. The Street railway journal . FIG. HARDENED STEEL PLATE IN FROG. necessity for making such an allowance. Occasionally,however, a small space is left between rails every 250 or500 ft. Some managers even go so far as to put in shimsof rail sections in cases where rails have been laid insummer and contracted so as to leave spaces betweensuccessive rails in winter. A great deal of wear at thejoints has been obviated by thus butting the rails firmlytogether, and it is believed that the life of the joints hasbeen substantially lengthened merely by this practicealone. Apart from this, howev
. The Street railway journal . FIG. HARDENED STEEL PLATE IN FROG. necessity for making such an allowance. Occasionally,however, a small space is left between rails every 250 or500 ft. Some managers even go so far as to put in shimsof rail sections in cases where rails have been laid insummer and contracted so as to leave spaces betweensuccessive rails in winter. A great deal of wear at thejoints has been obviated by thus butting the rails firmlytogether, and it is believed that the life of the joints hasbeen substantially lengthened merely by this practicealone. Apart from this, however, the joints have beenstrengthened by the more general adoption of longerjoint plates, and eight and twelve bolt joints, from twen-ty-eight to thirty-six inches in length, are the best prac-tice to-day. It is difficult to see how there can be any. FIG. 17.—INTEGRAL SPECIAL WORK. serious trouble with such joints, for example, as those ofFig. 15. Several special forms of joint have also beendevised for street railway as well as for steam railwayuse. Very good results have been had with these, ifwe can properly speak of the experience of two or threeyears as results. Substantial progress has been made in electric weld-ing of joints, and it is believed that this will eventuallybecome one of the best melhods of joining track together,doing away as it does with the use of bolts and all theirattending difficulties, and insuring a better electrical 3° STREET RAILWAY JOURNAL. [Vol. XII. No. i. connection of rail to rail than can probably be obtained byother methods. A process called cast welding hasalso been put in practice, and appears to have many ex-cellent characteristics. If longer experience does notbring out unexpected difficulties its use will probably belargely extended. In Cleveland riveted joints have beenused with good re
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectstreetr, bookyear1884
