http://www.omaha.com/money/railroads/to-boost-safety-u-p-using-superlong-rail-lengths-checking/article_35dbc5bc-9c13-50a2-b694-a0a100098a1b.html
"The Omaha-based railroad is now the first large U.S. railroad to employ superlong rail lengths to replace worn track. The 480-foot pieces of rail — one is the length of 1½ football fields — require 88 percent fewer welds than the current 80-foot standard pieces. Fewer welds mean fewer stress points and, Union Pacific hopes, fewer derailments — a particular concern now that shipments of ethanol, chemicals and crude oil are on the rise."
What steel company is going to roll the 480' sections? Aren't the Japanese and Europeans the only ones that produce lengths that long?
Reportedly UP has its own ship bringing 480-ft rails from Japan
http://maritime-connector.com/ship/pacific-spike-9681998/
They found it economical to design and build a ship to carry the rails and build a special port facility to handle them. No one in this country could make them more economically, if at all?
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I like the name of the ship ...
JoeBlow What steel company is going to roll the 480' sections? Aren't the Japanese and Europeans the only ones that produce lengths that long?
Does anyone in the U.S. still have a mill capable of rolling any kind of rail?
John Timm
From http://usa.arcelormittal.com/Our-operations/Long/Steelton/ :
"Steelton, one of only three rail producers in North and South America, is located along the Susquehanna River in Steelton, Pennsylvania, south of Harrisburg." [former Bethlehem Steel Co. plant - PDN] See also the fact sheet for this plant:
http://usa.arcelormittal.com/globalassets/arcelormittal-usa/our-operations/facility-fact-sheets/2014_steelton-fact-sheet.pdf
- Paul North.
Hasn't been to Pueblo, has he? Evraz/Rocky Mountain Steel Mill (old CF&I) can't make the stuff fast enough. I've been in the plant. They could roll 480' strings, but they don't. (more of a logistics and customer preference/ customer capability issue)
mudchicken: Does that length cause any new expansion problems or is the total welded length the same as when 80' sections are used?
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
schlimm mudchicken: Does that length cause any new expansion problems or is the total welded length the same as when 80' sections are used?
In today's Class 1 main tracks, just about the only things that aren't welded are insulated joints.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Here is some more info on the UP project in Stockton
http://aapa.files.cms-plus.com/UP%20Rail%20Welding%20Facility%20Project%20-%20Liz%20Blanchard,%20Port%20of%20Stockton.ppt
What's the common length of rail found on welded rail trains?
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
zugmann What's the common length of rail found on welded rail trains?
TTBOMK, 1320 ft.
Norm
zugmannWhat's the common length of rail found on welded rail trains?
I think it's been about a quarter-mile for some time, and (perhaps more importantly) will continue to be in future. My understanding is that the "480 foot lengths" are essentially feedstock for the long-rail fabrication facilities -- they will be welded into the same length of welded rail 'for laying' that the 80' units are; there will just be fewer welds involved in making the lengths (and hence fewer chances for rail defects of various types, specifically including metallurgical changes in head-hardened rail, to manifest themselves in service).
I suspect there will be relatively little deployment of the 480' pieces directly to tracklaying (for Thermite or electric field welding in situ). That would be consistent with reducing the variability of weld quality.
A question: Standard length for shipment to rail laying sites is 1320'; UP is buying 480' lengths; 3 x 480 = 1440, which leaves 120' over. This makes eight 120' lengths for every mile of track. Is this to be used where shorter lengths, such as at switches, are needed?
Johnny
As far as I know, 1440' has been a standard length for continuous welded rail in the United States for many years; I was just approximating by saying a quarter-mile.
A quick Google search on something like "1440 continuous welded rail" will turn up more references than need to be posted here. One of the first references mentions the Reading Railroad using this length, which will give you some idea on how long that's been an accepted value.
So: nothing 'left over' either with the long sticks, or with 80' (which you will notice also doesn't go evenly into 1320')
Thanks, Wizlish.
