This paper presents an experimental investigation on 60E2 (UIC 60) rails loaded in the transverse direction up to five million load cycles. A resonance testing machine was applied to achieve a test program with different load levels and a loading frequency of 15 Hz. First, the experimental approach, which includes the specimens, the test setup, the test program, the corrosion treatment as well as the additional slow bending tests, is introduced in detail. Subsequently, the rail steel material behaviour, the fracture characteristics of the rails, and the corrosion effects are analysed and summarized; the fatigue strength of the rails is evaluated with the staircase method and compared with the fatigue strength of rails loaded in the vertical direction. In general, the rails show good fatigue resistance in the transverse direction, which is larger than that in the vertical direction and close to the static yield strength. As a result, a new comprehensive Smith-diagram of the UIC 60 rail for five million load cycles is presented. In the end, necessary further investigations are discussed.