what kind of steel is railroad rail

[yesteryearforge]

back in the 60s i worked for tredegar iron works and we routinely heated up train axles and ran them thru roller mills to make the parts that bolted the tracks together ( the proper name for the item escapes me right now.)
once rolled to their proper shape and dimensions they were sheared to lenght and the holes and slots were punched ( all of this was done at a near yellow heat ) then the sections were droped in an oil bath , conveyor fed quench tank.
You have to keep in mind that this was the late 60s and that was not the best of times for conducing a good memory.
Mike Tanner

[sstreckfuss]

We "true" the train tires every 50,000 miles on a giant lathe that the train drives onto. Takes one man about an 8 hour shift to get them back true. At approximately every 300,000 miles we remove the axle assemblies, cut the tires off and press new ones on.

The track on the other hand has never been replaced in the ~15 year operation of the Metrolink. Its surface does periodically get ground and reprofiled but that is not very often only when we get reports of problems witht the train losing center of track, and usually only in problem sections.

[tecnovist]

common rail road steels
BPS is "Blueprints"...second tab on the home page.--- i had a look, but blowed if i can find it --- wonder were i went wrong ---

[Mike Turner]

It would be nice to have that data added to the railroad steel BP.

[Glenn]

BP0002 Junk Yard and Rail Road Steels

Go to IForgeIron.com > Blueprints > Blueprints 000-100 and click on BP0002

[Mike Turner]

Glenn the data that sstreckfuss has supplied is different than that in the BP hence my comment.

Originally Posted by Mike Turner

It would be nice to have that data added to the railroad steel BP.

No reason it can not be added.

[Glenn]

It has been added to BP0002

[Mike Turner]

Thanks Glenn the many folks looking for that info thank you as well .

[Jim-Iowa]

Originally Posted by the_sandy_creek_forge

AH HAH!! So they do get sent to a scrap place (or at least yours do). My uncle works for Iowa Interstate (who it seems contracts ALL of there work out so getting a lead is that much harder). I mentioned getting a piece of axle to him once, and he remembered hearing a Rumor that the bigger RR's rerolled them to make spikes and such (which is logical even though the quality of spikes doesn't really indicate axles as the parent stock). Hm.... I might have to look up that Grossman company. One of those axles would be well worth the drive from central IL down to Missouri if it's of the correct size...thanks sstreckfuss!

-Aaron @ the SCF

Yes they do get a lot of it to the scrapyard. Iowa Interstate runs about 50 yds north of my house. The chunk of rail I made into an anvil(of sorts) came from the salvage yard a mile from the maintainence shop at Newton Iowa.
As for the axles, can't say I would know what I was looking at. So they may be in the yard too but I would'nt know for sure.

[sstreckfuss]

I forgot to post this sorry.

Metrolink train axles are cut from a blank that is 79" long and 6" in diameter. The final axle varies in diameter at various points from 6" to 4" at its smallest and these variances are dependant on if it is a drive axle or rolling axle.

The steel used is "Aircraft Quality AISI - 4130 H.R. with maximum 3.0 p.p.m. Hydrogen.

Scott