"This is Really Ugly! 7 1/2 Inches of the Rail Head Blew Out!" | Video 11m, 57s
Posted by:
WebDigger
()
Date: May 19, 2022 02:36PM
"
Here's something no one ever gets to see! Rail head is blown out for 7 1/2
inches and to make it worse, it's in a crossing. Action today shows how
the repair was made. Defect is called a split web. The web is the part
of the rail that is from the rail base to the rail head.
Split webs have been attributed to a seam in the web or damage on the web where
numbers are heat stamped into the rail, which was not the case in
this situation. Most likely this was originally initiated by the roller
straightening process during manufacture of the rail, or possibly
hydrogen flakes occurring in the web from the original rail, that
we will never know. Whatever the initial cause, then over the constant dynamic
forces of the train passing over it through the years caused the web to finally
split with the resulting end of the head and web separation.
The discolored portion of the rail web was caused by oxidation from
it having been broken at some point in the not too distant past."
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