Railway Applications — Track — Rail — Part 1: Vignole railway rails 46 kg/m and above

Scope

Specifies rail profiles, pearlitic steel grades (200-440 HBW), dimensional tolerances and qualification requirements for flat-bottom (Vignole) rails of 46 kg/m and above, for conventional and high-speed track. It is the European reference specification for rail procurement and acceptance, used by infrastructure managers and rail manufacturers.

EN 13674-1 specifies the rail profiles, pearlitic steel grades (ranging from 200 to 440 HBW hardness) and dimensional tolerances for flat-bottom Vignole rails of 46 kg/m and above, used on conventional and high-speed lines across Europe. It defines the qualification requirements a rail manufacturer must satisfy -- covering chemical composition, mechanical properties, surface and internal quality, and straightness -- before a rail product can be supplied for use on European infrastructure. Infrastructure managers reference the standard in track procurement specifications, and rail manufacturers use it as the basis for product qualification testing and ongoing production quality control. It complements the fastening system standards used for rail restraint and the track geometry quality framework used for running-surface condition assessment, together forming the core technical basis for permanent way design and acceptance. The standard is currently under revision, with the 2011+A1:2017 edition remaining the applicable reference pending publication of the updated version.