Technology Digests / Final Results of Cold Weather Evaluation of Premium Rail Performance

TD23-028

April 8, 2024
Authors
  • Ananyo Banerjee
  • Ryan Alishio
  • Beatrice Rael
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Key Findings

  • During testing, these rails accumulated 361 MGT and experienced very cold temperatures but developed no internal fatigue defects.
  • During the testing period, there were no weld failures or removals on the high rail but there were four EFB weld removals, including failures, on the low rail.
  • No rail breaks occurred during the eight years of testing in cold weather conditions, indicating the participating rail types were resistant to long exposures of very low temperatures.
  • Minor differences in wear rate were observed among different rail types although differences were not statistically significant.

Final Results of Cold Weather Evaluation of Premium Rail Performance

From December 2014 through October 2022, MxV Rail evaluated the performance of seven different high strength (HS) or premium rail steels under cold weather conditions on a five-degree curve in Canada. The test was funded by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Strategic Research Initiatives (SRI) Program and the test site was provided by Canadian National (CN) Railway. Profiles were measured at different tonnage intervals to evaluate wear differences between different rail types over the duration of the test. Through the final inspection and measurement trip in October 2022, there were no internal rail defects detected on the high or low rail. In addition, there were no electric flash butt (EFB) weld failures on the high rail but there were four EFB weld removals, including failures, on the low rail that necessitated the installation of plug rails. Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) was observed on both the high and low rails…