The work undertaken by this Committee has been delegated by The American Railway Association to the Rail Committee of The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, and it therefore seems appropriate to give the results of their work, up to date, to our members in convenient form for reference, especially as our rail specifications have not been worked to, and they have offered a better specification that will be worked to, and no doubt largely used by the members of this Society. The specification is attached to this report.
In presenting this specification to the Annual Meeting at Chicago in March last, the Committee said:[C]
"A new specification should not be proposed at this time without careful consideration. So far as we know, no railroad company has purchased rails under the specifications approved by the American Railway Association and referred to us; nor do we know of any railway company that has succeeded in buying rails during the past two years according to a specification entirely satisfactory to the railroad company. We believe that all of the specifications under which rails have been rolled have been compromises on the part of both parties, with the general result that neither party is entirely satisfied. Our experience during the year has brought to our attention some defects in all of the specifications now before us, and acting under the impression that there is a distinct feeling that we should revise our specifications, we offer the attached specifications for your consideration. Our Association has no specification for Open-Hearth Steel Rails, and in order to comply with the instructions, a specification for Open-Hearth Steel Rails is included.
"We believe it necessary to submit a sliding scale for the percentages of carbon and phosphorus, which provides for increasing the carbon as the phosphorus decreases. The fixing of this scale properly is a matter requiring care, and we admit that our knowledge on the subject is limited. The American Railway Association specification calls attention to this matter in the following words: 'When lower phosphorus can be secured, a proper proportionate increase in carbon should be made.' The amount of increase is not provided for in the specifications, and this appears to us to be necessary in order to secure uniformity of practice; otherwise, the fixing of these percentages becomes a matter of special arrangement. Bessemer rails are being furnished regularly with phosphorus under the maximum allowed, and where this is done, the carbon should be raised above the higher limit now fixed in our specifications, or a soft and poor wearing rail will result; yet this condition has not been fully guarded against in rails furnished under existing specifications. The lower and upper limits for carbon have heretofore been fixed with the intention that the mills furnish rails with a composition as near between the two limits as possible. The mills, however, in order to meet the prescribed drop tests with the least difficulty, keep both the carbon and manganese as nearly as possible to the lower limits, with the corresponding result that a generally poor-wearing rail is furnished.
"Some roads have prescribed the limits of deflection to be allowed under the drop test. With our present knowledge, we believe that we should fix a minimum deflection to eliminate brittle rails and to secure greater uniformity of product; also maximum deflection to eliminate soft rails. We are not able at the present time to fix these limits, but our ultimate object will be to determine and fix such limits for the specifications.
"With reference to the amount of discard, time of holding in ladle, size of nozzles, and other such details of manufacture or machinery, we are of the opinion that the physical and chemical tests required should be prescribed, and that we should see that the material submitted for acceptance meets the prescribed tests. We should not dictate to the manufacturers the amount of crop which shall be removed from the top of the ingot, as this should vary with the care and time consumed at the various mills. The railroads should not be asked to take anything but sound material in their rails. The mills can furnish such sound material if the proper care and sufficient time are taken in the making of the ingots. Information derived from the tests being made at the Watertown Arsenal shows definitely that sound rails cannot be made from unsound ingots, and that, therefore, the prime requisite in securing a sound rail is to first secure the sound ingot.
"We recommend that the present Specifications for Steel Rails be withdrawn from the Manual of Recommended Practice of the Association, as no longer representing the current state of the art.
"We submit herewith, as Appendix 'A,' a form for specifications. It will have to be amended from time to time as we receive further information on the subject."
The specifications referred to above were modified and presented at the Meeting in Supplement to Bulletin No. 121, of March, 1910, and in this final form are attached hereto.
These specifications do not represent the work of any one Society or the work of any one Committee, but are the result of all the work of the different Societies, as the members of all are so interwoven that whatever work is done in any one Society, or by the Committee of a Society, has very naturally and fortunately been carried into the others.