Mechanical attrition and mechanical alloying have been developed as a versatile alternative to other processing routes in preparing nanophase powder materials with a broad range of chemical compositions and atomic structures. This internal refining process results in a reduction of the average grain size to nanometer scales by the creation and self-organization of small-angle and high-angle grain boundaries within the powder particles. Similar observations have been made on heavily worn surfaces. Due to the large shear stresses at the rail/wheel contact area of high speed trains, a transformation of the pearlitic steel to a nanocrystalline state and the dissolution of carbides is observed. As a consequence, the microhardness is increased by a factor of five corresponding to about 12 GPa. This non-equilibrium material favors the development of corrugations causing considerable acoustic noise and the formation of microcracks leading to a steady devastation of the rail as well as the wheel. A comparison is being made between the physical properties of the nanostructured surface layers of the rail, ball milled powder particles and severely plastically deformed bulk samples with identical composition.