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voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak

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Frogs

Nortrak offers a comprehensive portfolio of frog solutions engineered for freight rail, transit, yard, terminal, and heavy haul applications across North America. Each design is optimized for specific operating conditions, balancing maintenance requirements, ride quality, impact management, and lifecycle performance.

  • Moveable Point Frogs (MPF)

    Moveable Point Frogs (MPF) provide a continuous running surface through the frog area, virtually eliminating impact loads commonly associated with fixed-point designs. MPFs are widely used in high-density freight, heavy haul, passenger rail, and transit applications where ride quality, reduced maintenance, and extended component life are critical. The two primary North American designs are the Forged Billet Vee Point and the Long Point/Short Point configuration. 

     

    Key Benefits

    • Continuous running surface minimizes impact loading
    • Very low maintenance costs
    • Impact reduction eliminates the need for weld build-up
    • Reduced noise and vibration
    • Controls and resists thermal stress in Continuous Welded Rail (CWR)
    • Proven in some of the world's heaviest traffic applications
    • Buy America compliant

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  • Welded Boltless Manganese Frogs (WBM®)

    Welded Boltless Manganese Frogs (WBM®) eliminate all rail joints on the frog, providing a continuous running surface unaffected by CWR stresses. Commonly used in Class I heavy haul and passenger rail environments, this design is also well suited for commuter rail, LRT, streetcar, and embedded track applications where smooth transitions and reduced maintenance are important.
     
    Features Benefits
    • Hi-Solidity EDH manganese steel
    • Common footprint with RBM frogs
    • Frog base cast to rail base profile for simplified plating
    • Bonded and bolted heel and toe blocks
    • Reduced maintenance
    • Elimination of bolted rail joints
    • Continuous running surface
    • Resistant to CWR stresses

  • Welded Spring Manganese Frogs (WSM®)

    Welded Spring Manganese Frogs (WSM®) build upon Nortrak's long history with spring frog technology by incorporating a manganese body and welded heel rails. Designed for freight and heavy haul operations, the design replaces wear-prone rail, block, and bolt assemblies with wear-resistant manganese steel and flash-butt welded connections, extending frog life.
     
    Features Benefits
    • High-Solidity EDH manganese steel
    • Continuous running surface
    • Large multi-tie base plates
    •  Reduced maintenance
    • Low-impact operation
    • Extended service life

  • Solid Self Guarded Manganese Frogs (SSGM)

     

    Solid Self Guarded Manganese Frogs (SSGM) are proven workhorses of the rail industry for yard, terminal, and transit applications. They can be manufactured to standard AREMA requirements or optimized with flange-bearing properties and tapered rail connections to increase component life.
     

    Key Benefits

    • Proven service performance
    • Self-guarded design
    • Available with flange-bearing optimization
    • Tapered rail connection options for extended life

  • Rail Bound Welded Frogs (RBW)

     

    Rail Bound Welded Frogs (RBW) feature a solid manganese body with heel rails flash-butt welded directly to the casting. Commonly used in freight and passenger rail applications, the continuous transition across the welded heel greatly reduces impacts, resulting in smoother rides, prolonged service life, and reduced maintenance.
     
    Features Benefits
    • Tough manganese steel core
    • Welded 'No Impact' heel design
    • Reinforced heel construction
    • Meets or exceeds AREMA specifications
    • Explosion hardened to exceed 352 BHN when specified
    • Reduced impact loading
    • Smoother wheel transition
    • Extended service life
    • Reduced maintenance

  • Rail Bound Manganese Frogs (RBM)

     

    Rail Bound Manganese Frogs (RBM) are manufactured to meet or exceed all AREMA requirements and are among the most common frog designs used on freight and passenger rail systems throughout North America. Their proven design makes them well suited for mainline turnout applications where reliability, durability, and lifecycle value are critical.
     

