Soft Steet Rails.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4343, 1 December 1882, Page 2

Soft Steet Rails.

Professor Grruner's conclusions in favor of soft steel for rails, have been confirmed by the practical researches of M. Escalle, an engineer who has just laid an interesting report on the subject before the Societe; do l'lndustrie Minerale. The material laid down on the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean railway in 1880 has undergone a thoroughly successful revision. The rails, which wem found intact, were of soft steel, inasmuch as they contained carbon, 0*499 per cent.; manganese, 0658 ; phos* phorous, 0 150; and sulphur, o'o2o. They seldom fracture, even under a steam hammer of 150 kilogrammes wi,th a fall of _5 metres. French rails are not in faror in the United States, where softer steel in used, and the material is much more serviceable. Calculating the durability of the rails according to the wear and tear, M. Escalle finds that French rails will last upwards of 80 years on the most fatigued sections, stations and tunnels being excluded from the calculation. The softer American rails, in his opinion, will remain serviceable fora-period of 125 years, atod tlie harder 140 years/ He also recalls the fact that the iron tires produced from the slightly phosphorous pig of the Toulte Company last longer than the granular iron tires manufactured from the phosphorous pig of the centre and east of France.