Kansas Academy of Science. 225 



MEASUREMENT OF STRESSES IN RAILROAD TRACK. 



(Abstract.) 

 C. C. Williams. 



DURING the past two years experiments have been con- 

 ducted in the Department of Railway Engineering of the 

 University of Kansas to determine the amount, character and 

 laws governing the stresses that occur in railroad track under 

 traffic. The two main purposes have been — 



1. To determine whether or not railroad track as it is now 

 being built is the most satisfactorj'^ and economical type of 

 structure that could be constructed to perform the functions 

 required of it ; whether it is consistently designed and properly 

 proportioned. 



2. To determine the laws of stresses occurring under traffic 

 lelative to speed and character or class of traffic, in order to 

 allocate operating expenses equitably and accurately to the 

 different branches of service, so that the cost of each may be 

 resolved. 



The tests were carried on by means of the Berry strain gage 

 and a specially designed instrument which has been given the 

 name of "track deflectograph." The latter automatically re- 

 cords, by means of a stylus on a revolving cylinder, the de- 

 flections of the track as trains pass over at various speeds. 



Some of the more interesting observations relate to the posi- 

 tions of the truck wheels of the train for maximum stress, the 

 relative stresses caused by freight and passenger trains, the 

 effect of speed on stress, the effect of flat wheels on stress, the 

 variation of stress with the type of rolling stock, and the vi- 

 brations of the rail under the passing of trains. 



Future tests are contemplated with a view to determining 

 the stresses in ties, a further study of vibrations, and the in- 

 vestigation of stresses occurring at rail points. 



University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



15— Sci. Acad.— 2163 



