RRX Fish Plates

[Crunch]

Found two abandoned railroad track fish plates and the cut-off bolts that went with them on the side of the road today.

Anyone know what kind of steel might be in the fish plates and bolts?

I'm trying to think of good ways to recycle...and I'm hoping those fish plates should be HC steel...

[Crunch]

Gosh, a hundred views and not one person willing to hazard a guess?

I've heard that railroad track (and railroad car wheels) were made of HC steel, so I was wondering whether these fish plates might be HC, as well.

If so, I'd like to snag them from the roadside before they disappear...

Thanks in advance for any info.

[MattBower]

Gosh, a hundred views and not one person willing to hazard a guess?

I've heard that railroad track (and railroad car wheels) were made of HC steel, so I was wondering whether these fish plates might be HC, as well.

If so, I'd like to snag them from the roadside before they disappear...

Thanks in advance for any info.

I feel I should point out that being on the RR right of way is trespass, and taking RR property from the right of way is theft. Your post doesn't make it totally clear whether either of those obvervations applies here, but it's worth mentioning.

Modern, main line American rail is high carbon. If I had to guess, I would guess that fish plates are too. But it's only a guess. Hardly anyone really knows what's in junkyard steel. You should spark test and/or quench test.

[ThomasPowers]

I haven't seen good info on fishplates; but from their use I would be medium carbon steel---tough rather than brittle

and Re rail:

"citing the Arema (The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association) 2007 document, Part 2 "manufacture of Rail"

Standard rail steel:
.74 to.86% Carbon,
.75 to 1.25% Manganese,
.10 to .60% Silicon
Minimum Brinell (of unhardened surface) 310 or 370 dependant of grade ordered.

Low Alloy Rail Steel
.72 to .82% Carbon,
.80 to 1.10% Manganese,
.25 to .40& Chromium,
.10 to .50% Silicon
Minimum Brinell (of unhardened surface) 310, 325, or 370 dependant of grade ordered.
My document shows the following breakdown for grades:
SS = standard strength (brinell 310)
HH = Head Hardened (brinell 370)
LA = Low Alloy Standard Strength (brinell 310)
IH = Low Alloy Intermediate (brinell 325)
LH = Low Alloy Head Hardened (brinell 370)"

[Crunch]

Thanks, fellas. I appreciate the info. If I grab them, I will do a quench and spark test and let everyone know what I find for future reference.

Sorry for this newbie followup question, but will "medium carbon" steel water-quench-harden to become harder than a file?

Thanks again.

[MattBower]

Depending on carbon content, at full hard it'll probably be right in the ballpark of a file, maybe a little softer. You should certainly be able to detect a big difference in how the file bites on clean steel, as compared to just heating it to critical and letting it air cool.