Спереводом the railroad track the track is one of the basic features of a railway. it is also called the permanent way. in the early days of railroad building the workers first had to lay temporary tracks to transport the materials to the construction site. and only after that they laid down the permanent tracks or the permanent way, as it was called. the railroad track of today is quite different from the track used in the early days of railways. the first tracks had no ballast, the rails were made of wood and rested on heavy blocks of granite. then the wooden rails were replaced by iron ones, and the granite blocks were replaced by wooden ties or sleepers. this kind of track, however, was not strong enough for heavy steam trains. the discovery how to make cheap steel was of great importance to the railways for, when placed in the same track, steel rails had a life 15 times as long as iron rails. the distance between the rails is called the gauge. the standard gauge in most countries is 1,435 mm while in russia the railroads have a gauge of 1,524 mm. that gauge was finally adopted when the first main-line moscow – st. petersburg railway was under construction (1842–1851). thus russia was the world's first country where the uniform gauge was adopted for all railways. in america, the gauge was unified only in 1886. the place where the ends of the railds meet in the trace is known as the rail joint .the rail joint has always been the weakest part of the track for nearly all the rails wear out first at the ends .some railroads have 2 or more traces 2 in order to make the trains pass from one track to an other the railroads have a switch which is a very important element of the track.
