<p>The quenching cooling rate induced microstructure evolution featured by the pearlite lamellar in pearlite heavy rail steels has close ties to the fatigue crack growth, which are worthy of being investigated. The growth rate, propagation path, microstructure, and the strain field at the crack tip in the crack propagation stage II of fatigue with three different quenching cooling rates of rail were analyzed by fatigue testing machine, digital image correlation (DIC) strain measuring instrument, scanning electron microscope (SEM), 3D microscope, and Abaqus software. The results show that the fatigue cracks of three kinds of rails mainly propagate along the edge of pearlite colony, and the finer the pearlite lamella, the smaller the slip zone, tear edge and cleavage step surface of fracture, the smaller the slope of fatigue crack growth rate, the better the fatigue life, which is attribute to the fatigue crack of rail with the thinnest pearlite lamella meets pearlite colony during the propagation process, and the crack propagation path is deflected and bifurcated, and branch cracks are produced. When the same crack length, the finer the pearlite lamellae of rails are, the larger the stress at the crack tip, the larger the stress intensity factor <i>K</i>, the longer fatigue life of rail. These findings provide new insights into the relationship between microstructural features and crack tip mechanical behavior that could lead to different mechanisms of pearlite microstructure evolution featured-induced crack growth.</p>