what kind of steel is railroad rail made of ?
I have been told that most of it is 1050 , is this right?
thanks forgeman

There is a chart in the bps list that tells all of the common rail road steels

A friend of mine, son Gene Martin works for the railroad and if I recall he said it was 1080 or 1084 can't remember, maybe he will chime in on this.

wait, so its decent quality steel ehh? Thats awesome!! I have cut 1/2 inch flats of it that would make awesome hawks.

what is the bps list and where can it be found?

This http://www.iforgeiron.com/blacksmith-blueprints/index.php

what is the bps list and where can it be found?

Up at the top on the right...click "Home"

BPS is "Blueprints"...second tab on the home page.

Gday all,

Makes great hardies and fullers, its very tough steel.

Regards
Rusty_iron
Brisbane, Oz.

I work for the railroad (light rail in St. Louis) I will ask around about the grade of steel. The stuff is hard though, trust me, it is designed for the tire of the train to wear, the tire is the consumable and it isn't exactly soft its aviation grade something, something, I have/had the tire grade listed in a chart somewhere in the office...

Hm.... and I had always figured it would be cheaper to replace the tracks than a train wheel. Learn something new everyday.

Alternately.... Sstreckfuss, you work for a railroad? Like have access to the old, worn out massive chunks of round stock scrap that are also know as train axles, all for the price of scrap?? If so, you might find many, many, many, good friends here

-Aaron @ the SCF

I work on Light Rail, like the downtown metrolink trains, I do occassionally get access to things like train axles, although we don't have a high failure on that item, they get reused after a million mile overhaul but sometimes things go wrong and we throw them out to the recycler for pennies on the dollar. Officially the best I coud do would be to let someone know when one was put into the Grossmann recycle bin out back, maybe Grossmann would sell it to you for scrap costs, although they are HEAVY, not sure the weight but it would take at least 3-4 strong men to load one into a pickup truck.

around here I can point out 1-8ft sections of the rail, tie plates, thousands of low and high carbon spikes, and everything else they could possibly leave on my place.. used toilet paper included, (not a good alternate fuel fyi)..
all can be salvaged.. though im not sure its totally legal.

I don't have a lot of time but I will drop this down with an update to follow.

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.

I have ALOT more information regarding it, I have the whole "manufacture of rail" procurement document from the shop so is you want tensile strengths and such just let me know. I also have the guide on how to decifer the stamping on the side of rail to tell you which variety you have :)

I also have the guide on how to decifer the stamping on the side of rail to tell you which variety you have

OK...what have I got?

SSTreckFus, can you cite the document so I can squirrel that away with my spike specs and clip specs?

I'd be very thankful!

OK...what have I got?

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)

The (I) should indicate the grade perhaps (I) is a standard strength Intermediate flavor that my document doesn't mention. If so then the other numbers fit in the formula /layout correctly as heat number (360) and rail letter of ®.

If my guess is correct then it is a standard strength intermediate hardness (brinell 325) chunk of rail.

My document lists the 2003 standard so who knows what was going on previous that.

SSTreckFus, can you cite the document so I can squirrel that away with my spike specs and clip specs?

I'd be very thankful!

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

Here is a link to what the huge 4 binder set it came from looks like.

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

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

I will get you dimensions.

On the cost of switching out wheels vs track. You can switch out a wheel in a well supplied yard taking only the car out of commission. To switch out track it may be in the back of beyond, you have to haul all the people and equipment out there and back and you take the entire track out of comission.

Out here we have tracks that see use pretty much continuously and shutting them down is a major hassle---we had a bridge burn that caused a bunch of bruhaha.

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

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.

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 ---

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

BP0002 Junk Yard and Rail Road Steels

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