The railroad switch is an important part of turnouts. The surface of the switch rail could be easily worn and peeled because of its poor working condition. Laser cladding technology can significantly improve the surface hardness of the railroad switch, and the wear and surface damage resistance as well as service life are accordingly improved. A Fe-W-Cr composite coating was successfully prepared on the surface of U71Mn railroad switch using high-power semiconductor laser cladding technology. The microstructures, phase formation and elemental distribution of the coating were tested, and the hardness, impact toughness, and friction and wear properties of the coating were analyzed. Results show that there is no pore, crack or other defect in the coatings, and the metallurgical bonding between the coatings and the substrates are effectively established. The dendrite structures exist in most of the region on the coating, and networks of carbides are distributed around the grain boundaries. The average hardness of the coatings is 876.8 HV (the hardness of railroad switch rail is 252.3 HV), the impact toughness is 2.30 J/cm 2, and the friction coefficient is 0.31(the friction coefficient of railroad switch rail is 0.63). Under the same friction and wear condition, the wear loss of the coating is 0.0043 g, which is only 10.54% of the substrate (the wear loss of substrate is 0.0408 g). The hardness and wear resistance of the railroad switch are significantly enhanced using laser cladding, effectively improving its service life.