A rail brace assembly for buttressing the head of a traffic rail as a rail brace with upper and lower slanted surfaces adapted to engage corresponding surfaces on a traffic rail. The rail brace assembly includes a bearing insert having a main body portion with a top surface adapted to engage a resilient fastener, a bottom surface adapted to engage a rail brace and a downwardly depending leg adapted to be received in an opening defined in a brace plate which engages a bearing surface on the rail brace and a bearing surface on the brace plate to cause lateral loads applied to the rail brace on the bearing insert to be resisted by the brace plate. Also, the rail brace assembly includes a shoulder secured to the top surface of a brace plate adapted to receive one leg of a resilient fastener and a resilient fastener having one leg adapted to be inserted into a shoulder opening and another leg adapted to engage the top surface of a bearing insert.