How often are rails replaced

How long to rails last before they have to be replaced. Two years? Ten years? I assume it's always done in the dead of night.

Do light-rail rails last longer/less than Red-line rails? When they replace rails in pavement, do they completely re-do the paved area or do they just patch it up?

i've heard the typical lifespan for rail is 40 years.

I was looking at Green Line rails from 1980 today.

How long and after how many years should a rail be replaced? I was on the B&A mainline and I saw a section of rail from 1941 that hadles between 30 and 40 trains a day. I would have thought this would ave been replaced already. What is the average lifespan?

Somtimes you see 80 or 100 year old rail around on low-traffic RR lines. I imagine you'd find rail like that on some T- or state-owned lines not currently used for commuter rail service, like the line beyond Needham Heights. Sometimes it's been relayed from somplace else. I wonder if the T has any areas (yards? Mattapan line?) that have gotten old rail relayed from elsewhere, or that have kept old rail much longer than other places.

Lots of factors go into the answer. How heavy was the rail to start with? How good are the ties under it? Is on a curve or tangent? (curve rail wears faster) How much traffic is going over it? What kind of traffic and at what speed?

Rail itself does not decay or wear out from age alone. There are places where rail from the very early 1900's is still in regular use on a siding or branch. But you would probably not want to run 286K unit coal trains at 40 MPH over it. On the other hand, in places where you have heavy tonnage, many trains and difficult terrain, even new rail on curves has to be changed in a few years.

I have heard that rail on curves on high-density freight lines only lasts a few years before needing to be replaced.

The Mattapan Line I believe had new rail put in back in the '80s.

The T reuses old rail for third rails, but I don't know about anywhere else (except for some special work that was relayed up at Seashore Trolley Museum).

So it all depends on the circumstance. Interesting. Then that leads me to question the batch of rail I have seen. Here is a pic of one of the manufacturing marks on a rail.
I'm not sure how heavy it is built it is on a straight track and sees around 20 commuter rail trains a day at 30+ MPH and around 10-20 freights of mainly intermodal traffic at around 50 MPH. The engines handled by it are GP40, ES44, AC44. Also Amtrak at around 70MPH goes by.

atsf sp wrote:So it all depends on the circumstance. Interesting. Then that leads me to question the batch of rail I have seen. Here is a pic of one of the manufacturing marks on a rail. I'm not sure how heavy it is ...

If you had moved that camera a little to the left you would have seen a set of numbers that indicate the weight of the rail (expressed in pounds per yard), and some letters indicating the section (which is the particualr cross section of that rail). I'd be willing to bet that with the traffic you described and the date it is probably 140 RE, 132 RE or if you are in ex-NYC territory 127 DY.

DAW

It is ex-NYC.

It depends on where the rail was used.

Rail on curves could be replaced every few years because of wear. On a curve, the wheel flange presses against the rail head more then it does on a straight section of track.



When you get rail like that, its a derailment hazard.


Straight rail could last a few decades, since there should be almost no sideways force against the rail head. The friction between the steel wheel and the steel rail is very low (One of the reasons metal rails and metal wheels were introduced in the first place.)

As to when it's replaced, a lot of work on CSX is done during the day. On the other hand, I've seen the transit trains in Cleveland having the rails replaced at night. It's a real b**ch when you come around a corner in the dark and they've got their portable light towers set up. Damn near blinds you and you can't see the next signal.

BR&P wrote:Lots of factors go into the answer. How heavy was the rail to start with? How good are the ties under it? Is on a curve or tangent? (curve rail wears faster) How much traffic is going over it? What kind of traffic and at what speed?

Rail itself does not decay or wear out from age alone. There are places where rail from the very early 1900's is still in regular use on a siding or branch. But you would probably not want to run 286K unit coal trains at 40 MPH over it. On the other hand, in places where you have heavy tonnage, many trains and difficult terrain, even new rail on curves has to be changed in a few years.

I was told that the rails at curves switch around or moved to another curve to use the unaffected side of the rail. and that the mainline rails would be saved to be used for sidings or branches rail replacements.

Was I told correctly? or just one of these damn "Mr. KNOW-IT-ALL" BS comments?

I can not say for sure about lite/commuter rails. But I understand, Conrail had the practice of replacing CWR after 20 years of service. CSX, I have been told, holds CWR to 30 years. (CWR - Continous Welded Rail) One must also consider the traffic density and curvtures which may cause excessive wear faster in some areas. Where track inspections, including electronic, laser and x-ray surveying may determine an earlier replacement. The night time replacement for lite rail makes sense. They are trying to reduce the impact of delays on the trains and commuters. Freight railroads generally run more trains during evening and night hours, so day time work delays would have less impact than nights and daylight is certainly safer for all crews (train and work gangs) involved.

The rails recently removed from the St. Lawrence Subdivision had 1945 on the web of the rail.