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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!mangoe
From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: New rails on the Boston & Lowell
Message-ID: <1612@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Sep-85 09:25:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1612
Posted: Tue Sep 17 09:25:59 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 01:43:37 EDT
References: <28f8b018.1de6@apollo.uucp>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 36

In article <28f8b018.1de6@apollo.uucp> rees@apollo.uucp (Jim Rees) writes:

>The new rails are each about a mile long.  They are apparently welded
>together at the factory, then loaded on a mile long train, each rail
>running the length of the train, and brought to the place where they will
>be installed.  The rails are flexible enough that as the train goes
>around a bend, the rails just bend with the train.

"Continuous" used to be 1/4 mile in length.  Has it gotten longer?


>A couple of questions for you experts.  Why is the rail welded at the
>factory instead of continuous casted?  I know it is welded because I can
>see the welds.  My wife used to work at a steel mill, and she thinks it
>would be possible to continuous cast the rail, although not a lot of mills
>have the equipment to do this.

The rail has to be rolled somewhere along the line to give it strength.  The
Russians probably do continous cast and roll rail, since they've done some
neat work with plastic deformation, but, given the demand for rail in the
US, and the cost of building a specialized plant, I'm not too suprised that
the steel makers keep rolling billets.

>Also, the old rail had these heat sinks every three ties or so.  One of the
>old-timers who rides our train (which takes B&M employees to the new HQ
>at Iron Horse Park) says these were needed to keep the rail from buckling on
>a hot day, although they don't look substantial enough for that.  The new
>rails have no heat sinks.  Why not?

As I understand it, as long as it isn't too hot (like >90 F), you can lay
continuous and not have to worry about buckling.  (if it's too hot, when
winter comes the contraction will pull everything off)  So the OT is
probably right about the perceived need for heat sinks, but they've since
decided that they are unnecessary.

Charley Wingate


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