Patent ID: 7972451

Claim:
A method of heat treatment for a pearlitic steel rail containing 65 to 1.40 mass % C and excellent in wear resistance and ductility, comprising: applying finish hot rolling so that the temperature of the rail surface is in the range from 850° C. to 1,000° C. and the sectional area reduction ratio at the final pass is 6% or more; applying accelerated cooling to the web portion of said steel rail at a cooling rate in the range from 2 to 20° C./sec. and to the head and base portions of said steel rail at a cooling rate in the range from 1 to 10° C./sec, from the austenite temperature range to a temperature not higher than 650° C., within 100 sec. after the finish hot rolling; controlling the number of the pearlite blocks having grain sizes in the range from 1 to 15 μm so as to be 200 or more per 0.2 mm 2 of observation field at least in a part of the region down to a depth of 10 mm from the surface of the corners and top of the head portion; and reducing the amount of pro-eutectoid cementite structures forming in the web portion of the rail so that the number of the pro-eutectoid cementite network intersecting two line segments each 300 μm in length crossing each other at right angles (the number of intersecting pro-eutectoid cementite network, NC) at the center of the centerline in the web portion of the rail satisfies the expression NC≦CE, wherein CE is defined by the following equation: CE= 60([mass % C])+10([mass % Si])+10([mass % Mn])+500([mass % P])+50([mass % S])+30([mass % Cr])+50, and wherein the method is further characterized in that, at the finish rolling in the hot rolling of said steel rail, continuous finish rolling is applied so that two or more rolling passes are applied at a sectional area reduction ratio of 1 to 30% per pass and the time period between the passes is 10 sec. or less.