Walking on ballast impacts balance.

Railroad workers often perform daily work activities on irregular surfaces, specifically on ballast rock. Previous research and injury epidemiology have suggested a relationship between working on irregular surfaces and postural instability. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of walking on ballast for an extended duration on standing balance.

Review of walking hazards for railroad workers.

This is a review of walking tasks in the railroad environment, and the injuries that result from slips, trips, falls, or other acute or even non-traumatic exposures. The lack of federal regulations for railroad walkways has led several states to develop and enforce their own regulations. Support from the research literature for such regulations has come from biomechanical studies of the effects of walking on railroad ballast, which will be reviewed.

Joint kinetics and muscle activity while walking on ballast.

Objective: This study examined the impact of two common sizes of ballast on gait biomechanics. The terrain was designed to simulate a railroad work setting to investigate the variation in gait kinetics and muscle activation while walking.

Background: Research and epidemiology suggest a potential link between walking surface characteristics and injury.

Impact of railroad ballast type on frontal plane ankle kinematics during walking.

Five healthy male subjects walked on a control surface (level concrete), and two sloped rock surfaces (walking ballast-rock about 1.9 cm across; main line ballast-rock about 3.8 cm across) while their rearfoot motion (defined throughout as ankle inversion/eversion as seen from the frontal plane) was measured to determine if the different walking surfaces caused different ankle kinematics.