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Early iron T-rail track laid on stone "sleepers" from the Camden Amboy railroad in New Jersey.
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Early iron T-rail track laid on stone "sleepers" from the Camden Amboy railroad in New Jersey.

Credit: Courtesy of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

In the 1830s and 1840s, Pennsylvania iron works developed a growing range of iron rails for the emerging American railroad industry, including the first iron T-rails. All of them, however, were relatively brittle and unable to bear the weight of trains that were growing heavier, larger, and faster. Steel rails, first developed in England, were many times stronger and safer. In 1864, the Pennsylvania Railroad placed an order for an experimental lot of 150 tons of steel rails - the first in the United States.

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