Historical study on designing Japanese rail profiles

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1 Wear 258 (2005) Historical study on designing Japanese rail profiles Yoshihiko Sato President, Railway Track System Institute, , Kurosunadai, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba-ken , Japan Received 13 June 2003; received in revised form 12 December 2003; accepted 1 March 2004 Available online 24 November 2004 Abstract Design works on rail profiles and conformity with wheel profile in Japan are reviewed. The pre-history before the well-known designing Japanese rails in 1960s is revealed. In the design of rails in 1960s the features of numerous rail sections in the world were surveyed and discussed about their tendencies. Determining the profile of rail, the aims for new rail were set clearly. The adoption of new rail profile in Japan was effective on existing lines decreasing the failures of rail of about 10,000 at the ends of 1950s to less than 100 now. Finally, the conformity with wheel profile is discussed Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Rail profile; Design work; Historical study; Rail failure; Wheel profile 1. Introduction Japanese rail profiles have been believed being designed initially at the time of the construction of Tokaido Shinkansen in 1960s. In reality the rail profile of 32MR was originally designed in In kg rail was designed, rolled and laid in the track of 120 km long. Following it 60 kg rail for the bullet train project was designed in After that, 60 and 57 kg rails were put in Japanese Engineering Standards (JES) and Japanese industrial standards (JIS) having never been in use. Finally new profiles of 40N, 50N and 50T rail were proposed and determined in Japanese Railway Standards (JRS) in 1961 and in JIS in kg rail was in JRS in 1967 and in JIS in These four profiles are now widely in use [1]. 2. Design and roll of 32 MR and 60 kg rail Japanese government established the South Manchuria Railway Company (Abbreviated as MR ) after the war between Japan and Russia in It operated the railways Tel.: ; fax: address: satoy@sa2.so-net.ne.jp. between Dalian and Changchun at first and enlarged its operation to the whole area of northwest part in China. In 1936 MR operated the railways of km long and 27 kinds of rail profile were in use due to the building of railways by the different builders from Russia, UK, China Japan, etc. In 1934 MR unified these to four kinds of profile of 32MR, 40ASCE, 40ARAIA and 50ARAIA. On November 1, 1934, MR inaugurated the operation of super-express trains named Ajia which runs 701 km between Dalian and Changchun with the speed of 110 km/h connecting them with 8 h and 30 min. On September 1, 1935 the maximum speed was raised to 120 km/h and since October, 1936, Dalian and Changchun had been connected with 7 h and 50 min. As it was hauled with a steam locomotive of 24tf axial loads, the increased track deterioration must be compensated with heavier rail. For the sake of it, the Permanent Way Laboratory, Railway Technical Research Institute, MR, designed a new profile of 60 kg rail. It was rolled by the Showa Steel Works in Anshan near Shenyan and laid in the track of 120 km long from 1939 to In 1943 the operation of Ajia and the laying of 60 kg rail were stopped in the World War II. The profile of this rail is shown in Fig. 1. The laid ones are in Plate 1 [2] /$ see front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi: /j.wear

2 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) celebrating the 25th anniversary of Japan Society of Civil Engineers. It analyzed the relation between the work volume of track maintenance and rail weight and verified the necessity for increasing rail weight with the increase of transport volume. He recommended to use kg rails and introduced newly designed 43, 50 and 60 kg rail profiles. This is shown in Fig. 2 [3]. In these 60 kg rail was rolled in January, 1941 for the length of 2 km and laid in the track of up line between Kamata and Kawasaki on Keihin Line for the length of 150 m considering to use it in Bullet Train Project. It is shown in Plate 2. The project was to connect 980 km between Tokyo and Shimonoseki. Within 9 h with the maximum speed of 150 km/h (maximum 200 km/h for electrification). The construction was initiated with three tunnels and the acquisition of land in 1940 and expected to finish in However, the work was stopped in 1943 acquiring about 100 km of land and maintaining the tunnels in construction in severe conditions in World War II. Fig kg MR rail. 3. Design and roll of 60 kg rail for bullet train project On October 19, 1939 Dr. Horikoshi, Engineer, Permanent Way Section, Engineering Bureau, Railway Ministry gave a lecture on Rails for National Railways in the meeting for 4. Rail profiles in standards Japanese Engineering Standards have consisted of three stages: Old JES from 1921 to 1941; Transient JES from 1939 to 1945; New JES from 1945 to Hereafter Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) is working. The rail is in them from the stage of old JES, but that designed in Japan was Plate kg MR rail. Plate 2. Rails laid in actual track.

