“ROARING RAILS.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 21, 23 November 1907, Page 32

“ROARING RAILS.”

One of the subjects discussed at a recent Engineering Congress had reference to what may be termed a railway phenomenon, the explanation and surmount-; ing of which has baffled most experienced experimentalists and engineer's. Itt touches the comfort of railway travellers closely, as it affects the quiet running of trains or tramway cars over steel rails. All countries are affected. Nearly all lines suffer in varied degree. The trouble arses from roaring rails. This picturesque euphonism has the merit of descriptive accuracy. The rails affected when trains pass over them set up a noise like the chattering of teeth. It can be detected at once by the trained, ear. The ordinary traveller simply complains of a noisy train. This noise, arises from the fact that on some rails there develops in time a series of irregular knobs or projections, which, although they are only a quarter of a millimetre in height, cause all the noise. They are not due to wear. They extend sometimes above the original surface of the rail like warts on the fingers of a hand. They have long been known to railway engineers, but when power tramways were commenced the electricians, with that calm assumption of originality even in difficulties, thought they had hit upon something new and traceable to the power used. But the roaring rail was so named in India, and occurs equally on railways on icy' mountains and on sunny plains, worked with steam engines and with very varied density of traffic. . The only result of very extensive experiment and investigation is to suggest rather than to prove that the knobs are due to pounding consequent on vibration caused by the passage of wheels over them. But this does not go far.