Life span of Rail

I'm curious what the lifespan of a section of rail is. I've seen some pictures that Roger posted on the C&TS, with a date of 1880 on it.

So for sure, that rail was made in 1880, now, if it spent its whole life or not in that one place, that's a different story.

At Lakeside, our rail is I think, 35 pound rail. We run a 24,000 pound train over only a 1 and 1/4 of a mile worth of track maybe 23-50 times a day. our rail needs to be replaced every few years, it gets worn down, the sides of the rail head get worn off, the top of the rail get ground down to being flat.

I'm curious if this happens on larger railroads, or if this is perhaps something unique to small railroads like the train at Lakeside.

Overall does rail have a long life, or is it something that has to replaced often (it will of course survive longer then ties)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2009 03:25PM by Will Gant.