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Many thanks for the excellent report, Darwin Bob! I found it very informative. The really scary thing is that it agrees with the back-of-a-napkin calculations from my first post: [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Darwin Bob On a railway the length of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway (1420km) this movement would be 16.3 metres for every degree of temperature change. It has been calculated that the rails are subjected to a temperature range of 45 degrees in Darwin and 74 degrees in Alice Springs. This would mean that the rails would expand and contract up to 1.2 km between the coldest night and hottest day during the year.[/quote] For one degree C of temp change, change in length = 0.000012 * 1420km * 1 = 0.017 km = 17 meters And for the full range of 74 degrees C, change in length = 0.000012 * 1420km * 74 = 1.26 km Now THAT's scary! I was even more interested in "Each clip exerts a load of about 2 tonnes onto the foot of the rail." That's WAY more than I calculated. Either my figures are way off (highly likely) or a very large factor of safety is employed (also highly likely). It would stand to reason that a much greater than average force should be used, as this type of situation could easily introduce stress concentrations. Interesting stuff, Scott Lothes Cleveland, Ohio
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