Stresses in Railroad Track

Abstract With the constant tendency in railroad practice to increase the axle loading and the speed of locomotives, the problem of stresses produced in rails by moving loads becomes more and more important. In a study recently made by engineers of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, principally in connection with the study of the tracking characteristics of electric locomotives, there has been developed a method for experimental determination, not only of vertical but also of lateral forces produced on the rails by a moving locomotive, and it is shown that these lateral forces produce in rails very high stresses. In this paper the authors briefly discuss the theory which has been used as a guide in this experimental research work, and describe some recent experiments in the laboratory and in the field.