Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-23
HEAVIER RAILS.
Progress Made In Roadbcds, Tracks
ana Rolling stock.

| The new rails which the Pennsylva-
MIA company is laying on all its main
lines fairly illustrate the remarkable
| progress of recent years in railroad
science, says the Now York Sun. They
are of steel and they weigh eighty-five
pounds to the yard. Twenty years ago
an iron rail weighing fifty-six pounds
| per yard was considered largo enough
| to carry tho heaviest aud fastest
trains in safety. Now iron rails
| are no longer made, the weight of
| rolling stock in common use has doubled,
| the speed OF trains has greatly in
| creased and massive steel rails gridicon
the country. The record of the change
made on the Pennsylvania lines is a fair
| illustration of the progress made. In
1868 the company began introducing the
| English steel rail, weighing tifty-six
| pounds to the yard, in place OF the iron
rail previously in use. These first steel
rails were OF the same general shape as
those used now. They stood four and
one-half inches high, and the
first cost was somewhat in
| manufacture. Experience proved that
the life of the steel rail was fully three
times that of the iron rail. AS soon as
| this became apparent the occupation of
iron rail makers was gone. They
| didn't know how to make STEEL rails in
this country then; or, rather, they
couldn't make them as good and as
| cheap as those turned out by the, Eng
| lish mills. The result was AN immense
| importation of steel rails for several
years. Then American ingenuity solved
| the problem, and now domestic steel
rails are as good and as cheap as the
English. Anyhow the American mar
| ket is now almost closed to English
steel rail makers. The English fifty
six pound rails were used by the Penn
sylvania company until 1874 or 1879.
| Then u siXty-nine pound rail was sub
stituted. and that size was the standard
on the main lines of the company for
nearly ten years. Early in the present
decade came heavier locomotives and
heavier cars, and with them came II ne
cessity for heavier rail.
In 1884 a 75-pound steel rail four
inches and three-quarters high and
with somewhat broader base was
adopted. Many of these rails are still
in use, and they are larger and heavier
than the average rail in use through
the country. But the tendency Is still
toward heavier rolling stock and greater
speed, and within year or two the
Pennsylvania company has been substi-
tuting an S5-pound rail for the 75-pound
rail on its main divisions as fast as n
change was necessary. Tho new rail
stands five inches high, has some
what broader base than its predecs-
sor, and it is believed to be
large enough and strong enough to
carry any train running at the highest
speed scheduled. These rails are made
by the Pennsylvania steel company,
one of the four great concerns that
make nearly all of the steel rails in the
country. The life of these rails on the
main line Of the New York division of
the Pennsylvania road, between Jersey
City and Philadelphia, it is estimated
will be between six and eight years.
No main line of road in the country is
in more constant use for heavy traffic
than are these tracks. The new rail
has already supplauted the seventy-fve
pound rail on the greater part of the di-
vision. er
Representatives of the makers of
some of the big rails now coming into
general use said yesterday that the ten
dency toward the use of heavier rails
by the great railroads is universal.
The change is demanded not SO much
by the increase in speed as by the in
crease in weight of rolling stock, which
has been in much greater proportion.
Nearly all roads which used Il fifty-siX-
pound or sixty-pound rail ten years ago
are adopting "a seventy-pound or seven
ty-five-pound rail now. The life OF
heavy rail is somewhat longer in pro-
portion to its weight than that
of a light one; hence. the
economy in the adoption of the
former. The price of rails per ton is
practically the same, whether So
pound or Il 75-pound rail be purchased.
1t requires IS 2,240-pound tons OF Sc
pound rails per mile and 1lS tons of To-
pound rails for the same distance. The
life of n rail depends on the amount of
use to which it is put, but it is n fact
that rail in ordinary use lasts much
longer than one used very little or not
ut all. just as n war ship in active SER
vice will outlast two or three that lie in
a dockyard, SO the steel rail will wear
out much more slowly than it will rust
out and dcteriOrate.
The question whether rails will grow
still more massive is interesting The
heaviest rail in use on any
main line in this country is
one OF ninety pounds per yard, recently
laid on some portions of the Reading
road where the traffic is heaviest. One
or two English lines are experimenting
with l0O-pound rail, but American rail-
road men don't see the advantage to be
gained by the use of such massive
track where the rolling stock is much
lighter than in this country. The
New York Central is said to be using IA
ll0-pOund rail in one or two OF its bust
est yards where the constant shifting
of trains keeps up continual wear and
tear upon the track. 1t seems to be the
general opinion that nothing is to be
gained by increasing the size OF rails
above eighty-iiye or ninety pounds until
there is a further marked increase in
the speed and weight of trains. The
reason for this opinion lies in the fact
that the wearing out OF a rail does not
consist in merely grinding away half
inch or so from its top surface. II il did
the age of rail might be indefinitely
increased by adding to the thickness Of
its head. After IA few years use rail
begns TO splinter on the edges, TO wear
away on the inside, and TO become grad
ually misshapen aud rough. 1t is OF no
advantage, therefore, to increase its
original size beyond certain point,
with the speed aud weight OF trains now
in use.
The price Of steel rails Is kiting Just
now. Within a month it has advanced
from 1913 To about S32 per ton, and it is
said the figure will jump another dollar
to-day. No company will name price