Arizona republican., 1912-08-11
RAILROAD RAILS CREEP
How the Steady Pounding Causes
 Them to Move

A railroad track, properly ballasted, bolted and fish plated, looks like one of the most solid structures in the world. That it would and can actu- ally creep forward-rails, ties and all seems incomprehensible Every double track railroad in the country, however, has to fight just such con- dition.
 Railroad rails will actually creep forward along the ties. Solid and ponderous as they are, the steel rails are not immune from the effects of heat or the steady pounding of long trains moving on them, always in the same direction.
 On the railroad tracks laid down over the Eads bridge this peculiar phenomenon may be observed any day in the week Rails creep just as rap idly over this structure in January as they do in August Many trains roar over this piece of track suspended over the Mississippi The constant pounding of these heavy trains and heavy engines sets the track a-creep- ing. Fifty feet of rails a month is cut from the east end of the east bound track and from the west end of the track over which the west bound trains pass.
 The rails travel about 22 inches every day all the year round. In about two years a given rail would wander all the way across the bridge. It has been necessary to put in a "creeper' device on one end and "a feed rail" on the other in order to keep the engines from coming down through an unexpected gap to the bridge floor.
 Heat has the same effect on a piece of railroad steel. It will cause it to elongate and press against the rails at either end. Once in while there is railroad wreck produced by just such a happening The hot sun pOurs
 into cut upon a cinder rOadbed or upon the rails out somewhere in the prairie and they begin to "kink" and
 twist under the glare. The next train that comes along at a 50mile-an-
 hour gait finds itself piled up in the ditch The rails have crept until
 they could creep no farther and then
 they tried to tie themselves into a knot asserts the St Louis Globe Democrat
 In wet weather the rails and ties
 on open track show the same ten dency to creep as do those on the
 Eads bridge tracks. Under the pounding propulsion of a heavy train they begin to slide forward, but in these cases they take the ties with
 them. The whole track moves for
 many inches and would continue to
 move indefinitely if the section gang failed to come along and true" them up again.
 Bridges and other stleel structures actually grow larger under the heat of a summer sun and contract under the chill winds and frosts of winter. Every railroad superintendent dreads the track troubles that are almost cer- tain to come~Nith hot weather. Soon CT or later some train is going to be derailed if the weather continues blaz- ing hot Any rail along the whole line may prove to be the one that will feel the heat worst and start to creep up against the rails at either end. Then, if track walker or section hand fails to find it in time there will be a derailment at that particular spot If the road is lucky it will be
 a freight train that will up-end and pile itself all over the right of way. If the luck is against them, it will be a flyer or a well filled excursion
 train
 Most engineers run with care on a hot day They are expecting "kink- ed" rails at any minute The engin- ger with good eye can spot kinky and twisted rail in time to at least cut down his speed. It will be easy to see on a stretch of straight track, for it will bow up like hoop in some instances If he fails to see it until almost upon it he shuts his eyes and hopes that all his string of cars, en-
 zine included. will take it on the run. If he is lucky enough to get over 1t without being derailed be reports it from the first telegraph station. The
 next man might not be so lucky.