Railway Projects Rail Shoulder High Performance Durable Materials

What is the rail shoulder?

The rail shoulder is cast in concrete and is used to hold the spring clips. There are two types of rail shoulders: embedded and welded, both are used to hold the spring clips.

Cast-in rail shoulder

The casting shoulders as the embedded part of the railway fastening system are pressed in concrete sleeper and work together with the E clip to fasten the rail. The cast in shoulder is made by casting from iron, such as, GB/T 1348-1988, NF EN 1563(1997), ISO1038, DIN 1693, JIS G5502 (2001), KS D 4302, GOST 7293(1985) or BS EN 1563(1997).

Welded Shoulders

Welded shoulders are used in typical locations on rails where the rail shoulder is welded to a flat steel plate instead of a standard railroad sleeper. Welded shoulders are produced using a hot forging process and conform to AREA standards. Welded shoulders can be produced in either mild or medium carbon steel, depending on the customer's requirements.
The rail shoulder designs above are suitable for almost all rail sizes and are made from mild steel.

Good to know

When using E-type resilient rail clamps to secure rail, shoulder weld fixtures make it possible to manufacture rail fixtures on steel rail ties and steel base plates.
Although the cast rail shoulder is usually pressed into the concrete sleeper, it can also be welded to longer steel rail tie sections or load-bearing beams for manufacturing turnout and crossing layouts with vertical track geometry.
The ability of the rail shoulder to be welded in a specific location is determined by the layout design, which makes rail shoulders very useful and cost-effective.
Rail shoulder accessories for specific track sections should be adopted according to design criteria to achieve the correct resilient clamp toe load. And some rail shoulders are provided with milled weld area faces for better weld integrity.