The Rail

     Solid iron t-rail was developed by Robert Stevens in 1831, who was the President and Engineer of the Camden and Amboy railroad. This design has stood the test of time. A variation of the T-rail is still used today.

     Robert received his experience, working with his father in the steamboat industry.

   In 1831. Robert de

Popular Science Monthly Volume 12,

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

     In 1831. Robert decided to go to England to have the solid rails manufactured, where he believed was the best rail. He could not find an American mills that could produce the quality product he wanted. It was not until 1846 that the firm of Cooper and Hewitt of Trenton produced them in America.      

     While on the voyage, Robert took a block of wood and whittled the model of the T-rail. A simple job of whittling a great ideal, never knowing it would revolutionize the railroad industry.

     After Robert arrived in London, he placed the order for his solid rails and purchased the locomotive for his new fledging railroad. The figure below is a reproduced copy of the order Robert gave to the English mill. ¹

A reproduced copy of Stevens order

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     In May 1832, his company received the first load of 500 rails. The rails were 15 feet long and weighed 15 pounds per yard. They were received in Philadelphia and upon reaching his company, were laid. Soon, the other railroads in the area and then elsewhere in America used the t-tail.

     Stevens’ other inventions helped the T-rail to advance the railroad into the powerhouse of the transportation industry. The other inventions credited to him were, the “hook headed spike” and the “fishplate.”  ¹

Two unused and one heavily corroded w:rail spikes.

Photo by Sean Lamb (User:Slambo), September 3, 2005

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Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

     The stone blocks to run the rails on were very expensive. So, Stevens laid down logs or wooden ties as they were called in America, on ballast or crushed rock to help facilitate drainage and ward off destabilization of the roadbed. ³

      When ties were laid down on the ballast, they were aligned and leveled. Then they laid the rails on the wooden ties and fastened down with the hook headed spike. The wooden ties turned out to be a better choice and are also still used today with only a few slight modifications. ³

Shorter Pennsylvania Railroad fish plate

Velocicaptor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

     The rails were only 15 feet long. The rails were attached together with fish plates he had also invented.   

With the rails being only 15 feet long, the connection would become uneven. When the train passes over the joints it would make a clickety sound. As goes the old saying “Clickety clack, clickety clack… the train goes around the track.”

     An engineer mocked, that in America, “poverty is the mother of all invention.” He said this because Stevens had “Used wooden ties as a temporary substitute for the more expensive stone blocks. He finished off by saying, “They made better roads because they were too poor to make a bad one.” ¹

     Another Stevens invention was the” pilot” or what became known as the forward truck. It is attached to the front of the locomotive. Known also as a cattle catcher, whose job was to push the cattle off the tracks so the train would not derail. Instead, the cattle would become impaled on it, making it extremely hard to detach them. ³

     Robert L. Stevens’ inventions left an indelible mark on the railroad’s history. His inventions can still be seen even today with a few variations. There are no life size monuments of his likeness erected. All one must do is look at the miles of track that peppers our countryside to see the most appropriate monument to one’s life and accomplishments.

     Robert died never having been married. He also never patented any of his inventions.