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Blonde Girl Strips Her Red Underwear On The Railway
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Jointed track
Jointed track is made using lengths of rail, usually around 20 m (66 ft) long (in the UK) and 39 or 78 feet (11.9 or 23.8 m) long (in North America), bolted together using perforated steel plates known as fishplates (UK) or joint bars (North America).
Fishplates are usually 600 mm (1.97 ft) long, used in pairs either side of the rail ends and bolted together (usually four, but sometimes six bolts per joint). The bolts may be oppositely-oriented so that in the event of a derailment and a wheel flange striking the joint, only some of the bolts will be sheared, reducing the likelihood of the rails misaligning with each other and exacerbating the seriousness of the derailment. (This technique is not applied universally, British practice being to have all the bolt heads on the same side of the rail.) Small gaps known as expansion joints are deliberately left between the rail ends to allow for expansion of the rails in hot weather. The holes through which the fishplate bolts pass are oval to allow for movement with expansion.
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