Railroad rails.

Redbug · Jul 13, 2013

I have several pieces stored in the back. I never pass up a piece of rail. I have a friend that works for the RR. Some I have cut for ballast on top of my box blade, disk, and as a drag behind the tractor. I have some pieces cut to 12 and 18 inches long in my workshop for hammering. There's no way I would take any rail to a scrap yard for money. To me it's worth much more than that. Too many things you can do with it. It also makes great entrance posts cemented in with heavy cable and a lock in between. I guarantee you won't knock over RR gate posts cemented in deep without tearing up your vehicle.

6011Artist · Jul 13, 2013

You can't sell RR iron here either UNLESS you have a permit from the railroad. I have a buddy that was scrapping/cleaning up around his fathers farm. Said there were 2 sections of iron laying against the woods, been there for 40 yrs. He called the RR, they sent an inspector out to look at them. He wrote him a permit to sell the iron. They measured the RR iron and listed it on the permit. He was allowed to sell ONLY what was on the permit.

I know someone that runs a shredder/scrap yard. They say it is a federal offense to buy or sell RR iron without a permit.

busy dad · Jul 23, 2013

If it was me i would suggest buying a used flatbed trailer to build a bridge from..Normally available cheaply and work well ..18' would be nice and strong also..

henrybuchanan · Jul 27, 2013

I had a similar issue with a small creek behind the house. The creek is 8.5' wide and the banks were 6.5' tall. On the average day the creek carries about 8-9" of water. I started by widening the creek to 12' to keep the water depth down. I then cut ramps on each creek bank. Now I simply drive down into the creek and back up the other side of it. I had a few issues with deep mud in the creek itself; however I just laid two layers of flat rocks across the creek bed. I like bridges but there's something nice about driving through the creek. Good luck mate.

Pa Pa Jack · Jul 27, 2013

I had thought about that but the trail down into and out of the area is already fairly steep. By the time I cut it out to be able to cross, it would be a major slope. I want to use that passage to be able to haul a trailer out carrying logs for firewood. Even with 4WD I don't know if I could pull a load up that slope without creating a mess every time.

Pa Pa Jack · Jul 29, 2013

This might give you some idea how steep the trail is coming into and out of the gulley. It is a pretty steep slope. Cutting down to the bedrock at the bottom of the gulley would make it a lot worse.