3 1066 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) Fig. 2. Rails designed by Ministry of Railways.

4 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) the new profiles in Standards in these ages have never been in use. 5. Designing new rails Fig kg rail in new JES. in New JES determined on January 20, In it 43 and 60 kg rails were added to existing ones. In these 43 kg rail was just changed at rail head corner from R14 to R13 from the design by Railway Ministry in 1939, but 60 kg rail was changed totally. It is shown in Fig. 3 [4]. In 1953 JIS was newly determined. In it 60 kg rail was discarded and 57 kg rail was introduced. It is shown in Fig. 4 [5]. It might reflect the demand for using heavier rail on the heavily loaded lines such as Tokaido and Sanyo, the thought on difficulty deciding the use of 60 kg and the willingness to use 57 kg from economical reason. However, all In the ends of 1950s the rail breakages in JNR were about 10,000 in the network of 20,000 km. To protect rails in existing narrow gauge lines from breakage and to provide a rail for newly constructing Tokaido Shinkansen, the new rail profiles of 40N, 50N and 50T rails were designed in 1961 [6]. They were in Japanese Railway Standards (JRS) in 1961 and in JIS in New 60 kg rail was added to JRS in 1967 and to JIS in These rails are in current use except 50T rail. The sections of these rails are shown in Fig. 5. The large difference of designed profiles in Standards after 1961 from those in older Standards is the use of second arc on the top surface forming worn profile. Before designing such rails, the characteristics of rail section are surveyed for rails in several railways [6]. The items of survey are (1) whole height, (2) the width of bottom, (3) the height of web, (4) the height of head, (5) the width of head, (6) the depth of web, (7) the ratio of whole height to the width of bottom *, (8) the secondary moment around X axis * and (9) that around Y axis *. (1) and (2) are given in [7]. They are linearly proportional to the weight of rail. The others with (*) are shown in Figs. 6 8 [8]. The relation of whole height to the width of rail bottom is given in Fig. 6. Though it is expected to be constant for the rail weight, actually it slightly increases for rail weight with fairly large disperse. They could be caused by the facts that the larger vertical rigidity has been pursued in the design of heavier rail and that the width of rail is restricted by holding the gauge for the head and laying it on existing rail fastening devices for bottom. The secondary moment around horizontal axis (X) is given in Fig. 7. It shows that the secondary moment is nearly proportional to the square of rail weight though it is a little weaker than the square. However, the secondary moment around vertical axis (Y) is linearly proportional to the rail weight different from that in Fig. 7 as shown in Fig. 8. It might depend on the same reasons in the case of Fig. 6. Based on such characteristics of rail, new rail profiles presently in use were designed. 6. Features of rails in standards after 1961 The rail profiles of 40N and 50N have following features [9]: Fig kg rail in JIS. (1) The width of bottom is as same as that of existing one (50N). Considering the use under large transport volume, the rigidity is raised by increasing the height. (2) The head is made higher to increase the area for abrasion. (3) The width of head is determined to hold the same gauge in replacing the existing rail.

5 1068 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) Fig. 5. Rails in present use. (4) The depth of ends of bottom is increased for the use of elastic fastening and for the durability to erosion. (5) Measures to decrease end breakage is taken. Before designing these rails the worn profiles of working rails were widely surveyed. They are compounded to one. As it came near that of UIC, the profile of UIC is adopted to the head of 50N and 40N considering the future use of them internationally. With the use of these rails the breakages of rail have been dramatically decreased from about 10,000 in the ends of 1950s to about 1000 in 1980 and to less than 100 (estimated) now. Fig. 6. Ratio of rail height to bottom width.

