54 
BULLETIN 440, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The size of rails also varies with the size of the locomotives and the 
maximum loads. As a rule, the use of heavy rails pays. They depre- 
ciate less in use and in lifting and relaying. They can be used with 
fewer ties and on a poorer roadbed than the lighter rails. The weight 
of the steel rails now used varies from 30 to 60 pounds per yard. 
The use of 30-pound rails is rare and is limited to narrow-gauge 
roads with light locomotives. A few companies use 35-pound rails 
on standard-gauge roads with 32-ton locomotives, but such light rails 
are no longer popular. For narrow-gauge roads, 45-pound steel is 
thought to give the best satisfaction. For standard-guage roads, 50 
or 56 pound steel is the choice of the most up-to-date companies. A 
logging superintendent who lifts his spurs several times in a season 
thinks that 56-pound steel is the cheapest in the end. Rails weighing 
60 pounds per yard are used on main-line logging roads for heavy 
locomotives. 
Rails are ordinarily sold by the gross ton of 2,240 pounds. The 
number of gross tons per mile for any size rail may be obtained by 
multiplying the weight per yard by 1 1 and dividing by 7. The weight 
in tons per mile of several representative sizes of rails is as follows: 
Weight 
per yard. 
Weight per mile. 
Pounds. 
35 
40 
45 
50 
56 
60 
65 
70 
Tons. 
55 
62 
70 
78 
88 
94 
102 
110 
Pounds. 
1,920 
1,600 
1,280 
640 
320 
The prices of steel rails fluctuate from month to month and season 
to season. The following 1914 prices on new rails f . o. b. San Fran- 
cisco, carload lots, are, however, sufficiently exact for estimates : 
25 to 45 pounds per yard, |1.55 per hundredweight, or $34.75 per gross ton. 
50 to 90 pounds per yard, $1,835 per hundredweight, or $41 per gross ton. 
The freight rates on rails and rail fastenings from San Francisco 
vary from 30 cents per hundredweight for the nearest points in the 
Sierras to 80 cents per hundredweight for points in northern Cali- 
fornia. 
First-class inspected relaying rails are quoted f. o. b. Pacific coast 
terminals at the following prices : 
25 to 45 pounds, $30 to $32 per ton. 
56 to 60 pounds, $33 to $35 per ton. 
The common rail length is 30 feet, which gives 352 joints per mile. 
The usual method of splicing joints is by means of angle bars rather 
than fishplates. The cost of standard angle bars f. o. b. San Fran- 
