What are the types of rail failures?
Jan 22, 2026
A steel rail is a rolled steel profile designed to provide a continuous, rigid, and precisely aligned running surface for flanged wheels, ensuring controlled guidance and stable load transmission along a fixed path. Its structural role is not only to support vertical loads but also to resist lateral forces generated by acceleration, braking, and curve negotiation.
As a professional rail fastener supplier, GNEE RAIL can provide different standard steel rail such as GB,American, BS, UIC, DIN, JIS, Australian and South Africa which used in railway lines, cranes and coal mining.
What are the types of rail failures?
Rail failures are generally caused by fatigue, wear, material defects, environmental effects, and installation or maintenance issues. In railway engineering and crane rail systems, failures are commonly classified into several technical categories based on how and where the damage occurs.
- First, fatigue-related failures are the most critical and dangerous. These result from repeated wheel loads acting on the rail over millions of cycles. Typical examples include transverse fractures, where cracks grow across the rail head and web, eventually causing complete breakage, and longitudinal cracking, which develops along the length of the rail due to internal stress concentration or metallurgical defects. Fatigue failures are especially common in high-traffic lines, heavy-haul freight corridors, and tight curves.
- Second, wear-related failures occur when the rail material is gradually removed by wheel contact. This includes head wear on straight tracks and side wear on curves due to strong lateral forces. Severe wear reduces rail cross-section, weakens load-bearing capacity, and accelerates crack formation. Another wear-related problem is corrugation, a wave-like deformation on the rail surface that increases vibration, noise, and dynamic loading, indirectly leading to structural damage.
- Third, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) failures occur just below the rail surface due to very high contact stress between wheel and rail. These include shelling, spalling, and squats, where small cracks initiate beneath the surface and propagate upward, causing pieces of metal to break away. If not removed by grinding, these cracks can develop into deeper fatigue fractures.
- Fourth, brittle and low-temperature failures occur when rails lose toughness in cold climates or when steel quality and heat treatment are not suitable for the environment. In such cases, rails can fracture suddenly with little plastic deformation, which is particularly dangerous because it provides little warning before failure.
Steel Rail Types
The type of rail is classified by kilograms per meter of rail length. For example, steel rails used in China's railways are 75kg/m, 60kg/m, 50kg/m, 43kg/m and 38kg/m.
- Classified by Application: GNEE RAIL supplies crane rail( QU120,QU100,QU80,QU70), heavy rail( 38, 43, 50, 60, 75kg) and light rail( 9,12,15,22,30kg/m).
| 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 | |
- Stee rail in foreign standards: British Standard: BS series (90A, 80A, 75A, 75R, 60A, etc.) German standard: DIN series crane rails. International Railway Union: UIC series. American Standard: ASCE series. Japanese standard: JIS series.
DIN 13674-1-2003 Standard Steel Rail
| Standard：DIN 536 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | Dimension(mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
Length(m) | |||
| Head | Height | Bottom | Thickness | |||
| A55 | 55 | 65 | 150 | 31 | 31.8 | 10-12 |
| A55 | 65 | 75 | 175 | 38 | 43.1 | |
| A75 | 75 | 85 | 200 | 45 | 56.2 | |
| A100 | 100 | 95 | 200 | 60 | 74.3 | |
| A120 | 120 | 105 | 200 | 72 | 100 | |
Australian 1085 Standard Steel Rail
| Standard: AS 1085 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | Dimension(mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
Length(m) | |||
| Head | Height | Bottom | Thickness | |||
| 31KG | 63.5 | 117.5 | 108 | 11.5 | 31.5 | 8-25 |
| 47KG | 70 | 141.3 | 127 | 14.3 | 46.5 | |
| 50KG | 70 | 154 | 127 | 15 | 50.8 | |
| 60KG | 70 | 170 | 146 | 16.5 | 61 | |
| 68KG | 73.4 | 186 | 152 | 17.5 | 67.6 | |
| 73KG | 70 | 157 | 146 | 32 | 73.63 | |
| 86KG | 102 | 102 | 165 | 84.11 | 85.5 | |
| 89KG | 102 | 114 | 178 | 51 | 89.81 | |
BS11:1985 Standard Steel Rail
| Standard: BS11:1985 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | Dimension(mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
Length(m) | |||
| Head | Height | Bottom | Thickness | |||
| 50 O | 52.39 | 100.01 | 100.01 | 10.32 | 24.833 | 6-18 |
| 60 A | 57.15 | 114.3 | 109.54 | 11.11 | 30.618 | |
| 75 A | 61.91 | 128.59 | 114.3 | 12.7 | 37.455 | 8-25 |
| 75 R | 61.91 | 128.59 | 122.24 | 13.1 | 37.041 | |
| 80 A | 63.5 | 133.35 | 117.47 | 13.1 | 39.761 | |
| 80 R | 63.5 | 133.35 | 127 | 13.49 | 39.674 | |
| 90 A | 66.67 | 142.88 | 127 | 13.89 | 45.099 | |
| 100 A | 69.85 | 152.4 | 133.35 | 15.08 | 50.182 | |
| 113 A | 69.85 | 158.75 | 139.7 | 20 | 56.398 | |
American Standard Steel Rail
| ASTM standard, AREMA standard | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | Dimension(mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
Length(m) | |||
| Head | Height | Foot | Thickness | |||
| ASCE 25 | 38.1 | 69.85 | 69.85 | 7.54 | 12.4 | 6-12 |
| ASCE 30 | 42.86 | 79.38 | 79.38 | 8.33 | 14.88 | |
| ASCE 40 | 47.62 | 88.9 | 88.9 | 9.92 | 19.84 | |
| ASCE 60 | 60.32 | 107.95 | 107.95 | 12.3 | 29.76 | |
| ASCE 75 | 62.71 | 122.24 | 122.24 | 13.49 | 37.2 | 12-25 |
| ASCE 85 | 65.09 | 131.76 | 131.76 | 14.29 | 42.17 | |
| ASCE 90 | 69.09 | 130.18 | 142.88 | 14.29 | 44.65 | |
| ASCE 115 | 69.06 | 139.7 | 168.28 | 15.88 | 56.9 | |
| ASCE 136 | 74.61 | 152.4 | 185.74 | 17.46 | 67.41 | |
| ASCE 175 | 109.86 | 152.4 | 152.4 | 38.1 | 86.8 | |
How to prevent rail failures?
Preventing steel rail failures involves a multi-faceted approach, focusing on regular inspections, proactive maintenance, material improvements, and operational controls, such as grinding away fatigue, lubricating curves, using harder head-hardened rails, managing track stress (e.g., speed restrictions in heat), and employing advanced detection for defects like cracks and wear, all to counter forces from heat, heavy loads, and friction.
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.
