Rail Profile - Rail Weights and Sizes

Rail Weights and Sizes

The weight of a rail per length is an important factor in determining rails strength and hence axleloads and speeds.

Weights are measured in pounds per yard or kilograms per metre; the pounds-per-yard figure is almost exactly double the kilograms-per-metre figure. Rails in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States are described using imperial units. In Australia, metric units are used as in mainland Europe.

In rail terminology Pound is used synonymously with pounds per yard, e.g. a 132 pound rail means a rail of 132 lb/yd.

Read more about this topic:  Rail Profile

Famous quotes containing the words rail and/or weights:

    If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they will—the very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.
    William Hazlitt (1778–1830)

    This is essentially a People’s contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)