EN 14587-2 — Railway applications — Infrastructure — Flash butt welding of new rails — Part 2: R200, R220, R260, R260Mn, R320Cr, R350HT, R350LHT, R370CrHT and R400HT grade rails by mobile welding machines at sites other than a fixed plant (series 14587-1 to -3)

Scope

Specifies the flash butt welding procedure, qualification and quality requirements for joining new rails on site using mobile welding machines — the process that turns jointed track into continuous welded rail (CWR) during track-laying and rail-replacement work, for the full range of standard and premium rail grades up to R400HT. Part of a 3-part series alongside Part 1 (fixed-plant welding of new rails) and Part 3 (welding in association with crossing construction); Part 2 is the OJ-harmonised part, at the current EN 14587-2:2024 edition.

Flash butt welding of new rails is how track becomes continuous — eliminating the fishplated joints that drive noise, vibration and maintenance load — and EN 14587-2 governs the on-site version of that process: welder and welding-machine qualification, welding-parameter set-up and control per rail grade, weld-geometry and straightness tolerances, non-destructive and mechanical testing of production welds, and the quality-surveillance regime that keeps a mobile welding contractor's output consistent over a long relaying campaign. Part 1 covers the equivalent process for new rails welded in a fixed plant (typically during rail manufacture or before transport to site), and Part 3 addresses welding in association with crossing (switches and crossings) construction — a related but geometrically more complex joining task. Part 2 is a harmonised standard under Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2584 (Annex I row 29, base edition EN 14587-2:2009), giving presumption of conformity with the corresponding TSI INF track-component essential requirements; the reference was updated to the current EN 14587-2:2024 edition by amending Decision (EU) 2025/424 (new row 29a), with the 2009 edition's presumption of conformity withdrawn on a deferred basis (6 March 2025). Parts 1 and 3 are not OJ-cited. Track-welding contractors, rail suppliers and infrastructure managers running relaying and welding-qualification programmes are the standard's core users, alongside EN 13674-1 (rail profile and steel grades), the standard the welded rail grades themselves must conform to.