Railroad Rail

[boomer12831]

I purchased a wood lathe a few years ago that had a 3ft piece of railroad rail attached underneath for weight. I wasn't to comfortable with how it was attached so I removed it. I sold the lathe after a couple of years so I could upgrade to a better one. The piece of rail is sitting next to my garage with no real purpose. I saw on Craigslist today that a guy had a 2 foot piece for sale. I have heard that you can be questioned by railroad police for selling stuff like this because they figure it was probably stolen. Any thoughts on this and also what would a piece of this be worth ? Thanks for any advice.

 

[PugetDude]

Are you sure it's railroad rail and not crane rail?

 

[boomer12831]

It's railroad rail.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I have a couple of different pieces of rail, Different weights. No one has ever questioned where it came from. I see it at yard sales a few times a year. Around here it is dirt cheap. I think the most I have sent on any of it is 2.00 Good luck.

 

[tjdux]

When lines go out of commission they have contractors come remove tbe rail for scrap around here but sometimes the farmers are offered the land w tracks intact and they sell it/scrap it.

I think it all depends on how much you sell and if any has come up missing near where you live. Plus railroad rail comes in different weight per foot and to a degree could be tracked to where it came from. Say if the RR police are looking for a certain poind per foot that may prove yours isnt stolen.

Or just make a big anvil out of it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Mickey O]

I've got many pieces of RR rail and have sold many pieces for use as anvils, never had any calls or visits from the coppers.

 

[nickelmore]

You can "have it" but you can't scrap it in Illinois. Only the actual railroad can scrap it and its documented to the hilt. Or so they say.

 

[ken w.]

Here in Western New York those rails are laying around everywhere. I have cut up a bunch and have put them on CL for anvil's. I've never had any problems.

 

[RVDan]

When it's taken out of service it's sold for scrap and often the scrap yard will sell chunks of it to people who want to bolt a wood lathe to it.

I have several pieces, mine were actually brand new endcuts, I have family that works on the tracks.

 

[padroo]

Crane rail is rated by a three foot piece. Our heavy crane rail was 175 pound rail and that was three foot long. That was the heaviest rail used in the steel mill.

 

[Sawdustmaker]

You can "have it" but you can't scrap it in Illinois. Only the actual railroad can scrap it and its documented to the hilt. Or so they say.

Same here in CA, and it does need to be documented.

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

I have found small chunks of rail "discarded" on rail road property, and thought why the heck would they discard a chunk like that. Some mischievous would put it in a bad place and cause issues with trains (or so my pea brain imagines). I've taken a few many years back, but don't have any currently. Small piece, maybe 6" end with flame cut / rough opposite end. I get the scrap control.. I also know that many abandoned rail roads must be a real pain to show who the successor "owner" really is...

 

[gungatim]

I know you aren't supposed to scrap rail, and you can't take it off the RR right of way even if it is out of service and junked...but I also know not all rail is owned by a RR. private spurs can be owned by the business...when I worked at a steel slitter, we had a bad piece of rail and the RR wanted us to pay them to replace it since it wasn't technically "theirs"....our cheap boss bought us carharts and a couple torpedo heaters and made us hourly's take turns pouring gas and lighting the ground around it to thaw and pry out the old track (it was January, and like 10 below at the time)...we didn't even get to keep the carharts...and the damaged rail went into our scrap bin.

 

[ratdoggy]

I manage a scrap yard and I can get in lots of trouble if they snoop around and find stuff.
I don't want to see a couple of RR spikes and the plates for them in our pile.
Can only buy from RR with documentation,,Same as stuff from town or cemetery

 

[58Yeoman]

My longest piece is about 5' long, and was here when I bought the house. My shortest piece is sliver thin, and was an "adjustment" to the rail where I worked. I have other pieces around a foot or so that I use for anvils. When I was growing up in the 50's, a neighbor guy scrapped cars, and he would put rail plates and spikes under the seats of cars that he took to the scrap dealer.

 

[ssffnomad]

Hi Boomer. Locally the Rail Kops are probably busing chasing down Sleds & Wheelers .

 

[bwringer]

Never thought about the regulations surrounding rail, but it makes sense.

I inherited a piece about a foot long from my Grandpa's garage. It does indeed make a great anvil and I've used it many times in the hydraulic press to hold up one end of something.

 

[ishiboo]

I looked at buying a piece of property and it had a rail extension from the steel yard across the street still on it. The sellers had to make a written guarantee it could be removed. The railroad wanted nothing to do with it.

 

[rburke65]

Oh I have plates and spikes from RR ties I have purchased for retaining walls. I later burned them and saved the plates n spikes.

 

[M_George]

I have a section of RR track that I often use with a ******* to form curves in sheet metal. I initially got it to use as an anvil before I got a real one.

 

[nine4gmc]

They sell pieces of RR track on ebay, I don't think it's as big of a deal as it was 50yrs ago. I too have several pieces of RR track I have picked up at yard sales and junk piles. It's not worth a lot unless it has some old rare RR stampings that some collector may be interested in.

 

[Technologyteacher]

Scrap yards here have a display of rails, spikes, plates, and otherRR metal with big letters saying it was illegal to sell or have it

 

[boomer12831]

I know what you mean SSFFNOMAD. If they aren't chasing the sleds and wheelers then the Conservation officers are. Thanks to they rest for the advice.

