An ultrasonic railhead investigating apparatus (18) comprising a side looking transducer (20) with a lens (64) to focus the beam in a manner whereby rail defects in the sides of rail heads (22) are more readily detected. In one form of the invention a side looking ultrasonic rail investigating transducer is provided with a curved emitting surface (64) and located so as to place the focused acoustic beam between a side of the rail (52) and the rail center. The curved emitting surface can be part of a cylindrical suface aligned parallel with the longitudinal axis of the rail or a spherically shaped emitting surface to provide a conically shaped beam for investigating the side of a rail.
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