Increasing of ballast layer bearing capacity is a widespread problem during the operation and maintenance of a railway track nowadays. It is known that with an increase of the passed tonnage, the ballast layer tends to become contaminated both by the products of its own crushing and by the external weeds which rapidly leads to the strength and operational characteristics degradation of the crushed stone ballast. In this study, an attempt was made to simulate the effect of cyclic load from rolling stock on the ballast layer and to determine the extent of wear of crushed stone ballast of category II in accordance with GOST 7392.

The objective of the research is a railway ballast layer created from new and recycled ballast particles in different ratio. In order to study the possibility of using recycled ballast grains in ballast layer, it is necessary to carry out laboratory triaxial tests of ballast crushed stone with size of the particles 25-60 mm with different grain shape. Abrasion testing machine allows to reach the effect on new ballast, which is similar to abrasion of ballast particles in the railway track. Therefore, it is possible to create ballast samples from (new) mixed and recycled ballast and estimate which proportion has the strength characteristics, which are close to the ones in ballast layer created only with new ballast particles. The result of the study shows, that it makes sense to return the recycled crushed stone in a mix with a new one in order to reduce the cost on a railway maintenance.