 

[hotrodbrad]

Car guys dropping it low and dragging the tail will be looking for it. Better to spark on some sacrificial metal than actual frame! Never heard of any law problems.

 

[southalabama]

I've got a piece of rail. This area used to be full of logging railroads. It wasn't standard gauge. It smaller. On my list of things to do is measure and weigh and figure out what gauge it is.

 

[avmaine]

Unless they are missing some and you have a lot, they wont bother you. There are no unique identifying numbers on stick rail. ANNND you can buy it as a private person brand new. So who is to say you didn't. In the airport hangar business, they put rail in concrete for the door wheels to ride on.

 

[Sawdustmaker]

I've got a piece of rail. This area used to be full of logging railroads. It wasn't standard gauge. It smaller. On my list of things to do is measure and weigh and figure out what gauge it is.

Since it is from a logging area it is more than likely Standard Narrow Gauge (SNG). SNG allows the construction of a curve with a smaller radius and a narrower rail bed. Easier to maneuver through the logging areas. I'm willing to bet that somewhere in that area is an old Shay Locomotive sitting in the woods or on display. Here in CA close to Yosemite is Sugar Pine Railway with three working Shay Locomotives giving tours through the old logging areas.

BTW SNG is 36 inches rail to rail.

 

[RedVise]

I have sold 2 1' pieces of RR rail in the last month for $30 a piece.
The last guy said the prices of anvils have gone sky high and he was glad to buy the RR iron at that prices.

Brian

 

[Falcon67]

They relaid a bunch of track here - maybe 10 years now? - so the RR could up the speed of freights. So there are tons - literally - of rail laying around by the tracks. They came through about a year after the upgrades and loaded up big piles. And then just left some. ?? Big joints - 20' or so, nothing small. Abilene was doing some road resurfacing west of town and the RR finally came an loaded up a huge pile of plates and carted off several sections of pre-fab rail+ties that apparently was laying on city property/easment. And again, left 2~3 long pieces of rails in the dirt. At least the city could park their equipment used for road work. Rail here, rail there - just scattered down the line for 20 or 30 miles.

 

[jeeper46]

The Willow Run "Bomber" plant had a whole network of rail around it-even when I worked there, railcars were pushed into the plant for shipping out transmissions. After this ended, the tracks fell into disrepair, and were torn up in places. I noticed a lot of the rail itself had dates like 1941 on it (the time frame that the plant was built), and so did the track plates. I picked up a few of the dated ones as a souvenir of the B-24 days. Who knows what happened to all that rack after the plant was demolished-probably went straight to China for scrap, I imagine.

 

[Wooga1976]

I'm a railroad conductor / engineer . First day class they told us about scrap metal being property of company and removal was theft . They've caught people that the scrap yards reported . The pics I've seen is usually a truckload or better . I've seen people arrested riding along the tracks picking up metal or cutting up old tracks . I've seen peices of metal in same spots for years .

 

[Ttyson]

Railroad rail is also rated by 3 ft sections. 90# rail is a 3 ft section weighing 90#....etc...could also have the mfg cast in the side and its weight...I don't think you'll go to jail for a 2 ft pic....now if you had 200 ft you better have a receipt for it

 

[TractorJeff]

Scrap Yard down the road when I was growing up used to sell it for Piles to retain the Ties (think along a stream bank). Everyone has a foot or two laying around, A couple of Ton is not a good idea.
For that matter, there are 2 rotting Ties laying out in the woods. One has a plate and a spike still holding it. Is the dead property owner going to be arrested? Or the new property owner who doesn't even know its there?

 

[malibu101]

A bit over 30 years ago 2 guys used to go fishing and drive on an old, unused railroad bed along the river that the tracks and ties were taken away long before that leaving a path that a 4WD could easily travel.

The poles were still up along with remnants of wire. The wire had a copper color but was very hard to cut.? (The 2 guys weren't as smart back then.)

But anyway they worked hard to take down a Chevy C10 truckload of wire. When they went to the scrapyard they were told it was copper coated steel wire and they took it as steel.
The 2 guys were very disappointed.
But they weren't questioned about it, but, it was a bit different times back then.

 

[starquestMM]

You can "have it" but you can't scrap it in Illinois. Only the actual railroad can scrap it and its documented to the hilt. Or so they say.

Interesting, I hadn't thought about it that way whatsoever. My grandpa lived in IL and worked for a railroad as a labor and then trackman, so there always had small pieces of rail around. Growing up I would have never considered them contraband

 

[ptgb]

25 year police officer here. The NTSB has sent out a letter (I saw it with my own eyes) to every scrap yard in my area. Basically it says if you buy even a RR spike as scrap the Feds will close you down and charge with a crime.

They are rightfully deathly afraid of low-lifes cutting up active rail lines to get money for their dope.

 

[58Yeoman]

^^Yeah...remember when they were stealing manhole covers?^^

 

[KenC]

I hauled a small load of scrap a couple of weeks ago. While cleaning up my pile I found a small bucket of spikes and just set them on the trailer. I have an friend that makes little stick figures with them. I intended to unload them at the shop to give to him. Well, I forgot and they where still on there when the guys were unloading the trailer at the yard.

they were very clear that they were NOT allowed to take them and left the bucket on the trailer.

So that confirms what others have said. You can possess, but not sell.

 

[boomer12831]

Thank you for all of your replies