To provide a cooling apparatus for manufacturing high quality rails with high operation efficiency.

An operating grip for shifting a rail to a cooling medium vessel by gripping the rail to be cooled, is formed with a plurality of tongs having the same shape in the straight line to be operated so as to perform the same movement, and these tongs have gripping arms and these gripping arms are formed so as to have a centering portion for aligning the axial line of the rail head parts and a gripping portion for holding the straight line of the cross-sectional faces of the rail base parts, and the precise insertion of the rail into a positioning means and the fixing of the rail in the positioning means can be achieved.