History of the department

In 1934, on the instructions of the Ministry of Railways, the “General Course of Railways” was introduced for all faculties of the KhIIT, which was entrusted to the Department of Railways. From October 1941 to February 1944 the department together with all XIIT was evacuated to Tashkent. In May 1945, the Faculty of Civil Engineering was established at the XIIT, whose students read all the professional disciplines of the Department of Railways. Subsequently, the departments of “Research and Design”, “Construction work and structures”, “Hydraulics” were separated from it, and in 1947 it was renamed “Tracks and track facilities”. In 1994, the order of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine from 08.06.1994 №297 as part of the department is created a branch research laboratory of seamless track, and in 2005-2018, the department “Design, technology and organization of construction and reconstruction of the track. ” In 2020, the department acquires the modern name “Railway track and transport structures”.

The heads of the department during its history were: Assoc.Prof. Usov Mykola M. (1932-34); Assoc.Prof. Koltunsky Mykola N. (1934-41); DSc., Prof. Angeleiko Victor I. (1944-86; in 1945-48, 49-51 – Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering); DSc, Prof. Staroselskii Oleksandr A. (1986-92); Ph.D., Assoc.Prof. Sushkov Valentin F. (1992-98; in the 1980s head of the Southern Railway Track Service); PhD, Assoc.Prof. Shekhvatov Oleksandr O. (1998-2003; in 1992-98 – Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering); PhD, Assoc.Prof. Matvienko Oleksandr O. (2003-04); PhD, Assoc.Prof. Voznenko Serhii I. (2004-06); PhD, Prof. Shramenko Volodymyr P. (2006-13, 2018-20); DSc, Prof. Darenskii Oleksandr N. (2013-18). The head of the section “Design, technology and organization of construction and reconstruction of the track” throughout its existence (2005-18) worked Assoc. Manuilenko Volodymyr G. From 01.07.2020 the head of the department is DSc, Prof. Plugin Andrii A.

A special place in the history of the department belongs to the Honored Scientist of the USSR, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Angeleiko V.I. (1908-91), who invariably headed it for 42 years and created a well-known scientific school. He is the author of more than 300 scientific articles, monographs, 7 textbooks, one article of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, has prepared 31 candidates. Under the leadership of prof. Angeleiko V.I. the department becomes one of the best in educational and methodical and research work in the institute and industry, begins research that is relevant and continues to this day: increasing the strength of the elements of turnouts (since the 1940’s); strained and effective use of jointless railway track; improving the system of organization of track management and technology of repair and track works (since the 1960s); ensuring the rapid movement of passenger trains (since the 1970s). Much work on the analysis of rail economy and improving the quality of rail metal was performed in cooperation with the Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ukrainian Institute of Metals, the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers. Already in the 2000s, created by prof. Angeleikom VI scientific school is researched with increase of resource elements of the superstructure of a track and perfection of system of their reuse, perfection of rail economy of subways.

An outstanding contribution to the development of the department was also made by its heads: DSc, Prof. Staroselskii O.O., who initiated a new direction of research – electrocorrosion of reinforced concrete of railway structures and founded a branch research laboratory of corrosion and corrosion protection of railway structures and structures, prepared a candidate of sciences; PhD., Assoc.Prof. Sushkov V.F. – proposed new practical approaches to the arrangement, laying, repair and maintenance of of jointless railway track, established a branch research laboratory of of jointless railway track; PhD, Assoc.Prof. Shekhvatov O.O., under whose leadership the study of rails in different operating conditions was started; DSc, Prof. Darenskii O.M. – solved an important scientific and applied problem of increasing the service life of non-public railways based on forecasting the state of the system “crew – rail track”, for the first time applying the concept of discrete subrail base with with non-linear spring-dissipative characteristics, prepared 5 candidates of science (PhD); PhD, Prof. Shramenko V.P. – developed the theoretical foundations and practical issues of reliability and safety of operation of seamless track, prepared 3 candidates of science.

In different years the department has worked and made a significant contribution to its successful work and development: PhD, Associate Professors Metlerkamp E.A., Pocheptsov A.F., Bilousov M.Z., Zolotukhin GI, Lyubimov E.A. (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in 1965-69), Lyashchenko V.M., Novakovich V.I. (later doctor of technical sciences, professor, head of the department of Tracks and track facilities of Rostov State University of Railways), Voznenko I.Ya. (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in 1978-92, Vice-Rector of the university in 1992-2000), Skoryk O.O. (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in 1998-2021), Kopanev G.P., Belorusov O.I., Shtompel A.M., Senior Lecturer Chichuga V.Ya., Assistant Professors Zinkovsky V.S., Shevchenko O.I., heads of the training laboratory Patrick I.G., Nikitinsky V.A., Kolosov O.P., Klimenko A.V.; senior laboratory assistants Gerashchenko G.I., Goncharov A.O., Pozdnyakov V.O., Yashin G.V., Chub L.M.; researchers Bogdan S.S., Hertz G.V., Ryaboy O.V., Samoilenko V.G., Chekhovsky V.P.