Abstract: The corrosion behavior of rare earth(RE) heavy rail steel was studied by a cycle infiltration corrosion test and an electrochemical technique under simulated industrial atmosphere. The results show that RE heavy rail steel has more excellent anticorrosive property than the other none-RE heavy rail steel. In RE heavy rail steel,α-FeOOH phase quickly forms and content increase in rust layer due to the enrichment of RE alloy elements in the matrix,RE alloy elements improve the ability of rust layer to prevent erosion of corrosive agent penetration,which improves the corrosion resistance of the heavy rail steel in industrial atmosphere.