Abstract: A method for rolling rails is provided wherein the final rolling operation includes processing of a rail blank in a leader pass universal mill stand and in a finishing pass universal mill stand. Both mill stands have horizontal rolls that form two roll passes, one of which is the leader roll pass and the other is a finishing roll pass. The rolls or the entire mill stands are interchanged from a previous location in a mill train to use an unused roll pass at the previous location, thereby doubling the roll life and eliminating the need to manipulate or otherwise handle the rail blank for passes in the mill stands.