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Railway track

Photo of straight railway track with shiny rails and well-formed ballast laid level with the tops of the concrete sleepers or crossties
Common contemporary practice in track construction, featuring well-drained ballast spread level with the tops of concrete sleepers/crossties – Australian National Railways, ca 1982

A railway track (CwthE and UIC terminology) or railroad track (NAmE), also known as permanent way (CwthE)[1] or "P Way" (BrE[2] and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers (railroad ties in American English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a dependable, low-friction surface on which their wheels can roll. Early tracks were constructed with wooden or cast-iron rails, and wooden or stone sleepers. Since the 1870s, rails have almost universally been made from steel.

  1. ^ W. S. Ramson, ed. (1988). The Australian National Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 473. ISBN 0195547365.
  2. ^ Iain Ellis, ed. (2010). Ellis' Britishortp Railway Engineering Encyclopedia. lulu.com. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-4461-8190-4.

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