Some Problems of Rails for High-speed Railway of China

According to running experience of high speed railway abroad, a full attention must be paid to some requirements of specification of rails for high speed railway, such as material mechanical properties, dimension tolerances, straightness, surface flatness and so on. It is suggested that the long length rails should be laid in high speed railway, and the feasibility of producing, welding and transporting of long length rails should be researched. On the basis of technical innovation of domestic manufacturers, it is practicable to lay 50-100 m long\|length homemade rails in high speed railway of China. The following welding programme of rails for high speed railway can be adop\| ted: 50-100 m long length rails can be welded as 500 m long rail string through flash butt welding in plant, then in field the rail string can be welded through a mobile flash butt welding or thermit welding. As the specification of rails for high speed railway is rigorous, some related techniques to long length rails should be researched and practised as soon as possible, including mobile flash butt welding technique, transporting and reinforcing techniques of long length rails, etc..