6 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) Table 1 Features of rails in use in Japan Rail Dimension Characteristics Weight (kg/m) Width of head (mm) Width of bottom (mm) Whole height (mm) Height of neutral (mm) Area (cm 2 ) Vertical rigidity (kg cm 2 ) Section coefficient (cm 3 ) Lateral rigidity (kg cm 2 ) Section coefficient (cm 3 ) Torsion rigidity (kg cm 2 ) 40N N T kg The rail profiles of 50T rail exclusively used on Tokaido Shinkansen and 60 kg rail in JRS have following features in addition to those for 40N and 50N: (1) As it is used on new lines, the ideal design was pursued. (2) It was designed mainly considering to be used for long welded rail. Actual design was: to protect from neck fissure, 6R in 40N and 50N was increased to 17R in 50T and to 19R in 60 kg by using fishplate of head free type; rail head profile was set as 600R considering that the wheel profile would be maintained as cone. Sixty kilogram rail was designed to cope with the increased transportation on Tokaido Shinkansen and is now widely used not only on Shinkansens, but also on existing narrow gauge lines. The exchange of 50T rails to 60 kg rail on Tokaido Shinkansen was finished in The features of these rails are given in Table Conformity with wheel Fig. 7. Secondary moment around X-axis. Fig. 8. Secondary movement around Y-axis. The rail profiles of 50T and 60 kg rails were determined considering the conformity with coned profile of wheel. However, as the abrasion of wheel was so severe at the corner due to the sharp curve to the yard, the profile of wheel was intended to be changed to worn one. In March 1974 after 10 years from the inauguration of Tokaido Shinkansen the test for it was initiated. Finishing the test, it has been used up to now without any problem of stability attaining the test speed of 443 km/h [10]. It was determined just by the rolling stock side without informing it to track side. If it was informed to track side, it would be a good chance to reform the rail profile because R600 on the top of rail profile have the tendency of displacing the contact point between wheel and rail with just small inclination of rail as mentioned in CM3 [11]. After that, to run the Shinkansen train on 50N rail of widened gauge on existing formation, a new worn profile was designed and has been used without any problem though the running on 50N is up to 130 km/h. The profiles of these wheels are given in Fig. 9 [11].

7 1070 Y. Sato / Wear 258 (2005) Fig. 9. Wheel profile of Shinkansen. 8. Concluding remarks Through the historical studies on designing rail profile followings are noticed: (1) The use of heavier rail was conceived essential for heavily loaded track. (2) The first designing of rail by Japanese was in (3) 60 kg rail designed by Japanese was actually laid for the length of 120 km in 1939 to (4) Another 60 kg rail is rolled and laid for bullet train project. (5) The wide use of newly designed rails of 40N and 50N rails was initiated at the beginning of (6) It was effective dramatically to decrease the rail breakage on existing narrow gauge lines. (7) The 50T and 60 kg rails are designed for coned wheel profile on Shinkansens. (8) The wheel profile was changed to worn one after the trial in (9) It has been conformed well to 60 kg rail holding the stability up to 443 km/h. (10) Wheel profile conformed to 60 kg and 50N rail was also designed though the running speed for 50N rail is up to 130 km/h. For the future work designing rail, it is conceived that the concern on not only engineering, but also environment and social matters will be important. References [1] Y. Sato, Pre-history before practical use of 60 kg Rail in Japan, JREA 44 (5) (2001) (in Japanese). [2] Society for MR Railway Technical Research Institute, History of MR Railway Technical Research Institute, [3] I. Horikoshi, Rails in national railways, Civil Eng. (Jpn. Soc. Civil Eng.) 25 (12) (1939) (in Japanese). [4] Rail of Carbon Steel, JES Railway 1101, Metal 3602, 20 January 1949 (in Japanese). [5] Normal Rail, JIS E1101, 1953 (in Japanese). [6] N. Sasaki, Rails of newly designed sections, Quarterly Resp. 2 (4) (1961). [7] Y. Sato, Benefits of heavy rail on high speed railway and design of 75G rail on coordinates, CM4, 1994, Wear 194 (1996). [8] N. Sasaki, Design of new rail section, Railway Technical Research Report 201, 1961 (in Japanese). [9] N. Sasaki, Berth of N rails, Shin-Senro 34 (4) (1980) (in Japanese). [10] Task Committee On Railway Mechanics, JSCE, Report on rail-wheel profiles, March 2001 (in Japanese). [11] Y. Sato, Design of rail head profile with full use of grinding, CM3, 1990, Wear 144 (1991).