The study focuses on the removal behaviours of rail material during grinding at different forward speeds, which provides a better understanding for improving the grinding efficiency and quality. The results indicate that the rise in forward speed leads the grinding efficiency to increase and then decrease, and the grinding process is the most efficient at the forward speed of 3 km/h. On the other hand, with the forward speed increasing, the grinding quality is improved, i.e., surface burn, surface hardness and white layer thickness decline. The wear form of a grinding wheel consists of rail material adhesion, abrasive fracture and abrasion wear. It is suggested that the forward speed should be higher than 4 km/h in the field.