How the Railway Fish Plate Keeps Our Trains on Track
If you've actually walked alongside a train track, you've probably noticed the small metal pubs holding the rail ends together, termed as a railway fish plate . They aren't exactly the flashiest part associated with the infrastructure—they're usually covered in rust or grease plus tucked away near the ground—but without them, the whole rail system would basically be considered a disaster waiting around to happen. It's one of those bits of engineering that hasn't changed a whole lot in over a century, simply because the original design worked wonderfully. ...