Rail near my house… just curious what the gibberish means…
308 MARYLAND 1915 215 LBS PS
This is on a NS industrial branch line (apparent speed limit 10 mph) that usually sees two trips up and back each week day. In it’s former life it was a PRR line from Camp Hill to Shippensburg. It has since been abandonded west of Carlisle and now serves as an industrial branch.
If the rail was forged in 1915, how long could it be expected to last?
Thanks!!
1915 is the year the peace of rail was made, 215 is the pounds per foot the rail weighs, your guess is as good as mine on the rest. i guess maryland was the state it was made?
Isn’t rail weight generally figured by the yard,not foot ?
Humm I am a bit dewildered on this one. I everyone else who has posted so far has gotten the other “things” in determing the Rail code. I can’t figure out what the 308 means infront of the Maryland. I am also interested in the fact that the builders of the rail would put the state it was built in instead of the proudcer, or themselves as the manufacturer.
88gta350, you said that this portion of the NS line was once owned by PRR. Well PS was given to speacial rail that the Pennsylvania Railraod made, the letters PS also came about due to PRR’s ego, back in the day when they were the laregest railroad in North America, they wanted to be different from everyone else. This type of rail at one time was the heaviest type of rail used in North America, and PRR designated it as PS. The letters PS started showing up when PRR came out with 152 lbs sections of rail.
Sorry I am still unsure as to what the 308 in front of Maryland means. [V]
308 is the type of steel and or process used to make it, Maryland is the foundry or mill name where it was made, 1915 is the year it was made, 215 lbs is the weight in pounds per yard.
Mudchicken can clarify the 308/Maryland part, it is part of his job to know that stuff, and knowing him, he has most if it committed to memory anyway.[:D]
Ed
Something in the description sounds “off” or odd
(1) Maryland :Maryland Steel was a predecessor of Bethlehem Steel (originally Pennsylvania Steel Co (before 1906) at Sparrows Point, MD)
(2) PS = Pennsylvania Steel
(3) 308 = sure that isn’t 8030 (80 # /YD rail , typical section No.30 ARA-Class B for lower speed heavy loading)…215 # rail?- I want to see that rascal![:D]
(4) Rolling date 215 =February 1915 Before open hearth rail started going away in 1938, AREA had not standardized the stamping process with either the raised number branding or stamped-inaward heat numbers on the other side of the rail…
Old rail off the beaten path like that will continue to serve for many more years.
How tall is the rail and how wide is the base?
dd
I was going to say that 215-pound rail was at least 50 pounds heavier than anything I’ve ever heard of, but MC kinda-sorta beat me to it!
Typed, then forgot to proof read…
Hey, I was cooking dinner too!
But see, I told you the mudchicken would know…
215lb rail…yeah, I think I want to see that too!
Ed[:D]
G’day, Y’all,
Did anyone notice the cutline in the Trains Mag out now in the story about heavier rail cars? The picture showed the bottoms of several hoppers carrying coal which had been riding on 90 lb. rail until the old rail and ties just couldn’t take it anymore and they flipped over. This isn’t a case of faulty infrastructure, it is a case of an idiotic railroad attempting to put new wine in an old wineskin. Even in Biblical times they knew you couldn’t run heavy cars on lightweight rail. It would seem that the insurance companies would be looking at track and determining whether it was insurable for modern loads.
Jock Ellis
Cumming, GA US of A
Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers
SORRY! I just realized what I wrote! That should read 125 LBS. Make a little more sense?
Here are some pics of the rail. Because the rail is so rusty, the inscription is hard to read so I got the camera nice and close… so the inscription is broken up into two pics. The “1”'s are hard to read, but the inscription reads "308 MARYLAND (7 vertical lines) 1915 125 LBS PS
Click on the pics to see a larger view:
The rail measures approx 6.25" tall and 5.75" wide at the base. It was hard to get an accurate measurement with my measuring tape, but that is close. Here is a picture of how it looks under a train:
Thanks again!
Under less than Main Line type traffic the rail will see it’s 100th birthday and beyond.
IIRC the seven vertical lines are the month code --i.e. July of 1915.
Note that this steel has four bolt anlge bars instead of the six in use today for main line.