railroad track weldability?

[spotsineyes]

...to weld this stuff you need magnesium rod...

Manganese. Rails are manganese steel.

[ctrhenry]

having spent considerable time i the rail weld shop here in Nashville i can share this much. They butt weld ( resistance) 88 ft sections to make 1/4 mile lengths that are either resistance welded by machine in the field or thermite welded.

track comes in numerous grades. the best quality rail comes from japan.


the head ( thick section at top ) comes in varying degrees of hardness and
how much is hardened, some the whole head is hardened some just the top surface 1/2" deep

the better quality rail is used in the turns and at switches and crossings.


legally all R.R. rail is property of a rail line and none is commercially available even in scrap yards. likely what you can find is crane rail. which is the same but different.

If you show up at a scrap yard with sections of railroad track the FBI will come to see you.

[FusionKing]

If you show up at a scrap yard with sections of railroad track the FBI will come to see you.

Yea they busted me for copying vhs tapes

Seriously tho if I HAD RR rail I would not be dumb enuff to SCRAP them!!

BTW 88 ft!!! I would love to bring them to the scrapper just to see everyones reactions (except the FBI)

[ctrhenry]

watching them buttwelded together using 12 volts and 20k amps is amazing.

makes a heck of a flash around the weld when it shoves them together.


the cars that the 1/4 mile rails go on are really interesting.

pretty interesting to see how the sausage is made. you can see the 88 foot pieces stacked in the yard and the cars being loaded with finished rail

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=36.101579,-86.756094&spn=0.012899,0.027895&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=36.098539,-86.750759&panoid=VGn-OMVXvnh_0KxlV4q5ig

[WyoRoy]

legally all R.R. rail is property of a rail line and none is commercially available even in scrap yards. likely what you can find is crane rail. which is the same but different.

If you show up at a scrap yard with sections of railroad track the FBI will come to see you.

Hmmm...must come from the part of the country you're in. RR rail is readily available here at the local scrap yard. The RR sells their scrap sections to them quite regularly. If I had a use for it, and I don't, I'd head down to the office of the Roadmaster at the depot and talk him out of as much as I need out of his scrap pile prior to the next load going out. Haven't needed to do that since needing a couple of yards of the stuff for weight when I had to drive my old Ford van back to Minn. mid-winter to pick up my mother-in-law after she recovered from surgery for a brain aneurysm. The rail is useless for anything of a structural nature as it is quite limber...place both ends of a section of rail a foot and a half above the ground and 15' apart and it will sag to the ground in the middle...makes it easy to do curve re-lays. Running a ribbon rail train of 1/4 mile sections...50-80 sticks...is quite entertaining. You get to watch the rail pliantly follow the grade changes and curves as you go down the track.

They used to wire-feed and grind the switch points and frogs when they wore out, but I believe there were problems with health issues in the manganese welding process and now the weld and grind work is done quite sparingly.

Except for making nice bookends in short sections I'd leave the rail for better alternatives out of the scrap yard.

[ctrhenry]

The RR sells their scrap sections to them quite regularly

my point exactly.

[TerryL]

Used for rippers in Sudbury

I saw a show on the TV. A site in Sudbury is using the rail tracks as rippers on their CATS to break up slag. Said the slag was wearing the rail tracks down within a day. Also said the railway tracks were the hardest perhaps best they could get. The CAT had many patches on the blade from where the slag abraded through. May have been Monster Machines???
The store bought rippers they were using would only last a few hours.

[Sandy]

Manganese work hardens. High manganese content makes railroad steel a good choice for ripping/plowing in cobbly rocky or abrasive soils. At least as far as the ripper surface is concerned. The maganese hardens with each impact to the point where it becomes brittle and flakes off (at whatever level be it visual to macro) and exposes new steel only to begin the hardening process over and over again. Not sure how the overall shank would hold up with extreme bending twisting and torsion. It might get progressively more brittle also, then snap before it wears out ?? Too many different operating conditions and soil types to make blanket statements.

Another unknown is the fact it's used railroad steel to begin with. You don't really know the age nor service duty it endured before you put it into use.

[WyoRoy]

my point exactly.

Yep, and gives away as much as you need if you ask. Union labor to load steel scrap in lengths that the scrap yard has to cut down for shipment and sale doesn't make the transaction worthwhile for the RRs. They would be just as happy if I came and carted all their excess rail away for free as to have to pay employees to load, drive to the scrap yard and get a pittance for the product.

[Sberry]

something made from it.

[nfinch86]

nfinch86- Canadian Weldor :

Sberry, HI; Looks Very Strong, BUT A MITE HEAVY !!!! ..... Norm :

[Mr Bigs]

I don't recall the process name but on the subways here we cadweld the third rail but it is a similar process on the actual running rails.

[Sberry]

I usually move them around with the forklift.

[Mr Bigs]

I usually move them around with the forklift.

I worked in the subways for a while an we loaded the work train with material we needed for our jobs. One day their was a small section of track in our way and I tried to move it with the Pettibone and almost broke the forks off. I had no idea that stuff was so heavy.

[welderman23]

Try this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite

I'm a bit of a pyro and .....

of course you are. ant body that will buy an electric box that burns stuff together (or just burns it up) is a pyro