Rail Support (sleeper/tie)
Main article: Railroad tieA railroad tie (also called a cross-tie in North American usage, or a railway sleeper outside North America) is a rectangular object on which the rails are supported and fixed. The tie has two main roles: to transfer the loads from the rails to the track ballast and the ground underneath, and to hold the rails to the correct width apart (to maintain the rail gauge). They are generally laid transverse (perpendicular) to the rails.
Read more about this topic: Track (rail Transport)
Famous quotes containing the words rail and/or support:
“We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism. He who keeps shop on it, or he who merely uses it as a support to his desk and ledger, or to his manufactory, values it less.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)