The Steel Tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad

During the present year the Pennsylvania railroad Company has purchased and laid down, on its various divisions, over 20,000 tons of steel rails and nearly 9,000 tons of iron rails. The main track, between this city and Pittsburg, is now laid entirely with steel, and the New York division will have no iron rails by next April. The company first commenced to lay these rails in 1860, and every year’s experience demonstrates their economy. The immense traffic which now comes over this road makes the life of an iron rail a short one, and in certain localities it would be worthless in less than six months.

Iron rails, indeed, have been in continuous use for over thirty years; and a section of such a rail was lately shown at a meeting of the Franklin Institute; but then these rails have lain much of that period on sidings where they have been no heavy traffic. A good steel rail will stand the wear and tear of continuous use on the Pennsylvania road for from seven to twelve years. Mr. Brown, Chief Engineer of Maintenance and Way, has in his office in the section of a steel rail which has stood the severest test a rail can receive, and that was in the Pittsburg yard, over which the heaviest trains are continually being shifted. After seven years’ use, on a curve, there seems no reason why there should not be two or three more years’ service in it.

Experience has shown that a modification of the usual form of the T rail would make it more serviceable, and within the past year all the rails rolled for the company have been rolled with wider flanges and thicker heads, without increasing the standard weight of the rail, 67 pounds to the yard, the material being taken from the shank or upright section. The form of the head has been changed, the section representing the frustrum of a cone instead of being elliptical. This is the form the head always assumes after use, the flanges of the wheels wearing off the bulge of the elliptical head. The flange has been widened, which will prevent the rail, to some extent, from cutting into ___ties, which suffer more from this than from decay.

The present amount of traffic over the road would make it almost impracticable to renew the track with iron rails as often as they would wear out, as from the great number of trains there would be no opportunity. The 20,000 tons of steel rails purchased will lay 207 miles of single track, and it is the intention to renew all the main tracks with steel. The sidings will be of iron. The first cost of steel, as compared with iron, is now about 50 per cent. greater.

In the year 1870, the work of straightening several very objectionable curves in the track between this city and Downingtown were commenced ; the object being no so much to save distance as to decrease the wear upon the rails and rolling stock. This work was commenced on the section between Ardmore and Rosemont, the length of the new route being 2 4/10 miles. This was the most important of all the changes to be made.

In 1871 a curve was straightened between Rosemont and Villanova, the new route being 5,200 feet long, and a section west of Radnor, a distance of 6,100 feet.  In 1872 a change of 3,200 feet was made near Radnor, and in 1873, between Malvern and Glenloch, two section were straightened, one of 4,100 feet, and the other 8,200 feet; a third section of 4,313 feet, between the same points, was commenced in that year, and was completed in 1874.

The financial crisis coming on in the fall of 1873, put a stop to this kind of work, and changes in three short sections between Eagle and Paoli, and one between Glenloch and Valley Creek, which had been surveyed and staked, were left for a more favorable state of affairs.

In all these changes the road-bed and bridges have been constructed for four through tracks. There are already four laid to Overbrook, and they will be constructed as rapidly as the traffic increases. There are already, of single track and sidings, 1,536 miles on the main or Pennsylvania division: 722 miles on the New Jersey division and 499 on the Philadelphia and Erie division, making in all 2,807 miles of single track.

Philadelphia Ledger 8/5/1875

Notes: Found and transcribed by Heidi Sproat.