Subject: Re: Tools made from rail line.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 08:12:49 -0400

To All,
The switch gear, frogs and most anything that is cast around a switch is a
high manganese alloy caled "Hatfield Steel" because it was invented by Mr.
Hatfield. It is 12% Mn and its only way of hardening is by work-hardening.
The stuff literally cannot be machined because of its high work-hardening
rate. 
Rail steel on the other hand is usually a near eutectoid composition, .8%
carbon, that is very carefully controlled to provide a 100% pearlite
structure as it comes off of the hot mill. No free carbide and no free
ferrite means that it has good toughness and good wear resistance. Some main
line rail, the real heavy stuff, has boron added to increase its
hardenability. These rails may be induction hardened on the head for added
wear resistance. I have had some of this and it almost appeared to be
hardened all the way through the web and base. I tried to cut it with a band
saw and took off the teeth. Annealing at 1600*F and furnace cooling made it
just as soft as could be. Part of the problem with rail steel is that you may
not know exactly what you are getting. utting it up can be a problem. Just
using a torch without pre or post heat may crack it.

Bill Hochella

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From: Tom Vincent <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 16:39:45 -0500 (CDT)

Bill, I had the same problem with the bandsaw on rail as you describe. 
Once its annealed and cut, what are the hardening and tempering 
temperatures on rail? Thanks, Tom

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From: [email-masked] (Frost, Jerry)
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 20:50:50 -0800

> > using a torch without pre or post heat may crack it.

Guys:

I've cut lots of rail in a bandsaw, the trick is to cut it flange up and 
tipped away from the blade a bit. Blade life isn't great, I get a dozen 
cuts or so before it's shot but smaller pieces are easier to anneal. 
Also, I've never had cracking problems torching this rail without 
preheating. About 4 years ago I torched around 3,000lbs of line rail 
into 5' pieces at -30f without a hitch. 

I built a small 75lb anvil from the same rail faced with 3/4" T-1 about 
1980, I cut two sections of the rail loose from the web and welded them 
into the web of the anvil for the body and rough shaped it with a torch. 
I did most of the welding and torching at one time and had the entire 
thing bright red for quite a while. When I was done welding I brought 
the face up to critical temp with the rosebud (by eyeball) and hung it 
face down about 1/2" into a 300gl water trough to quench. I didn't 
observe the hot shortness associated with manganese alloys, I had it hot 
long enough and quenched it roughly enough that if had a significant 
percentage of mn, it should have failed catastrophically.

Ok, here's the qualifier. This is old rail, the newest is dated 1926 and 
this is COLD country, there could well be differences in the alloys. My 
feeling is this is good high carbon steel without "exotic" alloying 
agents, I've been using it for many years without mishaps not associated 
with HC steels. 

I cannot however make any claims for rail found in different parts of 
the country and especially the world. Be more carefull than I was 
experimenting with rail, I lucked out and didn't get hit with a chip 
before I learned how to work it.

My two bits,
	Frosty
-- 
If it ain't forged
It ain't real
wrought iron is
The FROSTWORKS