07-09-2017, 11:44 AM
The first steel rails used anywhere in the world were placed at Derby Station on the Midland Railway in 1857. The metallurgical structure of those rails was essentially the same as that of rail steel still used today - a pearlite structure based on a carbon / manganese composition.
The perlite comprises a mixture of relatively soft ferrite and a hard, brittle carbide called cementite, which takes the form of almost parallel plates. It achieves good wear resistance due to hard carbide and a certain degree of toughness as a result of the ferrite's ability to flow in an elastic / plastic manner.
The perlite comprises a mixture of relatively soft ferrite and a hard, brittle carbide called cementite, which takes the form of almost parallel plates. It achieves good wear resistance due to hard carbide and a certain degree of toughness as a result of the ferrite's ability to flow in an elastic / plastic manner.