FLAME HARDENED AND HEAT TREATED STOCK RAILS

Flame hardened and heat treated stock rails were installed at locations where the open hearth stock rail had shown short life due to excessive wear, primarily flange wear. Flame hardening and heat treating produced a Brinell hardness on the rail head of approximately 350. Both the flame hardened and heat treated stock rails gave better performance than the open hearth stock rail; however, the flame hardening process resulted in considerable vertical distortion of the stock rail, as much as five feet in 60-ft. As a result, this type of hardening was discontinued. While this test was installed initially to investigate the reduction in flange wear, the use of heat treated stock rails to date and the results of heat treated rails used for other purposes indicate that they provide greatly increased life and reduced maintenance as compared with ordinary stock rails where crushing and plastic flow cause frequent renewal.

• Corporate Authors:

  Penn Central Transportation Company

  Transportation Center, 6 Penn Center Plaza
  Philadelphia, PA  United States  19104
• Authors:
  • Code, C J
• Publication Date: 1960-4-13

Media Info

• Features: Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 10 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Deflection; Field tests; Hardness; Maintenance of way; Metal heating; Rail (Railroads); Technology; Wear
• Uncontrolled Terms: Heat treatment
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Old TRIS Terms: Rail deflection
• Subject Areas: Finance; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00040282
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Test No. 608 Test Rpt
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 8 1994 12:00AM