Is 1940 the oldest rail on a very busy mainline?

[FJ and G]

Waiting for my VRE train yesterday at Crystal City, I noticed the rail, made by Steelton, was 1940. Some replacement rails are sitting on the ROW, to replace those.

I noticed the next track over had Steelton 2006 rails and the head of the rail was about twice as thick as the 1940s rails.

This is the ole RF&P, now CSX, which sees dozens of trains a day, being the only coastal north-south rail corridor in the U.S. I'm surprised the rails lasted so long!

Simply incredible!

(I can try & take a photo this evening if anyone is interested)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Waiting for my VRE train yesterday at Crystal City, I noticed the rail, made by Steelton, was 1940. Some replacement rails are sitting on the ROW, to replace those.

I noticed the next track over had Steelton 2006 rails and the head of the rail was about twice as thick as the 1940s rails.

This is the ole RF&P, now CSX, which sees dozens of trains a day, being the only coastal north-south rail corridor in the U.S. I'm surprised the rails lasted so long!

Simply incredible!

(I can try & take a photo this evening if anyone is interested)

Pictures would be great, especially comparing the 2006 rail head to the 1940.

As a side note, I mentioned on here a while back that I saw a lot of vintage 1944 rail on a local mainline, which was fairly interesting given that the name plate on one of the bridges it crossed dated the bridge to 1955.


Someone pointed out to me that just because the date of rail mfg was 1944, that was no indication that it was layed there in that year.

Possibility that the rail in question had first been installed on some lightly used siding, for years, then pulled up and sent to the CWR fabricator, for re-use.

(fwiw)

[silicon212]

The Phoenix line on UP is laid almost exclusively (through Phoenix and Mesa) with jointed CF&I 113lb "head free" rail dated 1951. This becomes CWR east of McQueen.

[FJ and G]

OK TAG,

I'm going out to take pictures. Will return in an hour or so...

[FJ and G]

Well, I didn’t make it in time to take the photos as they’re yanking rails pretty quick like, so I took some of these “Lionel” photos. Also, notice that the lawn needs mowing. [:D]

[Anonymous]

Ohh well...we tried.

Interesting pictures you did take. Out of curiousity on the top one, what is the cement structure in the foreground An abandoned warehouse dock?

[FJ and G]

a noise abatement wall just behind the water garden park in Crystal City [:D]

[Anonymous]

If I can ask., what the heck is " Crystal City"?

[FJ and G]

It is where billions of your tax dollars go; to Govy contractors and military civilians. It's actually a fancy name for a section of Arlington, Va., close to the Pentagon.

[Anonymous]

I see... So does CSX paint their bridges in that part of the country? [}:)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

I see... So does CSX paint their bridges in that part of the country? [}:)]

[:D][:D]

[tree68]

Wish I could remember the dates on the rail I checked a few years ago on the CSX Montreal Secondary. Not the heaviest of traffic, but traffic nonetheless. It does seem as though there was at least some 1940's vintage rail, and maybe earlier. This is obviously recycled as the bolt holes are very plain to see, right next to the welds.

[Anonymous]

I SAW 1936 LACKAWANNA RAIL ON CSX MAIN LINE TWO WEEKS AGO

[mudchicken]

You will see 1937-1940 rail in secondhand CWR. Earlier than that is Open Hearth (OH) rail that was a risk to leave in the main track. (Great on branchlines, but less traffic = less risk)....After 1937, the Controlled Cooling (CC) came into being which was the standard into the 1990's for heavy haul rail.

You don't want stuff in your main track with OH rail because of the imperfections, occlusions, air voids and piped rail that were common. Broken OH rails were common.

[Anonymous]

There's rail from the 1920s and 30s on the mainline through the yard in my town.

[Anonymous]

I was amazed by something I saw this evening. heavily traveled rail and in this curved section was "Nippon Steel" rail dated 1988, where the inside edge of the outside rail was worn so bad that it looked like someone had ground a 30 degree chamfer off the load bearing corner of the railhead. Not only that, but all along this worn area were pieces of rail "peelings about 2 feet long, half an inch wide, and about as thick as a playing card, laying on the ties where they had sheared off.

As the track came out of the tightest radius, into a more gradual sweep, the angled area worn away straightened back up, but had a "mushroomed" lip that was being deformed off the inside edge.

All this, and there was a flange greaser nearby, but evidently not doing enough.

There is a piece of rail that won't last 60 years, I feel fairly sure.

[Anonymous]

On the subject of old rail, take a look at this link. Scroll down to the 2nd picture. The rail is dated 1902!
http://www.angelfire.com/mb2/socalrailfan/Santa_Ana_Branch_6.html

[Anonymous]

On track 5 (a little pocket track used by Danbury Local) at South Norwalk, CT on the Metro North New Haven Line the track is from 1932. It sees about 12 trains a day and about 200 on the next track over

[FJ and G]

Hey guys,

On my VRE trip home last night the sun was at a better angle and I was able to make out the 1940 date before the rail was pulled and replaced with the rusty center rail pictured above in this post.

This is one photo. On the first photo, it is normal. The second same photo was cropped in and I used contrast filter in photoshop to bring out the date.

[Tharmeni]

The track into Tampa Union Station (Amtrak and CSX) has just a few segments of 1936 rail.

[trainboyH16-44]

How about other lines? What's the oldest rail we've seen there?
On the CP branch though High river, there are a few rails from as early as 1906..