THE PROBLEM OF THE TOP RAIL

It is a matter of common knowledge that the least reliable part of any normal steel ingot is the top. Standard rail specifications require that the rail shall be free from all top-of-the-ingot defects, and though in principle this requirement is carried out, in actual practice the average top rail from the ingot is not 100 percent free from the influence of these defects, as the broken rail records of every railway show. Theoretically the top rail should be the equal in quality of the middle rail or the bottom rail; practically it is not always so. Things that can and cannot be done to insure sound top rails are reviewed. From the manufacturing point of view, additional precautions can be taken to assure sound top rails, but they add to manufacturing costs. One is to cast the ingot large end up and provide it with a head encased in a refractory lining, which keeps the top of the metal molten until the ingot proper has solidified. Another precaution is to cast a larger ingot, so that a greater percentage of crop may be removed from the top end.

• Corporate Authors:

  Temple Press Limited

  161-166 Fleet Street
  Longon EC4,   England 
• Publication Date: 1945-3-15

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 272-273
• Serial:
  • RAILWAY GAZETTE
  • Volume: 84

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Cracking; Defects; Failure; Melting; Railroad rails; Void ratios
• Old TRIS Terms: Fissures (Rails); Melting practices; Rail failure; Splitting (Rails); Void; Voids (Rails)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00037949
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 8 1994 12:00AM