Dec. 02, 2024
Yongyang contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.
Jun 15,
This is an informational post, please check the rail joint page if you are searching for the product.
rail fish plate or joint bar, is one of several railway components. It takes on the task of connecting two rails and usually installed with fish bolt and nuts. Rail joint is one of the weak links in the whole railway track structure. So and how many different types of rail joint. Today, we will discuss the second one-- How many different types of rail joints.Three Factors Affecting Classification
Rail joint , also calledor, is one of several railway components. It takes on the task of connecting two rails and usually installed with fish bolt and nuts. Rail joint is one of the weak links in the whole railway track structure. So how to install rail joints and how to perform routine maintenance are particularly important. Before that, we need to figure out what is rail joint and how many different types of rail joint. Today, we will discuss the second one-- How many different types of rail joints.
In various kinds of rail joints, we divide them roughly into three categories according to the position of railway sleepers, the position of rail joints and the performance of rail joints. Next, I will share you more details about the three categories.
Under this category, we can still subdivide it into suspended rail joint and supported rail joint.In this type, rail joints are suspended between two sleepers. It has good stress condition, simple structure and it is easy to maintain. While the shortcoming of this joint is the fish plates are easily broken, as the fish plate is under greater pressure due to the rail deflection after wheel rolling. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, we need to reduce the space between sleepers to increase the flexural resistance of the joints. Although this type of joint is not perfect it is the most widely used one in railway construction worldwide.This kind of rail joints is placed directly on the sleepers. According to the number of sleepers, we can still divide it into:The former has only one sleeper under the rail joint. When the train passed through, the pressure transferred to the sleeper is uneven and the sleeper is shaken before and after. So the single-sleeper supported rail joint has poor stability.The latter has two sleepers under the rail joint. They help to disperse more impact force for joint. At the same time, the sleeper is a flexible support. There is a small seam between it and the rail joint. So it also has rail deflection but very small. The pressure on the joint is relatively small, too. But unfortunately, this kind of joint has high rigidity and difficult to tamp.There are also two types included in this category. The first one is the square joint and the second one is staggered joint.Rail joints on one track are exactly opposite to the joints on the other side are called square joints. This kind of joint is suitable for the straight rail line&#;and the rail line can be laid mechanically section by section. When trains passed through, the opposite two joints bear the impact force at the same time. It reduces the number of hits to the rail track . The running of the train will be more smoothly. At present, such joints are commonly used on railway lines.In this case, the distance between two opposite joints staggered half a rail. It mainly applies to the curved rail line and will disperse the impact force from wheel rolling, but it is not good for stability.The third category is based on the performance of rail joints. Under this category, we subdivided it into standard rail joint&#;compromise rail joint&#;conducting rail joint&#;insulated rail joint and welded rail joint.It is the most basic rail joint. The rails it connected are having same weight and length. There will be an 8-10mm seam left between two rails for expansion and contraction, but the seam will cause the damage to rail and track bed in the joint area. Therefore, we usually replace it with welded rail joint.It is mainly used to connect two different types of rails to make sure the continuity of railway. Under normal conditions, in order to make the top surface and the inner side head of rails are matched up, it will use the corresponding special-shaped rail joint and rail pad with it.This joint is regarded as a connector used for conducting track current or as a traction current circuit, usually applied to automatic block and electric traction area.This kind of joint adopts insulating material to prevent current conduction between two adjacent automatic block sections. For insulation purpose, we will use nylon rail track bolt sleeve and nylon rail joint to separate rail, joint and bolt.In this type, the end of rails is welded together to form a continuous long rail by resistance welding, small pressure welding or aluminum hot welding. The end of rails does not need to drill bolt hole and this rail joint is mostly used for seamless lines.Above is the classification of rail joints. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Hope this article will help you to find the most suitable rail joint.
TRACK QUESTION: Why Stagger the Rails?
Track Fundamentals-- Staggered Joints vs. Laid Square
I have been thinking about how stick / jointed rail was always laid with staggered joints, at least into this post--era leading into the current time of welded rail and joint elimination. The reason they staggered the joints always seemed to intuitively make sense to me, although I had not thought about it deeply.
For more Insulated Rail Jointinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
Generally, I was thinking that offsetting the joints would create a lesser disruption to the carriage of wheels of the trucks since they would only encounter one joint at a time. Whereas, placing the joints side by side would have both wheels hitting the joints simultaneously, so it seems like the impact on each joint might be higher if both joints were side by side. Both wheels together would drop a larger portion of the entire carload into depressed joints if they were side by side.
However, I have noticed historical references to rails being laid with joints &#;square,&#; which is described as laying the rails with their joints side-by-side. So I assume that this might have been an early, intentional alternative to staggered joints. But why? What was the case for square-joint rail in track? And how common was it? Was it a near-universal practice during the earliest era? Or was it a more individualized preference from one road to another?
I wonder if there was a time when startup railroads had to decide whether to go with staggered or square joints; similar to the decision of which gage to build to during the gage wars.
I have a feeling that somewhere along the line, there was a lot of thought put into this engineering question of square versus staggered joints.
See this reference opening page 82 of Railway Track Engineering:
http://books.google.com/books?id=n6XrJJIxQTEC&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=why+not+stagger+rail+joints&source=bl&ots=SQM2RKBxOg&sig=TNsKK-AKOGoHI0_Y0ykvibPJbYE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_BT7UNmtHcfjqAGUuYC4Ag&sqi=2&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=why%20not%20stagger%20rail%20joints&f=false
It describes a practice of staggering rails on curves, but making them square on straight track. It says that if they are left square on curves, they will develop a track kink at each pair of joints. It says that if they are staggered on straight track, they will cause cars to rock too much.
Somewhere along the line, the thinking about this must have changed.
If the square pattern was flawed engineering, why didn&#;t engineers see the truth? Or was there something else about the square pattern that perhaps made it particularly attractive to early railroads? Maybe the early lines spent less on keeping the track surfaced, so they opted for square joints to keep cars from rocking. But then with square joints on poor track, I would think that cars would be hopping up and down as they ran down the track. So it is hard to see a preference for square versus staggered if the track is out of surface, as it might have more commonly been in the pioneering era.
Maybe somebody can elaborate on why the staggered pattern was ultimately selected over the square pattern.
Previous: Why do trains no longer go clickety clack?
Next: What is the difference between standard and first class on ...
If you are interested in sending in a Guest Blogger Submission,welcome to write for us!
All Comments ( 0 )