AS 1085.2 Railway Track Material – Part 2: Fishplates

The objective of this Standard is to provide purchasers and suppliers, including owners, operators, designers and manufacturers of railway rail with requirements for fishplates for use with rails in accordance with AS 1085.1 in railway track.

Changes to the previous edition are as follows:

1. Change of title of the AS 1085 series (previously Railway permanent way material).
2. The referenced documents list has been revised.
3. Reference to the withdrawn Standards AS 1213 and K1 have been removed.
4. The most recent version of the informative Appendix ‘Means of demonstrating compliance with this Standard’ has been included.

A review of AS 7470 was completed in 2024, during which the Development Group agreed on several key updates, including the introduction of a new tolerance for rail web height at the finishing surface. This change was introduced to resolve an issue where fishplates, although machined to precise tolerances, still failed to fit properly on smaller-sized rail. By establishing this new tolerance, the Standard seeks to improve the compatibility and fit between rail components, ensuring more reliable and effective connections in railway track systems.

This change reduces the risk of fishplates not fitting on smaller sized rail (projecting beyond the underside of the head of the rail).

It is recommended that RTOs review their internal standards against this change as part of the next document review cycle.

Use of this Standard will reduce the risk of track failure through failure of fishplates.