Rails railway and rail joints

•The rails on the track can be considered as steel girders for the purpose of carrying axle load.

•Rails transfer Axle load to the subgrade through sleepers and ballast.

•Rails convert the rolling loads (moving wheel loads of train) into point load, which acts on the sleepers.

•Sleepers convert point load into distributed load.

•Ballast convert line load is uniformly distributed load.

•Rails are made up of high carbon steel, to resist wear and tear.

•On points and crossing rails of medium carbon and high manganese steel is used.

•In India rails are manufactured by open hearth or duplex process.

Requirement of rail

Rails acts as a continuous girders carrying axle loads. They should meet the following requirement.

•They should be proper composition of steel and should be manufactured by open hearth or duplex process.

•Minimum tensile strength of rail should be 72 kg/mm2.

•In india rails are tested by falling weight test or tup test.