The problems from corrosion in the railroad industry are not of a specific type as may be found in other industries. This is because of the very variable and cyclic nature of the railroad operations, varying types of materials, climatic conditions, and service loadings. The subject will deal with some of the specific problems found with various types of motive power, track materials and passenger and freight cars. Entering into the railroad problem will be found such complex problems as of abrasion corrosion, vibration-velocity corrosion, wear as defined in terms of corrosion of Diesel locomotive wear surfaces, corrosion of so termed corrosion resistant materials and of problems specifically related to climatic conditions or as in territories where corrosion occurs from refrigerator car ice-brine drainage. The paper will discuss various solutions and results obtained. Specifically it will be found that the more serious corrosion problems in the railroad-industry are “special ones” and that no general solution can be given. Each must be studied individually.
Corrosion Problems in the Railroad Industry⋆
Ray McBrian has been associated with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company for twenty-five years. First employed as a chemist in 1925, he was promoted to Engineer of Tests and then to his present position of Engineers of Standards and Research. He attended the Colorado School of Mines and the Missouri School of Mines, graduating from the latter in 1924 with a B.S. in Metallurgy. He is presently a member of six technical societies.
L. C. Atchison graduated from the Colorado School of Mines as a Chemical Engineer in 1925. He subsequently was employed by the Missouri State Highway Commission, the Crystal Oil Refining Company and the Burford Oil Company until 1930. He then joined the West Texas Refining Company as Superintendent and in 1933 became Chief Chemist of the East Texas Refining Company. Prior to accepting his present position as Chief Chemist of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1937 he was General Manager of the Petroleum Processing Corporation.
