Railroad rails.

[Pa Pa Jack]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

 

[lilranch2001]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

I am not an engineer, but I would venture a guess that not much in an 18 foot span of a bridge

 

[bcp]

First, rail comes in many sizes.

Rail& Crane Rail

Second, rail is pretty flexible compared to steel beams.

http://www.maritimejournal.com/__data/assets/image/0008/809927/London-Gateway-3.jpg

 

[ericher69]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

This may give you your answer

http://ijce.iust.ac.ir/files/site1/user_files_6k93w6/ijce-A-10-3-242-712841b.pdf

 

[lilranch2001]

When I had our rail spur rebuilt 5 years ago, they would move the removed rails with a backhoe by hanging it from the center of the rails, and if my memory serves me, the ends would droop about 18 inches from center hanging point.

Rails are not built to bridge distances, ties are only about a foot apart

 

[TCJatko]

I'm guessing they won't support much load. Of course, they would do much better if you could prevent lateral flexing by bracing, like bridging between floor joists.

 

[SPIKER]

Agreed with others here, Rails are not SPAN RATED they must be supported rather close spacing. They are also made from materials that are not real forgiving vs that of an I-Beam. They may make OK back stops and or fence post & gates but not for span of a bridge.

Look for semi trailers and even some older mobile homes have real good frames under them & make pretty good bridges for light equipment. I have a 12' span bridge built form a 60's mobile home frame. I pull 3 yard dump trailer full of wet gravel with my 5K lb tractor over it. Not much flexing or creaking from it but the treated SYP deck boards are getting bad. There are Teli Poles bolted to the out side edges which the 2x8 SYP boards are screwed down to.

Mark

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

Thanks for the responses. My back-up plan was to cut some of the huge cedars I have on my property. Some are over 30 feet tall. My concern is that they seem to rot quicker than I expected when I lay them down. Might be the wrong type of cedar.

 

[muddstopper]

Wish i had a dollar for evey boken rail I have changed. Rail hold lots of loads, but only if it is supported by ties with sufficient ballast substructure. No way i would think about spanning 18ft for a bridge. rail comes in many different sizes. Every rail i have ever seen will have the size, date of manufacture and type written on the web . Most mainline rail now is CWR, ( continuous welded rail) and will be 130 -132lb or above. some CWR is 100lb, some laid as ribbons (1320ftlenghts) and some flashbut welded in the field to make CWR.I have seen 75lb rail on gut lines and sideing, and ocassionally some 65lb in industry tracks but now days hardly ever see anything smaller than 85lb. To estimate the weight of a lenght of rail, look for the size printed on the web, which is the weight of a 3ft section of the rail. For examble, if your 24ft long piece of rail is 85lb you would divide the lenght by three and then multiply that number by 85, or 8x85=680lbs. If 132lb rail, then 8x132=1065lb. I have seen a lot of different sizes of rail so even if the numbers on your rail dont match anything i have suggested, the number you find will be the weight for that type of rail.

 

[duwem]

Sounds like your best bet is to take the rails in for scrap and buy some other materals.

Sometimes you can get electrical poles for free if the utility is replacing them. They of course have a limit too.

 

[bcp]

Build a road grader with the rails.

Bruce

 

[LD1]

No go on the ties.

Wrong kind of steel and just not enough depth to them to make them strong enough.

Get some Steel I-beam that is of sufficient size. Something along the lines of a 8 or 10" beam should be fine for average sized vehichles.

It is the "deep" part of your statement that has me worried. You want to make sure to do it right if you are crossing anything "deep"

 

[WaterDoc]

I agree with the "No Go" on the rails for your bridge. The "deep" term frightens me as well. To see how much vertical flex their is in a rail (even with ties <12" apart) go watch a freight train lumber along and look at the vertical deflection. The rails on the track don't have much laterally (horizontal) deflection because they are nailed to the ties with the spikes. Your bridge would be like spaghetti when you had a load on it. If deep is over two feet, I would NOT want to be on it with equipment or a loaded truck. I would go with the suggested "I" beam. See if any of the local railroads are rebuilding any of their bridges. Locally when UP redid theirs, they gave away up to 20 ft lengths of 12"-18" I beam salvaged from them. They also had large diameter, about 15-16" timbers that were 20+ ft in length that they gave away as well. That I beam would build a bridge strong enough to handle an Abrams Tank. All we needed to do was get them loaded onto our trailer without destroying it or us. The rails make excellent cattle guards and will also make good obstacles to keep the advancing hoards of people off your property when the apocalypse begins. Good Luck!!

