What are the properties of rail steel?

What are the properties of rail steel?

 

Rail steel is a specialized type of steel designed to withstand heavy loads, high impacts, and long-term wear in railway applications. Unlike ordinary structural steel, rail steel combines high strength, toughness, and wear resistance, ensuring the safety, stability, and durability of railway tracks.

 

 

Rail steel must resist bending, wear, fatigue, and impact caused by moving wheels. Common mechanical properties include yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, and elongation. These parameters vary depending on the rail grade and intended application.

 

Rail Steel Grade	Yield Strength (MPa)	Tensile Strength (MPa)	Elongation (%)	Hardness (HB)	Typical Use
U71Mn	–	≥880	≥9	240–270	Heavy rail, crane rail
U75V	–	≥980	≥9	240–270	High-speed lines
50Mn	–	≥645	≥13	–	Medium-duty heavy rail
55Q	–	≥685	–	197	Moderate-speed lines
R350H	–	≥1175	≥9	350–390	High-speed, high-load rail

 

How Does Rail Steel Resist Wear and Fatigue?

 

Rail steel resists wear and fatigue through a combination of high carbon content, controlled microstructures (fine pearlite, bainite, martensite), alloying, and specialized heat treatments like head-hardening, which create a very hard, wear-resistant surface layer while retaining a tough, ductile core to handle repeated wheel loads and stress without fracturing. This fine-tuning enhances hardness, strength, and resistance to both abrasive wear and rolling contact fatigue, extending rail life significantly.
 

 

• Wear Resistance: The harder surface layers resist abrasion from wheels, reducing material loss.

 

• Fatigue Resistance: A combination of strength and toughness prevents cracks from forming and propagating under cyclic loading, with microstructural refinements effectively stopping cracks at grain boundaries or within the hardened zone.

 

• Ductile Core: Maintaining a tough core prevents catastrophic brittle fracture, allowing the rail to bend slightly under load without snapping.

 

Types of Steel Track Rail

 

The type of steel rail is usually divided by weight. For example, we often say a 50kg rail, which means rails with a weight of 50kg/m, and so on. There are 38kg rails, 43kg rails, 50kg rails, 60kg rails, 75kg rails, etc. There are also 24kg rails and 18kg rails, of which rails of 43 rails and above are generally called heavy rails, otherwise, the steel rails weight below 43kg are called light rail. There is a special kind of steel rail that is called crane rail. Crane rail is used for crane railway.

 

 

GB standard rail track

 

Classification		Height(mm)	Head (mm)	Bottom (mm)	Thick(mm)	Weight (kg/m)
Light Rail	8 KG/M	65	25	54	7	8.42
	9 KG/M	63.5	32.1	63.5	5.9	8.94
	12 KG/M	69.85	38.1	69.85	7.54	12.2
	15 KG/M	79.37	42.86	79.37	8.33	15.2
	18 KG/M	80	40	80	10	18.06
	22 KG/M	93.66	50.8	93.66	10.72	22.3
	24 KG/M	107	51	90	10.9	24.46
	30 KG/M	107.95	60.33	107.95	12.3	30.1
Heavy Rail	38 KG/M	134	68	114	13	38.733
	43 KG/M	140	70	114	14.5	44.653
	45 KG/M	145	67	126	14.5	45.546
	50 KG/M	152	70	132	15.5	51.514
	60 KG/M	176	73	150	16.5	60.64
Crane Rail	QU 70	120	70	120	28	52.8
	QU 80	130	80	130	32	63.69
	QU 100	150	100	150	38	88.96
	QU 120	170	120	170	44	118.1

 

How to choose the right type of steel rail?

 

Steel rail is the backbone of railway infrastructure, providing a smooth and durable surface for train wheels while transferring enormous loads to sleepers. Choosing the right steel rail is essential for safety, longevity, and operational efficiency. GNEE RAIL offers a wide range of steel rails-including crane rails (QU70–QU120), heavy rails (P38–P75), and light rails (6 kg/m–30 kg/m)-designed to meet international standards and diverse operational requirements.

 

 

• Rail Load and Type of Traffic – Heavy freight lines require high-strength rails like U71Mn or R350HT, while light industrial lines can use lighter rails (e.g., GB12–GB30).

 

• Operational Speed – High-speed lines demand rails with excellent hardness and fatigue resistance, such as U75V or EN13674-1:2003 rails.

 

• Track Environment – Coastal areas benefit from corrosion-resistant steel; industrial areas require high wear resistance.

 

• International or Local Standards – Matching rails to standards ensures compatibility with track components like sleepers, fasteners, and switches.

 

Since 2008, GNEE RAIL has been supplying steel rails of different grades for more than 18 years, steel rails from GNEE is highly recommened in China and abroad.Wtih cutting edge equipment, GNEE produces high quality steel rails that meet with requirements of most countries. Standard rail, head hardened rail, heavy rail,light rail,crane rail and other types are all available here, as one of the China main rail supplier, GNEE RAIL has been working on supplying economical green railway products all over the world.

 

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