    Key Benefits and Features

    • Robust solid manganese body
    • Universal toe and heel rail design
    • Reduced point impact
    • Reduced point wear
    • Reduced noise and vibration

  • Jump Frogs

     

    Nortrak's Jump Frog is ideal for applications with low tonnage and low speed on the diverging route. The design incorporates a continuous running rail on the through route and flange-bearing ramps on the diverging route. Designs can be adapted to North American freight and transit requirements.
     
    Key Benefits
    • Eliminates impact loading on the through route
    • Reduces noise and vibration
    • Reduces maintenance
    • Robust design with no moving parts
    • Uses high-solidity manganese steel / EDH construction
    • Unaffected by thermal CWR stress

  • Partial Flange Bearing Frogs

     

    Partial Flange Bearing Frogs are a hybrid of a conventional self-guarded frog and a pure flange-bearing frog. Designed for yard, terminal, and transit applications, they allow wheels to traverse the frog in either tread-bearing or flange-bearing mode depending upon wheel wear profiles. The resulting distribution of wheel loading yields significant improvements in frog life.
     

    Key Benefits and Features

    • Robust solid manganese body
    • Universal toe and heel rail design
    • Reduced point impact
    • Reduced point wear
    • Reduced noise and vibration

Suggested Applications

Frog Type Class I Freight Commuter Rail Heavy Rail & Transit Shortline & Industrial LRT & Streetcar High Speed Rail
MPF ● ● ●     ●
WBM® ● ● ●   ●  
WSM® ●          
RBM ● ● ●     ●
RBW ● ● ●      
SSGM   ● ● ●   ●
Jump Frog   ● ● ●    
Partial Flange Bearing   ● ● ●    
Download Frogs Brochure

Why Choose vaRS Nortrak Frog Solutions?

From standard yard applications to North America's most demanding heavy haul, freight, passenger, and transit networks, vaRS Nortrak delivers frog solutions engineered to meet specific operational requirements.

Backed by decades of turnout engineering experience, vaRS Nortrak offers a comprehensive portfolio of frog technologies designed to improve performance, extend service life, and reduce lifecycle costs. As part of voestalpine Railway Systems, customers benefit from North American railway expertise combined with access to global railway innovation and system solutions.

Advantages of vaRS Nortrak Frog Solutions:

  • Comprehensive portfolio for freight, transit, heavy haul, yard, and terminal applications
  • Products engineered to meet or exceed applicable AREMA requirements
  • Turnout engineering expertise and application-specific solutions
  • Advanced wear-resistant technologies, including EDH-treated manganese components
  • Manufacturing capabilities located in North America
  • Support from the broader voestalpine Railway Systems network, including foundry, manufacturing, and railway systems expertise.

Manganese Casting Expertise

Many vaRS Nortrak frog solutions are built around premium manganese steel castings, including RBM, RBW, SSGM, WBM®, and WSM® configurations.

A key advantage of vaRS Nortrak is its in-house foundry and manganese casting capabilities. By maintaining control of the casting process, from design collaboration and manufacturing through quality assurance, vaRS Nortrak ensures the consistent material quality, dimensional accuracy, and performance required for demanding turnout applications.

Engineered for severe impact and wear conditions, these castings provide the toughness, work-hardening characteristics, and durability required for demanding turnout environments.  Through advanced manufacturing processes, stringent quality controls, and in-house foundry expertise, vaRS Nortrak delivers manganese components with exceptional impact resistance, superior wear performance, and long service life.

The result is reliable performance across a wide range of freight, transit, yard, terminal, passenger rail, heavy haul, and high-speed rail applications, helping railways maximize asset life and reduce maintenance requirements.

Discuss Your Turnout Requirements

Whether you're planning a new installation, upgrading an existing turnout, or evaluating frog technologies for a specific application, the vaRS Nortrak team can help identify the right solution for your network.

Contact our team to discuss your project requirements, operating environment, and turnout performance objectives.