"Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message
...
In article , ED ROGERS
wrote:

How were rails made in the 1800's?Were they cast or did they have
rolling mills back then using steam or hydropower?



Rolling mills have been around a loooooong time.

The wheels for the trains started off as cast, but later were
drop-forged.

Rolling mills have been around since the mid-1700s, in England. I think the
first ones in the US were built late in the century. Some of the early ones
in England were steam-powered.

What they rolled, though, was "puddled" iron, a late version of wrought
iron. Railroad rails were made of wrought iron until the 1860s, at which
time they began to switch to steel. By 1880, the making of iron rails had
nearly ceased.

Ed Huntress