UP "Community Ties" web page, 3/27:
Long Rail is a Game Changer
Cranes load 480-foot sections of high-strength, head-hardened continuous cast rail from a ship at the Port of Stockton to shuttle cars.
A dream more than a decade in the making is now reality. Union Pacific is the rail industry's first to import long rail from Japan to its custom facility at the Port of Stockton, California, setting a new standard for rail reliability.
Full appreciation of the milestone requires a historical perspective. America’s first railroads were constructed by bolting together 16-foot-long sections of steel rail. The bolted areas were structurally the weakest, having the potential to break and cause a derailment. By the 1940s, steel companies began manufacturing longer sections, fused together in welding plants to create quarter-mile-length segments. A great advancement over bolted rail, the welds strengthened the track structure.
By the 1980s, head-hardened rail was developed, cooling steel at a rate that provided additional strength. The new standard section became 80 feet, requiring 17 welds to create a quarter-mile length. Longer rail sections continued to be developed, but weren't as strong.
During this time, Union Pacific, Nippon Steel of Japan and Sumitomo Metal Corp. began discussing a revolutionary idea – manufacturing and shipping high-strength, head-hardened continuous-cast rail in 480-foot-long sections. With access to long rail, only two welds are needed to create quarter-mile lengths, representing an 88 percent reduction in the number of welds.
Continue here w/video.