The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-10
STEEL RAILS MADE NEW.
Las Vegas Optic Describes the Work
of the Santa Fe Rail Saw.
IFrom the Las vegas Optic.l

From the Las Vegas Optic
One out of the six rail saws in exist
ence in the United States or in the
world, for that matter, is now being OPP
Grated in the railroad yards at Las
Vegas. 1t is owned by the Santa Fe
Railroad company and IS built upon a
freight car, so that it may be operated
one day in Chicago and a few days
thereafter in this city or in San Fran
eisco-when the road gets to the latter
place.
The rail saw is really no saw at all.
It is a disc of soft steel, probably two
feet or more in diameter, revolving at a
tremendous speed. 1t has no teeth.
Friction instead of teeth cuts the hard
steel in the rails.
The operation is simple enough. The
boiler, engine and saw stand on a side
old railroad iron is pushed alongside
and the rails are hoisted one by one on
a. set of pulleys and fed into the saw.
A stream of water is kept running con-
tinualIy on the saw, otherwise the heat
produced would burn the saw up in
very short order.
The man who feeds the saw does the
work mechanically His hat is pulled
down over his eyes and ears and he
has the collar of his blouse buttoned up
close around his neck as though the
weather were cold. AS a further pro-
lection he wears a generously large pair
of goggles and keeps his ears stuffed
with cotton. He wears a pair of gloves
in the bargain.
Inc IallS are I06C IN length,
but piece a foot long is taken off of
each end, reducing the length to twenty
eight feet. After this they are carried
to one side, where the customary holes
for the bolts are bored by a huge ma
chine. Then the rail is thrown off the
car and slides along a framework, where
each one is inspected, the rough ends
filed down and the accepted ones finally
loaded on cars waiting on a sidetrack
All along the line of road from La
Junta westward there are thousands of
old rails lying. They. were replaced
not long since by heavier iron. Large
engines and heavy trains made ninety
pound rails necessary and the sixty
pound rails were discarded. These are
now being loaded on fiat cars and taken
to the rail saw operated here The ends
are flattened or split in many instances
and the saw reneWs the life of the rail
in this regard. Finally they are used
in switches and sidetracl1s and places
where traffic is light, being nailed to
the ties in opposite order to which they
were originally placed. To all intents
and purposes the rail is a new one.
The rail saw was first used at New
ton, Kan, and was then brought here.
It was operated for several months in
the early part of the season, but was
shut down when the order for retrench-
ment came in the month of May. Dur
ing it's idleness car load after car load
of old rails was unlOaded at the rail
saw and piled up. Car load after car
load is being taken there now, so that
the saw is kept busy and the piled-up
rails have not been touched upon. From
300 to 400 rails per day are run through
the process of regeneration. The rail
saw has found the secret that Ponce de
Leon sought for in vain. Sixty rails
are loaded on each fiat car. The best
time that has been made by the saw
happened a few days ago when forty
one rails were sawed in forty minutes.
Remember that two cuts are made on
each rail.
Twenty-one hands are employed at
the rail saw in various capacities,
making a pay roll of 81 500 q month.