A Good Man - Track Work

15.02.2018

For trains going without stoppages,

For a train operator to be calm on the way,

Walking on sleepers in heat and bad weather

He should pass with a hammer; - this is how a children puzzle says about one of the most important professions on the railroad. A rail track repairman is a prominent figure. Wherever he is - on the railroad bed, near stations and switching tracks, on sections and bridges - he is always noticed to wear a yellow vest and tools: big hammers with long helves, shovels, stone hammers and others, the names of which are just unknown for men in the street.

The veil over this profession was opened by Rail Track Repairman of Track #2 Section of Bogatyr Coal Mine Railroad Complex, best worker of Bogatyr Coal LLP Kairat Akanov.

- It is difficult to overestimate the importance of our work, - Kairat Kasengaliyevich revoices the plain quatrain. – The safety of lives of traction unit operators and stability of the coal enterprise performance depends on our recollection, skill to see even a small failure of railroad tracks.

- What exactly do rail track repairmen deal with?

- With current maintenance of rail tracks. We replace sleepers, which got out of order, eliminate space clearances between rails, screw nuts, regulate rail switches. Rails can move apart or converge because of rail transport movement, that is why we should watch a rail gage – a distance between rails should always be definite. If not to eliminate this incompliance timely a train can go off the line.

Despite the fact that a rail track repairman is one of most massive professions on the railroad it requires special skills, knowledge, forces and moderation inherent only to it. A rail track repairman needs to know soil features, ways of laying rails and sleepers, perform a lot of other actions very well. 

Our companion knows all these nuances like the palm of his hand. The big experience came to him together with the substantial work experience. He has been working as a rail track repairman for almost 23 years. Our hero makes a joke that one can go up to Baikal-Amur Mainline by the tracks laid by him for this time. Although it is a joke but it looks more like truth. The distance of the steel mainline at the coal mines of Bogatyr Coal LLP has several hundreds of kilometers.

Thanks to his personal properties, attentive employee morale and faithfulness to a selected profession Kairat Kasengaliyevich received the fourth grade. Last year by the decision of the management of Bogatyr Coal LLP he was selected as the best employee of the company. The photo of the rail track repairman took its fitting place on the Board of Honor together with the pictures of other distinguished people of the enterprise.

We asked how Kairat Kasengaliyevich managed to preserve his form for so many years. As repairman's tools are weighty, and he has to be on his feet and work physically for almost a whole shift. He answered that going in for football helped him a lot. He took to football as far back as being young. Some time ago he defended the honor of Bogatyr miners playing in the picked team of Bogatyr Coal LLP. Athletic training and loads did their good part; that is why now being 52 he is full of forces and vital powers.

Speculating over a logic question on whether he regretted at least once about a selected profession Kairat Akanov summarized:

- Despite the fact that my profession is difficult - one should work in summer or winter, in a mash of snow, in cold and in heat under the open sky - but I did not think about changing it. Probably, it is my destiny - to tie my whole life with the railroad. Straight after the army I was employed as a car inspector on the railroad. After that I came to work to the mine as a rail track repairman. The work came to my taste immediately.

My work, my personal example helped my sons - Zhantlek and Nurtlek - find themselves in life. They graduated from technical secondary schools in railroad specialties and both were employed in Kazakhstan Temir Zholy. My grandchildren grow now. If they want to become railroad specialists I will be happy to help them in word and deed.

Marina PONKRATOVA

Photo by Oleg MALCHUK.