Using Railroad Track for bridge beams

[Spooler]

We are replacing all the 90 lb rail (90lbs/foot) at our plant with 120 lb rail to serve today's larger cars. I now have access to sticks of the 90lb rail in various lengths (most 20+ ft) at no cost. I need to build a bridge to get my Kubota M6800 across a creek on my farm. A couple of times a week I stand there and look at this rail and wonder if I can use it as the beams for a bridge to span about 20 feet. The tractor has a loader and the tires are ballasted so I'm figuring about 9,000 lbs of weight.

Has anyone used rail as bridge beams?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jyoutz]

We are replacing all the 90 lb rail (90lbs/foot) at our plant with 120 lb rail to serve today's larger cars. I now have access to sticks of the 90lb rail in various lengths (most 20+ ft) at no cost. I need to build a bridge to get my Kubota M6800 across a creek on my farm. A couple of times a week I stand there and look at this rail and wonder if I can use it as the beams for a bridge to span about 20 feet. The tractor has a loader and the tires are ballasted so I'm figuring about 9,000 lbs of weight.

Has anyone used rail as bridge beams?

Thanks in advance.

Talk to an engineer and they can run the calculations for you.

 

[gstrom99]

Free is nice but, geez those would be hard to move and do want you want.

 

[Eagle1]

Rail track is pretty flexible, I have a walk over bridge about 30' span using two tracks to support 2x6 planks. Has worked well but it is bouncy, a couple of my dogs won't cross because it moves too much for them. They are in 140 lbs range. Good news except for changing the planks it's been 30+ years and has never failed no matter how many are on the bridge. Less than 4' wide so I don't drive anything across.

 

[Hay Dude]

We are replacing all the 90 lb rail (90lbs/foot) at our plant with 120 lb rail to serve today's larger cars. I now have access to sticks of the 90lb rail in various lengths (most 20+ ft) at no cost. I need to build a bridge to get my Kubota M6800 across a creek on my farm. A couple of times a week I stand there and look at this rail and wonder if I can use it as the beams for a bridge to span about 20 feet. The tractor has a loader and the tires are ballasted so I'm figuring about 9,000 lbs of weight.

Has anyone used rail as bridge beams?

Thanks in advance.

My guess would be no.
You should start a thread in the trailers & transportation forums bout the rail replacement. Lots of rail fans here.

 

[Leejohn]

I would say not good, they bend to easy.

 

[flyerdan]

You could have the top rail straight and have one below it with an upward arch that would give it cantilever strength, but that would have each side at nearly 2000 pounds, kind of hard to get across the span to place.
At any rate, I hope you glom onto the free rail anyway, you never know...

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I would vote terrible idea. I have seen them unload near my place and they seem very flexible.

 

[4570Man]

There’s a reason the railroad track has supports every foot or so. It’s flexible. A semi trailer would be your cheapest option.

 

[KennyG]

I agree. Wrong material for the job. Beam strength comes from the vertical depth of the member, which is why the I-beam is such a popular component.