Investigation of rail metal of Kaunas fortress fortification narrow – gauge railway

Abstract

On building the underground telephone lines in Kaunas town in 1 metre and 75 centimeters depth a railwaywas discovered. It was determined that this railway, func-tionated in Kaunas fortress, which was started to build in 1879 and has been build for 20 years. Since this railway was build more than a hundred year ago so it arised the questions about the metallurgy level of that period, quality of steel and technology of plastic working. It was the pe-riod when the great changes in the iron alloys metallurgy proceeded, the more effective and mass steel production methods appeared but the quality of made steels was not high. The aim of the investigation was to determine the steel, from which the railway was made, the chemical composition, to investigate its microstructure, to estimate the quality, to carry out the investigation of mechanical properties and to determine the production technology. After estimation the investigated steel, they were compared with the steels used for modern railways production.