轨枕是钢轨赖以托身的基础,是铁路线路上部建筑的重要组成部分。在铁路存在的一百五十多年中,木枕和混凝土枕一直是传统的轨枕,并早已被人们所熟习。至于与混凝土枕的年令相差无几的钢枕,人们对它还比较陌生。其实,在铁路发展史上,钢枕也并不算年轻,它已有近七、八十年的历史了。早在三十年代中期,美国和德意志联邦共和国(当时的德国)铁路就已经铺用了钢枕。据报导,西德联邦铁路当时铺设钢枕的线路已占其线路总长的20％左右。三十年代以后至今的四十多年中,由于爆发了第二次世界大战等多次战争,使钢铁的消耗量剧增,钢铁的价格也成倍地增 Sleepers are the foundation on which the rails rest, and are an important part of the upper part of the railway line. For more than 150 years of railway existence, wooden pillows and concrete pillows have traditionally been sleepers and have long been familiar to people. As for the steel pillows, which are almost the same as those of concrete pillows, people are still unfamiliar with it. In fact, in the history of railway development, the steel pillows are not too young. It has a history of nearly seven to eighty years. As early as the mid-1930s, steel ties were being laid on the railways in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany (then Germany). According to the report, the line that laid down the steel pillows of the German Federal Railway now accounts for about 20% of the total length of the line. In the more than 40 years since the 1930s, due to the outbreak of many wars such as the Second World War, the consumption of steel has soared and the price of steel has doubled.