A steel splice plate bolted across the joint between two guide rail sections to maintain alignment and continuity of the rail.
Full Definition
Guide rails are supplied in standard lengths (typically 3 m or 5 m) and must be joined end-to-end to achieve full hoistway height. Fishplates — flat steel splice bars with precision-machined mating faces — are bolted to both rail sections at each joint, maintaining precise alignment at the joint and transferring guide shoe loads across the splice without a step or gap. Machining tolerances on the fishplate faces and rail ends are critical to passenger comfort; a misaligned joint causes a bump felt by passengers. EN 81-20 specifies maximum permissible rail joint deviations.
