Five major categories of rails

Do you know the five major categories of railway rails?

There are many types of railway rails. Let's take a closer look:

1. Classification based on rail weight:
Heavy rails: Rails weighing 50kg/m and above, such as 50kg/m, 60kg/m, 75kg/m, etc.
Light rails: Rails weighing less than 50kg/m, such as 38kg/m, 43kg/m, etc.

2. Classification based on rail cross-sectional shape:
Symmetrical cross-sectional rails: Common ordinary rails.
Asymmetric cross-sectional rails: Mainly used to make turnout point rails, fork rails or wing rails, such as 50AT, 60AT, 60D40, 60TY, etc.

3. Classification based on rail chemical composition:
Carbon rails: Ordinary rails without alloying elements.
Microalloy rails: Contains trace alloying elements such as vanadium V, niobium Nb, thallium Ti, etc.
Low alloy rail: EN320Cr containing 0.80% to 1.20% chromium.

4. Classification according to the delivery status of the rail:
Hot-rolled rail: Rail delivered in hot-rolled state.
Heat-treated rail: Rail that has undergone heat treatment process, divided into offline heat treatment and online heat treatment.

5. Classification according to the minimum tensile strength of the rail:
780MPa: such as European EN220.
880MPa: such as European EN260, EN260Mn, UIC900A, China U71Mn, etc.
980MPa: such as American AREMA ordinary rail, China U75V, U77MnCr hot-rolled rail.
1080MPa: such as European EN320Cr alloy rail, Japanese HH340 online heat treatment rail, China U78CrV.
1180MPa: such as Japan HHB70 online heat-treated rails, Europe EN350HT, EN350LHT online heat-treated rails, China U75V online heat-treated rails.
1200~1300MPa: such as China U78CrV online heat-treated rails, etc.

Understanding these classifications can help us better choose suitable railway rails to ensure the safety and stability of the railway.