Rail Car demolition

NAAsty · Feb 18, 2004

I recently purchased some land that happened to come with an old rickety railcar as a bonus. It's up on rr ties, and very stable, however due to the condition of the car, I cannot get liability insurance on the land. The ends of the car are 1/4"-3/8" thick metal and very solid. I'm guessing there is some decent salvage money for the ends, but I have no idea what it'd take to handle them. Does anyone have experience with an old railcar and demolition/salvage?

AndyMA · Feb 18, 2004

I suggest you try and give it away to someone who will take it. Make sure the person you give it to has liability insurance. I would also call a local scrap yard to see what the price of scrap iron is these days. Not much I expect. If you want to get rid of it yourself, get a torch and cut it up. Do you have a tractor and truck to haul it away? Also remember there is probably a lot of material in it that is not iron so you have to get rid of that also. I've also had 30 yard dumpsters brought to an area to get rid of many different kinds of stuff. You may need to get two, one for the steel and the other for the "trash"' Good luck.

BTW I also had problems getting liability for vacant land. It turns out that many insurance companies won't insure vacant land that has any man made structures on it. The counted stone walls and barb wire fences as man made structures. You may find you can get insurance through an "excess lines" carrier without removing the car.

Andy

Andy

AndyM · Feb 18, 2004

I agree with Andy. Put an ad in the newspaper advertising a free rail car. You'll be surprised at the response. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Like he said, make sure they have some sort of liability insurance when they come to remove it, whether they have the means to do it in one piece or if they tear it apart and remove it.

If you tear it apart yourself, I believe the last scrap steel we got rid of at work varied between $0.02 and $0.05 per pound. It will be at least enough to cover the cost of your dumpsters and maybe some change. There's even some companies will provide the steel dumpster and "misc trash" dumpster for free, provided you "give" them the scrap steel in the dumpster.

rdbrumfield · Feb 18, 2004

If it is a flatcar, someone would love to have it for a bridge.

KubotaSteve · Feb 18, 2004

Just be extremely careful if you attempt to cut it up yourself. I'm not sure about railcars, but I know on passenger trains that the frame just sets on the wheels. I was talking to a guy who works for Amtrak (maintaining passenger cars) at Union Station in DC. They can pick the car up and change out the wheels when needed. Those wheels can weigh several tons too. I'm not sure how you would dismantle those. I think I would have to contract that out.

chucko · Feb 18, 2004

how deep of a hole can you dig?

Lazy · Feb 18, 2004

Hi
I think I would contact the local model train clubs in your area or use a cutting torch and save the steel for projects if I didn't want the car. but Im a collector of junk I never throw anything away.

charlie.

rdbrumfield · Feb 18, 2004

I just came back from buying some steel. Folks, around here it just went up 30% and onother hike is on the way. CHINA IS BUYING UP SCRAP AT 300 a ton. I couldn't believe my ears. And one more thing. The government has contracted India to take care of our income tax returns. Imagine that, now our ssn's have been given to a foriegn country by our government, and a high tech one at that. Sorry, had to blow off some steam, I'm sure there is a better forum for this.

BUCKSNORT · Feb 18, 2004

before you do anything check with your local area or state railroad preservation society or a local /state live steamer club.
many of the older cars are worth much more in one piece.if all else falls you could get an estimate of its value for tax/salvage purposes.it might be worth a lot more then you think.even with the preservation society's they are tax exempt and you could simply donate it at a certain value to them,if i can help send me a private email .all of us old railroaders hate to see our history disposed of.. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

NAAsty · Feb 20, 2004

I'll try to attach a picture, which you'll see, there is not a lot of value for this piece. It's a hazard ( I hate to actually agree with the insurance company). These old box car "barns" are all over in this neck of the woods.

One salvage company did quote $120/net ton, which he said was way up. If they were only made to be disassembled... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

rdbrumfield · Feb 20, 2004

Looks like a fortune in bird house boards. There a lot of folks that do crafts that like the weathered boards. Might be some in your area. Might check with some gift shops, they would probably know the people that would live to work something out for them.

RonR · Feb 20, 2004

Unless someone would come out and dismantle/take all the wood, I'd be tempted to burn it (with permit of course) and then salvage the steel. Would be a lot easier I think. Then you'd have to scrape and bury all the hardware that came out of the wood.

My two Cents........
Ron

Lazy · Feb 20, 2004

Hi
If it were I, I would get my cutting torch and cut a few pieces of steel from it and let it accidentally catch on fire. Looks like it would be completely gone by the time the fire department could get there.
Charlie.

Lazy · Feb 20, 2004

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

RonR · Feb 20, 2004

If it does burn, accidentally or otherwise, I wouldn't stand too closely. As I recall being around rail cars, they are soaked in creosote or other nasty things that probably give off a lot of toxic gases.

In other words, don't have a BBQ over the ashes!

Best wishes,
Ron

Junkman · Feb 21, 2004

I'll take the "reward" sign if that is a problem for you to get rid of. I have the perfect place on the wall just waiting for it to arrive. I will even pay for the sign and the postage to get it here. See, you are making money off that old rail car already.
You say that there are a lot of those cars in the area... What ever caused people to start using them on private property in the beginning? Doesn't seem like it is very easy to get them to the property and once there, it isn't very easy to move or remove them either.....

AndyM · Feb 21, 2004

All he needs to do is find out how they got it on the property, and use the same method to get it off the property. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Every great one in a while, I'll see a caboose in someone's yard and I wonder how they got it there. The last one I saw was sitting on a set of rails and was painted up quite nicely. I think they were using it as a guest house.

Alan L. · Feb 21, 2004

I wonder if the insurance co would go for it you tore off all the old wood and reframed it, put up some of that vertical siding, and painted it up real nice? Might an attractive feature for your property, and useful too.

RonR · Feb 21, 2004

Junkman, around here(Kansas), there are lots of old boxcars sitting on farm property. Most I've seen were used for hay storage. Initially, they might have been used for grain storage as they were fairly weather tight when newer. I don't recall any that had the wheels/carriage under them--they were set up on railroad ties and such.

My guess is this all happened in the late 40's/early 50's. I would guess they were moved by placing wheels under both ends and towing to the destination, much like you would move a house today. I've not seen any newer ones moved to the farms. I suspect any newer ones now are recycled by the RR.

Best wishes,
Ron

tomnky · Feb 22, 2004

Most time the Railroad Companies have them cut up for scrap onsite anymore. They sell them as scrap to someone who comes on site or has them transported by rail to where they can cut them up . /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif