For almost two hundred years trains have been clanking along over steel rails to bring people and goods from one place to another. The iron rails these heavy pieces of machinery rumble on tend to wear down over time and may not always be able to handle the pressure of so much weight running over them. An engineer might see a problem coming up ahead, but there is little they can do about avoiding the situation since it might take at least a half a mile before the train can come to a stop. A rail track inspection cannot be done while a train is racing toward a broken track.
Inspecting tracks was known to be a good idea shortly after the first ones were ever built, but they cost time, effort and money. Many owners of railroads that inspections were not worth the expenditures. Then a train derailed in New York State in 1911 a town called Manchester, The death of twenty nine passengers and crew and the injuries to sixty other people caused a lot of negative media attention. The cause of the accident was a deteriorated piece of tack that had cracks in it.
The knowledge that there was a reoccurring problem with the metal used in building railroad tracks ignited an effort to inspect the lines. The initial inspections were done visually. Inspectors were looking for issues that would cause a catastrophic failure leading to accidents.
Before long, Dr. Elmer Sperry, in 1927, built a machine that could inspect the rails using a method called magnetic induction. The machine could measure the thickness of the rails as it rolled over them. Abnormalities would appear and a crew would be dispatched to repair or replace the broken segments of track.
There are many conditions that can develop that will cause a train to come off its tracks. One is something referred to as tongue dipping. The tongue is located at the junction of two piece of iron rail. They are used to cover the joint and allow the train to pass over the joint. If the sides of the tongue start to bend down, this is called dipping. This creates a situation that could have lead to a train derailment.
Water can have an adverse effect on the stability of the train line. The water left by rain, snow or flooding, can seep into the tiny cracks along the rails. When the weather turns cold, these cracks grow larger as the force of the ice forming pushes to iron apart.
The inspector will try to look at all the tracks. However, there are spots that are more prone to wear and tear than other spots. Places like the switchblade and head locations are known for deteriorating a little faster than the rest of the rails.
Train travel is safer when a company does a rail track inspection. Potential problems can be spotted ahead of time and fixed before anything bad happens. This keeps the train rolling on over the fields and through the woods.
Inspecting tracks was known to be a good idea shortly after the first ones were ever built, but they cost time, effort and money. Many owners of railroads that inspections were not worth the expenditures. Then a train derailed in New York State in 1911 a town called Manchester, The death of twenty nine passengers and crew and the injuries to sixty other people caused a lot of negative media attention. The cause of the accident was a deteriorated piece of tack that had cracks in it.
The knowledge that there was a reoccurring problem with the metal used in building railroad tracks ignited an effort to inspect the lines. The initial inspections were done visually. Inspectors were looking for issues that would cause a catastrophic failure leading to accidents.
Before long, Dr. Elmer Sperry, in 1927, built a machine that could inspect the rails using a method called magnetic induction. The machine could measure the thickness of the rails as it rolled over them. Abnormalities would appear and a crew would be dispatched to repair or replace the broken segments of track.
There are many conditions that can develop that will cause a train to come off its tracks. One is something referred to as tongue dipping. The tongue is located at the junction of two piece of iron rail. They are used to cover the joint and allow the train to pass over the joint. If the sides of the tongue start to bend down, this is called dipping. This creates a situation that could have lead to a train derailment.
Water can have an adverse effect on the stability of the train line. The water left by rain, snow or flooding, can seep into the tiny cracks along the rails. When the weather turns cold, these cracks grow larger as the force of the ice forming pushes to iron apart.
The inspector will try to look at all the tracks. However, there are spots that are more prone to wear and tear than other spots. Places like the switchblade and head locations are known for deteriorating a little faster than the rest of the rails.
Train travel is safer when a company does a rail track inspection. Potential problems can be spotted ahead of time and fixed before anything bad happens. This keeps the train rolling on over the fields and through the woods.
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