January 2, 200719 yr ASTM A66 Specifications ASTM A66-87 Tensile Strength 60,000 PSI Yield Point 0.5 Tensile Strength Elongation in 2 in. Min. 18% ASTM A1 This specification covers carbon steel tee rails of nominal weights of 60 lb/yd (29.8 kg/m) and over for use in railway track, including export and industrial applications. ASTM A2 A2-02 Standard Specification for Carbon Steel Girder Rails of Plain, Grooved, and Guard Types ASTM A3 This specification covers steel joint bars for connecting steel rails in mine, industrial, and standard railroad track. ASTM A759 This section covers carbon steel crane rails of special designs and nominal weights of 104, 105, 135, 171, and 175 lbs./yard for crane runway use. Reference www.google.com
November 30, 201114 yr I know this is a late post to this but... Rail steels are primarily bainitic which is a structure of the steel, which is similar to hardened martensite. Bainitic steel is formed as a process of cooling and heating and has a fine non-lamellar structure, bainite commonly consists of cementite and ferric iron. The high concentration of dislocations in the ferrite present in bainite makes this ferrite harder than it normally would be, it also has a greater wear resistance. When forge welding higher carbon steels to lower carbon steels a carbon migration occures, which affects how the material inbetween the welding area will both cool and harden. You can compare this material with L-6, which is bainitic. I hope this helps at least with being able to h/t-ing.
November 30, 201114 yr L-6 is only bainitic if it's heat treated to be bainitic! Regular heat treat of L-6 does not form bainite.
November 30, 201114 yr This is the first I've heard of bainite as a major microstructure in rail steels, so I Googled it. Apparently bainite rails are seeing use in this country now (see here and here). Interesting tidbit. But being that just about anyone here will be using old to very old scrap rail, most of what we're likely to find ourselves dealing with for quite some time will still be the typical ~0.8% C pearlitic steels that rails have been used for a long time. (The bainitic steels they're using for rails apparently are much lower in carbon than the older, pearlitic rails.) Of course if you heat your rail to forging temps (which most of us probably don't do, fortunately), the fact that it was originally bainitic ceases to mean anything.
December 4, 201114 yr Not to hijack the topic, but does anyone know the composition of rr car springs? John
December 4, 201114 yr BP0002 - Junk Yard and Rail Road Steelshttp://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/blueprints/original-series/bp0002-junk-yard-rail-road-steel
May 17, 201214 yr NO. There is no "Railroad Steel" There are a bunch of different steels used for Railroad use. Like asking "Are all apples red delicious?" Well the Red Delicious ones are but the rest are not!
May 18, 201214 yr It is important to learn the difference between "specifications" such as "A36" or "A66" and "grades" such as "O1" or "L6." A "specification" is a list of performance standards, possibly including a microstructural requirement or loose limits on composition. A "grade" is a fairly tight limit on composition with no regard whatsoever to microstructure or performance.
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