for the rail industry.