Damages such as a crack location and length in a vibrating component might cause catastrophic failures. The existence of cracks alters the physical properties of a structure, which alters its dynamic response characteristics. As a result, there is a need to comprehend the dynamics of cracked structures. Natural frequency analysis on railway rails has recently gained popularity as a method for identifying vibrational modes. However, studies on the impact of crack length, depth, and position on railway tracks have not yet been fully understood. This paper aims to investigate the effect of crack length, depth, and location on natural frequencies of railway track. For the model simulation, the most commonly used parameters adopted by the Malaysian Railways track is the UIC60 type of rail profile cross section has been selected for analysis. Free vibration analysis was developed using Finite Element Analysis (ANSYS) to evaluate the effect of various crack locations for 45 and 50 mm crack length on natural frequencies of railway track. To establish the precise finite element model for free vibration analysis of railway track, convergence analysis and numerical verification were conducted. The present numerical simulation results were in good agreement with experimental modal results. The findings demonstrated that mode shapes of vibrations were slightly different when changing the location of crack with crack length had been designed 45 and 50 mm. In general, this study has made important contributions to understanding the effect of crack length, depth, and location on natural frequencies of railway track. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.