WHY GAPS BETWEEN RAILWAY TRACKS ? CHECK THE ANSWER HERE !!

In traditional railway construction, rails are laid down over sleepers, clamped to them and then fastened to one another by means of fishplates. These fishplates not only help the whole track structure to maintain its integrity but also ensure that a certain (small) distance between rails is kept. This is due to thermal expansion.

All metals expand when heated. If two railway tracks are laid together without any gap between them they will push against each other when they expand in the day time because of the heat of the sun, and when they cool down in the night they will contract and return to their original state pulling against each other.  This constant pushing and pulling against one another when they heat and expand in the day time and cool down and contract in the night will result in the weakening of the joints between the two tracks and after a few days the two tracks may also break free from one another. Such a situation will result in the derailment of the trains causing major accidents and loss of lives.

So, the railway engineers always leave a small gap between two rails to compensate for the expansion of the rails during the hot day time and contraction during cold nights.

Modern railways employ continuous soldered rails and track expansion devices at regular intervals (and usually at the start and end of bridges, tunnels, and other structures) to avoid the maintenance problems posed by rail thermal expansion and to increase rolling comfort.