railroad iron...... how?

[welder_one]

in this dredge that i am rebuilding (sorry, non-dislosure, therefore no pics) they are using railroad tracks as part of the classifier to sort out the bigger rip-rap sized rocks from the sand.... the tracks are worn down to nothing and job boss wants me to splice in new pieces tomorrow..... ive heard that rail tracks are funky monkey stuff to weld..... i would kinda like to know what i should be using to weld these together.... (smaw only) also understand that these will be getting pounded non-stop by rocks and whatever else comes up from the bottom of the river.... they are feeding this box with a 22 inch discharge pipe and its powered by a 18 inch centrifugal slurry pump.... so these rocks, sand and civil war musket lead is coming out with some decent force

i have though about using splice plates (fish plates, i guess) or can rail tracks even be welded?

[kevin]

racks

i once built steel racks out of them, but that a far cry from a dredge, i tried to break up the racks with my old 1955 case si tractor, no luck in breaking them apart, i was surprised, i used 7018, no pre heat and they held together

[Sberry]

I have welded a lot of stuff to them, used lo-hi, anvil type stuff and pounded on after, never had a crack. They are made of steel, must be able to weld them.

[Finney]

welder_one,
Years ago we butt welded RR tracks with 110/18. We preheated, but I cannot remember how much.

[Hillbilly69]

Little R&R

Interesting job

My brother in law fixes track for a living. I've asked him in general conversation he said they use Thermite. Thermite welds track together using a special mold. Don't know if the Thermite has added alloying elements or not (Maybe No Filler Alloy?).

I would imagine RR tracks are High Alloy and High Carbon. Preheat Post Heat at least. Good Luck

[LarryO]

The guys at work join switch gear and stuff on rail track with 316L-16, 4mm rods, dont know amps, no pre heat but the multi passes would help keep heat in.

Some pics are on this thread http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=29358.

[W Welding]

I welded them together to fab a rock screen for a gravel pit. Its used to sort boulders over 6". I used 11018 with no preheat, still holding after 5 yrs.

[GerryR]

The tracks were made from 4140 steel, if I recall properly, so those welding procedures apply.

[welder_one]

I welded them together to fab a rock screen for a gravel pit. Its used to sort boulders over 6". I used 11018 with no preheat, still holding after 5 yrs.

that is almost exactly what this is.... and it welded up with 9018, and i used ms splice plates on both sides of each joint.... if it dont hold, ima quit my day job and just start working the street corners

[Jim-TX]

welder_one,

I have a good friend that used to be a welder for Santa Fe RR. We have discussed welding rails. He said they use Thermite and he's also used 11018 rods. If you need more particulars on how to weld the rails, I'd be happy to ask him for you. Let me know.