| Posted by Gary on October 15, 2010 | |
It maybe be surprising to many folk but the rail head has to be of a certain machined profile to get the correct wheel / rail interface. Its practically as important as the lathed profile of a wheel. The reasons for this are numerous but the main ones are what's known as rail contact fatigue and / or gauge corner cracking, especially prevalent on curves where the wheel tries to re-roll the steel inside the "gauge corner" This causes cracking, "shelling" and leads to eventual rail failure with sometimes devasting consequences. If these tiny cracks are caught and ground out early enough, it prevents them from growing downwards through the head and so prolongs the life of the rail.
Hope that helps shed some light on the subject.
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