Working rail roads and their tracks.

[California]

On the abandoned rails I walk on around here, there’s a few spots with thousands of feet of long sections of rail just laying there. Can‘t believe nobody will retrieve them.

There was a post above saying if you show up at a scrap dealer with RR stuff they call the cops.

 

[dodge man]

Through my work as a land surveyor I learned quite a bit about RR right of ways. I believe it takes something on a national level to abandon a RR row. I did a couple surveys where a very long gone railroad existed but it was never formally abandoned and probably never will be. It’s hard to even see where it was in most places.

 

[ArlyA]

There was a post above saying if you show up at a scrap dealer with RR stuff they call the cops.

Not were I work. We cut it and load it.

 

[Hay Dude]

There was a post above saying if you show up at a scrap dealer with RR stuff they call the cops.

Yeah, I’m not suggesting I go steal it or anything

 

[Hay Dude]

East Penn busy here on the home front replacing ties and leveling ballast

 

[MossRoad]

On the abandoned rails I walk on around here, there’s a few spots with thousands of feet of long sections of rail just laying there. Can‘t believe nobody will retrieve them.

I think I recall you posting some of those pics a while back. You'd think there would be some value in them, if nothing, for scrap. There was a spur here in town that served Notre Dame and St. Mary's power plants for coal delivery. They stopped using the spur in the 80s because a bridge over our river needed extensive repairs, so they brought the coal by train into a yard on the SW side of town and trucked the coal the last 6 miles.

About 8-9 years ago they finally came in and pulled all of the old tracks and ties out. It took just a couple weeks to get all the old tracks up and out. They had some rough terrain loader with a grapple. It made short work of it.

 

[Hay Dude]

I think I recall you posting some of those pics a while back. You'd think there would be some value in them, if nothing, for scrap. There was a spur here in town that served Notre Dame and St. Mary's power plants for coal delivery. They stopped using the spur in the 80s because a bridge over our river needed extensive repairs, so they brought the coal by train into a yard on the SW side of town and trucked the coal the last 6 miles.

About 8-9 years ago they finally came in and pulled all of the old tracks and ties out. It took just a couple weeks to get all the old tracks up and out. They had some rough terrain loader with a grapple. It made short work of it.

I think I come up with these ideas from my maternal grandfather. He saw value in things people would overlook. He did all kinds of “out of the box” thinking 99 out of 100 people wouldn’t ever think of. He recycled hundreds of Philadelphia electric postal trucks the city gave up on in the 50’s-70’s. Made lots of money recycling the aluminum bodies and batteries.

I could access that iron rail fairly easily. It’s between the Newlin Gristmill and the old Concordville Rail station very close to Wawa.
Just a matter of cutting back branches & small trees for about 1/2 mile then driving a tractor, chaining to 3 point, lifting 3 point like a log skidder and pulling them out to the Newlin Gristmill parking lot & loading on my trailer.

But then there’s the whole issue of who they belong to and how to start the process.

 

[ultrarunner]

Seen lots of small shop anvils made from rail and very usable for small projects.

 

[ArlyA]

The rails we get in are cut into 3ft lengths and sold to mini mills.

 

[MossRoad]

I think I come up with these ideas from my maternal grandfather. He saw value in things people would overlook. He did all kinds of “out of the box” thinking 99 out of 100 people wouldn’t ever think of. He recycled hundreds of Philadelphia electric postal trucks the city gave up on in the 50’s-70’s. Made lots of money recycling the aluminum bodies and batteries.

I could access that iron rail fairly easily. It’s between the Newlin Gristmill and the old Concordville Rail station very close to Wawa.
Just a matter of cutting back branches & small trees for about 1/2 mile then driving a tractor, chaining to 3 point, lifting 3 point like a log skidder and pulling them out to the Newlin Gristmill parking lot & loading on my trailer.

But then there’s the whole issue of who they belong to and how to start the process.

Yep. My folks and their folks lived through the great depression. So pretty much anything had value. They passed that on to me. And now I have buckets of scrap wood, scrap metal, pile of scrap glass, etc. I may use it some day!