US mills used to roll 39-ft or (later) 78-ft rails, so where did the 1440 ft come from?
Most rail trains are using 1440 foot strings. BNSF has a pair (at least) of shorter 660 ft. string delivery trains from ATSF's side of the family. They usually were for branchline curve replacement or yard rail using cascaded down cropped rail. Rail often was pulled off the train with a big front end loader. Curious to see how the 480 ft rail gets handled coming out of the port. (special racks/ power threaders/ articulated gons?)
Seems like rolling 1440' or longer sections straight on to a train would better if your goal is to reduce welds.
rdamon Seems like rolling 1440' or longer sections straight on to a train would better if your goal is to reduce welds.
The trick is getting the 480 ft strings to the CWP.
More info and a video ...
http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/community_ties/2015/march/longrail.shtml
rdamon More info and a video ... http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/community_ties/2015/march/longrail.shtml
Too bad they didn't show them actually swinging rail over to the shuttle cars.
Much of the CWR in this area was done using 39' sticks (in many cases still with bolt holes...) welded together until they were long enough. There is some on the Chicago Line in Utica, NY, as well as on the St Lawrence Sub.
I agree that it's too bad that a US company couldn't be found to do the job...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
rdamonSeems like rolling 1440' or longer sections straight on to a train would better if your goal is to reduce welds.
There is much, much, much more involved in rolling modern rail than running a pass out of a continuous caster and out the door!
One of the three American producers of long rail, in Indiana, had an adjacent facility for producing long sticks -- they welded 5 320' pieces together in a special facility. I don't know how these welds were made or aftertreated, but buslist will.
Specific note by that mill that the weld locations are definitely a source of increased maintenance attention, but there are only four of them... and yes, as soon as the welding is done, you could roll the rail out the door and onto the rail train...
WizlishOne of the three American producers of long rail, in Indiana, had an adjacent facility for producing long sticks -- they welded 5 320' pieces together in a special facility. I don't know how these welds were made or aftertreated, but buslist will.
Steelton, PA has a similar facility that welds together rail for CWR trains.
Most rail orders are subject to the mill's terms, which typically has a provision that somewhere between 9% and 11% of the order may consist of "shorts" in length down to 22 ft. That results from the odd length pieces left over from the rolling of the ingot, and is mainly designed to enable as much yield as possible in the interest of overall economy (more utilization ==> lower price). Those shorts can be saved for use in a turnout - rather than cutting up a full-length rail - or to fill out a CWR 'string" to meet the required length, though with a few more welds than if all 39 ft. rails are used.
A few years back I had a project which required CWR 6,630 ft. long end-to-end for a ConRail branch. As 4 'strings', each would be about 1,658 ft., or from 340 to 220 ft. longer than the 1,320 or 1,440 lengths, respectively. A brief meeting with and explanation to the supervisor of the then-Lucknow (northern Harrisburg) rail welding plant easily resulted in 4 or 6 additional CWR cars being added to the train that was used to deliver it to us.
Anybody else here notice the irony or cross-purpose of:
I hope they have better luck than Southern Pacific did when they used Japanese rail in a replacement project on Tehachapi. I don't think that rail stayed in use for two years before it was all pulled up due to rail head seperation.
Hardening standards for rail used in Asia were just not comparable to US hardening rail requirements.
Steel Dynamics at Columbia City, Indiana is capable of rolling 320-foot-long rails, which can be welded together to make 1,650-foot-long rails
http://www.steeldynamics.com/products/rail/
Not sure I'd want to do business with a company that can't do math!
The site says the take 320-ft sections of rail and with FOUR welds they create 1650-ft rail... that would be 5 sections of rail with 4 welds to attach them in one long ribbon, so...
5*320=1600... where does the additional 50-ft come from?
Do they make the welds 12.5-ft long?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo5*320=1600... where does the additional 50-ft come from?
Fuzzy math.
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