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What kind of steel are railroad tracks made from?

What kind of steel are railroad tracks made of?

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    These other guys got here before me, so I won't elaborate since they already did. I know that all three of us are engineers, but I'm beginning to wonder if the other two ever work. They always answer before I can. Anyway, yeah, the rails are a rather mild steel. A 70 pound rail (70 pounds per yard) can flex as much as 3 inches vertically over 3 feet horizontally, in extreme circumstances, and not break. Most Class 1 railroads use heavier rails though, and I don't know how much they can flex. If you look closely at my avatar, there's a kink in the track. That gives you an idea of how flexible the rails are.

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oddly enough it is quite mild steel rail has to undergo a tremendous amount of impact, expansion and contraction the RR's have tried to use high carbon hardened steel but it is too brittle and prone to breaking the mild steel they use wears significantly, especially in heavy curves so they install greasers at intervals in curving territory so squirt a small amount of grease on each wheel flange as it passes, this reduces rail wear quite a lot. Rail will get "corrugated" very similar to washboard on a gravel road so they have a large grinding machine that comes along periodically and resurfaces the rail to smooth and proper profile. All very expensive but so is replacing rail.

Rango

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