Rail Wear Calculator
Estimate rail wear rate and service life from traffic tonnage (MGT), curve degree, rail weight, lubrication, and rail grade. Includes grinding intervals and cost estimates.
Inputs
Results
Estimated rail life
81 years
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter Annual traffic, Rail weight, and Degree of curve.
- Set Lubrication factor and Rail steel grade.
- Review the Estimated rail life (years) result.
- Use Rail life (MGT) and Wear rate (mm/100 MGT) to inform your decision.
How the result changes with Annual traffic
| Annual traffic | Estimated rail life |
|---|---|
| 20 | 162 years |
| 70 | 46.3 years |
| 130 | 24.9 years |
| 180 | 18 years |
What each input means
- Annual traffic
- Annual million gross tons of traffic over the rail.
- Rail weight
- Rail section weight (common: 115, 132, 136, 141 lb/yd).
- Degree of curve
- Curve sharpness (0 = tangent, 3-6 = moderate, 8+ = sharp).
- Lubrication factor
- 1.0 = no lubrication, 0.3 = excellent gauge face lubrication.
- Rail steel grade
- 0 = standard carbon, 1 = head-hardened (HH), 2 = premium alloy.
What each result means
- Estimated rail life
- Years until rail reaches condemnation wear limit.
- Rail life
- Cumulative tonnage until rail must be replaced.
- Wear rate
- Head wear rate accounting for curve, lubrication, and rail grade.
- Condemnation limit
- Maximum allowable head wear before rail must be replaced.
- Condemnation limit
- Same limit in millimeters.
- Wear after 5 years
- Projected head wear after 5 years of service.
- Wear after 5 years
- Same projection in inches.
- Grinding interval
- Recommended preventive rail grinding frequency.
- Grinding interval
- Grinding frequency in years.
- Annualized rail cost
- Estimated annual rail replacement cost per track-mile.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersAnnual traffic = 40, Rail weight = 136, Degree of curve = 0, Lubrication factor = 0.7 = 5 input(s) provided
- Calculate Estimated rail lifeEstimated rail life = railLifeMGT / annualMGT81 = 81
- Calculate Rail lifeRail life = condemnationLimitMm / (effectiveWearRate / 100)3239.8 = 3239.8
- Calculate Wear rateWear rate = baseWearRate * lubricationFactor / gradeMultiplier0.49 = 0.49
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