The Day Of The Heavy Rail.

The history of the rail is an interesting theme for it reveals the tendency of railway development. Statisties showing the extent to which light rails are giving place to rails of heavier weight in the United States have just been published. They show that 1,636,631 tons of rails of 100 lb. and over were turned out by the rail manufacturers in 1925, as compared with 1,465,850 tons in 1923—before which year the output was less than 100,000 tons. The introduction of increasingly large and mere powerful locomotives explains the necessity for the use of these heavy rails during recent years. The weight of rails per yard has been increasing steadily since 1830. In that year rails of 33 lb. and 35 lb. were used. These were replaced by 50 lb. and afterwards by 65 lb. rails. In 1914 rails of 85–90 lb. were being used for general traffic purposes, with, however, a considerable mileage of main and heavy traffic lines using rails weighing 100 lb. and even 125 lb. At the present time weights of 130 lb. and 136 lb. are coming into use. In 1925 the tonnage of less than 50 lb. rails which was rolled was a bare 164,000 tons, the tonnage between 50 lb. and 85 lb. was 220,000 tons, 85–100 lb. rails totalled nearly 800,000 tons, while 100 lb. and heavier rails accounted for 1,637,000 tons out of a gross total for the year of nearly 2,800,000 tons.