This work presents the initial steps given in order to obtain a comprehensive physical model for the specific case of wheel rail contact, which would be able to relate contact conditions, material properties and wear rates. The main advantage of a physical damage wear model is that wheelset an rail manufacturers can perform simulations in order to improve and optimize material properties for different operational cases. The initial work has focused on delaminative wear, starting with the importance and modelling of rough contact, and a comparison against classic smooth contact models.