Why Railroads Dont Need Expansion Joints

A friendly overview of thermal effects on railways. Go to for a 30day free trial the first 200 people will get 20 off their annual subscription. Watch the entire railway series here: Errata: At 9:00, the left column of calculations is incorrectly labeled It should be imperial. Whoops Just as all materials have a mostly linear relationship between temperature change and length change, all materials also have a similar relationship between stress and change in length (often called strain). And this is part of the secret to continuous welded rail: restrained thermal expansion. You can overcome one with the other. Watch this video adfree on Nebula: Signed copies of my book (plus other cool stuff) are available