Does anyone out there know if there is accessible information about what axle loading various rail weights can support? Something like 30# rail can support 20,000#, 56# rail can support 36,000# and so on. Or if that is not out there, what would be a reasonable maximum loading for 30# to 75# rail in 5# increments?

Check a Porter catolouge if you can. I think they put a chart in there.

Tom C.

From a Baldwin catalog (I believe) which used to be online...

..."An approximate calculation it may be assumed that steel rails, properly supported by cross ties, can sustain, as a maximum, a weight per wheel of 225 - 300 lbs. for each pound per yard of rail" It goes on to give an example of 40# rail x 300 = 12,000 lbs. It uses this calculation for determining the axle loading of a given locomotive for a given rail wt. It works out to 1,500 for every 5#.

So, for 30# rail it would be 9,000
56# 16,800
74# rail it would be 22,200
80# " " " " 24,000
107# " " " " 32,100
130# " " " " 39,000

And so on.

Thanks, Ray

I think that is a per wheel number though, so if you double it you get axle loading, or take off the three zeros, you get it in tons. That would seem to be correct, given that the engines that I was thinking about ran on 60-65# rail with an axle load of 36,000#, and were known to creep on 56# sidings occasionally.

It is important to remember these numbers are not cast in stone. I have seen both 2101 and 614 turned on 85 pound rail in Martinsburg, WV several times. I think both of these engines have axle weights in the upper 60,000 pound range. In Fayetteville, NC CSX runs daily a SD-40 as the yard engine which runs most of the day on 70 and 85 pound rail moving cuts of cars including 286,000 pound cars. They also run the heaviest EMD and GE whatever those ugly new locomotives are on these tracks daily with relatively few broken rails. To say the track is marginally maintained is an understatement.

On the Aberdeen and Rockfish we still have a siding with 60 pound rail in Cliffdale. When we were storing loaded plastic cars a few years ago this track was full of 286,000 pound cars that were switched pretty frequently. We were running those cars to Cliffdale on mostly 75 and 80 pound rail at 25 mph on grades as steep as 3 percent. I remember no broken rails during these moves. In our records there is mention of a siding being used to double over coal trains in the sixties with GP locomotives as heavy as a GP-38 that they eventually replaced the 35 and 40 pound rail with 80 pound rail.

The bottom line is you can run just about anything you have on these rail sections if they are halfway supported. The smaller, older rail does not seem to be all that brittle. What it does not do as well as larger rail is hold gage and surface. You will have to replace the ties more frequently and in larger quanties under small rail and surface the railroad more frequently but you can run trains on it.

John Bohon

John -

I remember a fantrip on the Burlington in the 1960's where the theme of the trip was the way freight that operated between Aurora (Enola) and Oregon, Illinois. The idea I think was that steam (2-8-2 #4960) would be the motive power for the trip, hauling the regular freight cars, the short combine the train usually used, and then passenger cars on the rear for riders. The popularity of the trip soon demanded that 4-8-4 #5632 be the motive power instead of the Mike and I recall the big Northern actually treading down a light rail industrial siding spotting a boxcar. I was worried that the rail wouldn't support the O5B, but she just took it easy and had no problems. The wayfreight also regularly worked the light rail branch from Oregon on up to Mt. Morris, Illinois, but the 4-8-4 didn't work that line that day. No use taking any more chances than necessary!

Les