The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 5 (September 1, 1928)

Rail Joint Experiments

Rail Joint Experiments.

For long it has been the constant endeavour of the permanent way engineer to devise an improved rail joint, which would give increased strength to the track and at the same time be simple in application. On the Home railways the suspended joint holds favour, but very shortly interesting developments are anticipated as a result of extensive experiments now being conducted by the London and North Eastern Line in the use of a combination of the suspended and supported types of joints with bridging pieces stretching between the pair of chairs at the junction. On the British railways, as a general rule, the joints of two rails are kept opposite to one another. Alternating, or “staggered” track is, however, utilised in certain isolated cases, as for instance on sharp curves where it is desirable to reduce the lateral strength of the road as little as possible at weak points.

To lengthen the life of the fishplate, thin metal strips are commonly employed to take the wear between surfaces, and the plates are usually changed periodically from end to end so as to equalise the wear. The annual lubrication of fished rail joints also has been taken up as a means of adding to track life. For this work both tar and recovered machine-oil are employed successfully.