, 1872-12-09

From the London Raitscay 1in<s.
1t Is hardly safe now to regard any estimate o1
iron rails Not that iron rails cannot be- made
that will show good wearing results, bGt from
the fact that, with very few exceptions. mona
are made. On the Boston & Albany Railroad
some u 900 tons Of iron rails were laid last year,
and Of this amount 800 tons have been removed
from the truck as useless or unsafe. Tho mar
ayers Of this road, in common with most others
having roads Of large trai1ie, have resolved to
adopt the use Of steel rails hereafter, and va
steel rails in Europe 1000 tons Of which will AZ
rive and be put On the track this season, and
the balance during the next summer.
The duration OF life Of rails depends Upon tna
quality of the iron OF which they ara made, and
upon the amount and speed Of the traffic pass
ing over them. The rails frat made in England
we're rolled from best No. cold blast mine iron,
run out in q fnery fire, puldled, shingled, rolled
into bays, and were cut piled, heated, and hat1-
uered into blooms and these were reheated md
rolled into rails. The result was material such
as is rarely seen upon our railways at the present
time. The old torty-fve pounds Reading rail
bore an immense traffic for twenty years, and 3
like character Of rail on the Boston & Provi-
dence Road lasted some thirty years, and
many Of these rails are now in use on the
road though not in exposed positions. Tee
iron at first used upon English roads in
many cases withstood from Is to 20 years Of
wear under an enormous tcntic. It was esti-
mated in l849 upon the ] on on and Northwest
ern Railway that so train; c tay for 20 years, or
$4,000 trains would wee out q 70-pounds rail.
With the material now pit into railway tracks,
however, no such service is obtained. Under
favorable conditions, good iron will last eight
years under an average traffic but with the M
terial commonly employed, from three to Bi1s
years is all that can be counted upon for roads
doing good amount Of work and the life OF
the iron upon the great routes is in many cases
less than this.
With regard to the life Of steel rails, every
thing here again depends upon the quality
OF the metal. 4 pair Of 2l-feet Bessemer
steel rails, upon the London i North
western Railway, outlasted sixteen faces OF
iron rail, being evenly worn to depth Of q
little over 3 quarter CT al inch; ha7ing in
about three years sustained the traffic Of up
ward Of $500, 900 engines and cars, or about 95,
900, 900 tons. This particular pair OF rails were
finally destroyed BY locomotive running off the
track, the wheels striking tho rails traversely
and badly bending and breaking them. It is es-
tmated that they would have endured at least
one-haH az much more tonnaGe hut for tue ac-
cident. So, too, upon the Philadelphia, Whining
ton 1, Baltimore Railway, good steel rail has
out1asted sixteen iron rails, the use Of both be-
ing the same, and on many other roads Of large
traffic tho Bame successful reau1.s have been
achieved Railwvy managers have to exercise
more care and discrimination in the quality Of
the rails they purchase, whether made OF iron
or steel. In fact, there is a good amount Of
pretty miserable stuff sold for steel rails, as
some Of the managers Of the New England roads
know to their cost.