In 1989 T-Track was first offered to the South African Mining Industry. Since then, some 600 km of track has been installed in the mining industry.
The first South African and International patents were also registered in 1989
The first surface track for freight traffic was laid at Consul Glass in Wadeville in 1990. This has been followed by many successful applications, in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Brazil, USA, Canada, Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2008. Some of the surface installations convey in excess of 75 million gross tons per annum, with axle loads up to 26 tons.
In 1993/94, Spoornet’s world-class Track Testing Centre, was commissioned to carry out comprehensive testing. A control test was done on an equivalent length of Ballast track. These tests validated the design procedure and demonstrated very clearly the dramatically reduced stress. Testing at the Track Test center also included 50TAL which the 26TAL handled positively without any issues.
