Steels for Rails

H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia

Abstract

This article is a short review of new developments in the technology and design of rail steels. A comprehensive review is listed below.

Encyclopedia of Materials Science: Science and Technology, eds K. Buschow, R. W. Cahn, M. C. Flemings, B. Iischner, E. J. Kramer and S. Mahajan, Pergamon Press, Elsevier Science, ISBN 0-08-0431526, 2002, pp. 1-7.

Single copies may be downloaded and printed only for the reader's personal research and study.

The article is reproduced with the permission of Pergamon Press, an imprint of Elsevier Science.

Pearlite

Publications

• Steels for rails (66 pages, 42 Mb)
• "Effect of vanadium alloying on the wear resistance of pearlitic rails"
  Wear 436-437 (2019) 203004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2019.203004
  W. Solano-Alvarez, L. Fenandez Gonzalez and H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia
  
• "Synchrotron and neural network analysis of the influence of composition and heat treatment on the rolling contact fatigue of hypereutectoid pearlitic steels"
  Materials Science & Engineering A 707 (2017) 259-269.
  W. Solano-Alvarez, M. Peet, E. J. Pickering and J. Jaiswal and A. Bevan and H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia
  

Wear and microstructure relationships in carbide-free bainitic rails steels

Ph.D. thesis, by Cathering Erica Pitt, University of Cambridge, 1999

Thesis

Bainite transformation and novel bainitic rail steels

Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, by Liou Chun Chang, 1995

Thesis

The Wear of Bainitic and Pearlitic Steels

Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, by John Ernst Garnham, 1995

Introduction Bainitic Steel Contact Mechanics Wear Damage Amsler Testing Leros Testing Wear Results Microstructures Discussion Conclusions and Future

Wear

The following image has been provided by Kevin Sawley, who ran trials of an experimental bainitic rail steel on heavy-haul track in the USA. The steel was had the chemical composition Fe-0.26C-2Mn-1.8Si-1.9Cr-Mo-B. It had an as-rolled hardness of about 415 Brinell and toughness of about 50 MPa m^1/2. The spectacular picture that shows conventional head-hardened pearlitic rail flash-welded to the carbide-free bainitic rail following a trial in which 90 million gross tons of traffic traversed in a sharp curve. The superiority of the carbide-free bainitic rail is fairly clear.

The work was done at Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

Rails (images)

• Joining of Rails
• Visp, Switzerland
• Steel in Manchester Piccadilly Rail Station
• Linz, Austria
• Laying of tram rails in Finland
• Trams in Linz, Austria

Rails (slides)

• Carbide-free rails

Movies of Trains

• Bullet train in Tokyo, Japan.
• Shinkansen
• Train in Calcutta Station
• Coal train in Jamshedpur, India
• Underground train station, Picadilly Circus, London
• Underground train arriving, Picadilly Circus, London
• On escalator, Holborn Underground Station, London

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