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The earliest rail chairs, made of cast iron and introduced around 1800, were used to fix and support cast-iron rails at their ends; [2] they were also used to join adjacent rails. [ 35 ] In the 1830s rolled T-shaped (or single-flanged T parallel rail ) and I-shaped (or double-flanged T parallel or bullhead ) rails were introduced; both required ...
A railway track (CwthE and UIC terminology) or railroad track (NAmE), also known as permanent way (CwthE) [1] or "P Way" (BrE [2] and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers (railroad ties in American English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade.
Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron. All modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross section approximate to an I-beam, but asymmetric about a horizontal axis (however see grooved rail below). The head is profiled to resist wear and to give a good ride, and the foot profiled to suit the fixing system.
Cast iron rails, 4 feet (1.2 m) long, began to be used in the 1790s and by 1820, 15-foot-long (4.6 m) wrought iron rails were in use. The first steel rails were made in 1857 and standard rail lengths increased over time from 30 to 60 feet (9.1–18.3 m).
During the 1930s, a German engineer, Max Rüping, developed a resilient fastening to secure a rail to a sleeper. [11] In 1933, Rüping went into business with an American importer of Creosote named Oscar Max von Bernuth (O. M. Bernuth), founder of Bernuth-Lembcke Company. At the time, the fastening was known as the Elastic Rail Spike.
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct gauge.