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

The gully is 10 feet across and about 8 feet deep. I figured on about 3 feet on each side for some type of footing that would not sink or move. The most weight on the bridge would be my Mahindra and a trailer I use to haul firewood. I have no good access to the back of my property otherwise. I'll skip the rails and seek another solution.

Has anyone had any dealings with this company?

All Terrain Bridge | ATV Bridge, Golfcart Bridge, Pedestrian Bridge, Small Bridge

 

[lilranch2001]

The gully is 10 feet across and about 8 feet deep. I figured on about 3 feet on each side for some type of footing that would not sink or move. The most weight on the bridge would be my Mahindra and a trailer I use to haul firewood. I have no good access to the back of my property otherwise. I'll skip the rails and seek another solution.

Has anyone had any dealings with this company?

All Terrain Bridge | ATV Bridge, Golfcart Bridge, Pedestrian Bridge, Small Bridge

Nope, but I am going to contact them, as this site interests me

 

[aczlan]

I might look for something like this: 10 ton equipment trailer or a semi flatbed and lay that across with a concrete foundation on each side.

Aaron Z

 

[bcp]

1. Flat "containers" are sold for bridges. These are 40. They also make 20's.
Heavy Steel Bridges 40ft



2. Use a 20 box container or old truck trailer, open both ends, and have a covered bridge.



3. Semi truck or trailer frames are used for farm bridges.

4. Railroad flat cars are often used, but this is more interesting.

 

[CliffordK]

Are you wanting a foot/ATV bridge? Or driving cars, tractors, semi trucks, etc across it?

The rails might make interesting runners for a suspension bridge. Ten foot isn't too long of a distance. If you had 4 support cables on your suspension bridge, that would put your supports at about 2' each, or well within what is used to support a train.

Out of your 3 24' rails, you could make:
2 - 14' runners.
4 - 10' posts.

You'd still need your cross planking.

I'm not sure I'd drive a car across it, but it should be plenty strong to walk across, or drive a 4-wheeler across.

 

[WaterDoc]

A mobile home frame would work well for what little weight you are going to be moving across. It looks as if you are not going to be presenting much over a 3 or 4 ton load on the bridge. If its only 10 ft across and you have three 24' rails I would not worry about getting anything else and just build it. I have used good 15' railroad ties for bridges on the ranch crossing creeks that are 7' across and 4' deep with no problem. We run a Ford 4000 pulling a 20' trailer with hay across it all the time (8 - 10 tons gross) for the last 10 years. Just make sure you have a good base on each side for whatever is going to span the draw AND that the walls will not crumble out from under you. We have lots of 8-9' RR ties so we lay four of them parallel to the creek on each side for the foundation and lay the longer ties on top spanning the water.

bank H2O bank
l-l-l-l---------l-l-l-l l RR Tie
l-l-l-l---------l-l-l-l l -------- 15' RR Tie


We use two or three of the 15' ties and then place one or two layers of 2"x12"x8' rough planks (full 2" not planed) perpendicular to the 15' ties. We have never had a breakthrough. We do monitor the planks and ties though just to make sure. You could do the same using the rails instead of the 15' ties. You would have 5' or so on each side of the draw. I would drive my tractors across your bridge since its such a short span. Good Luck Dr. S

 

[lilranch2001]

A mobile home frame would work well for what little weight you are going to be moving across. It looks as if you are not going to be presenting much over a 3 or 4 ton load on the bridge. If its only 10 ft across and you have three 24' rails I would not worry about getting anything else and just build it. I have used good 15' railroad ties for bridges on the ranch crossing creeks that are 7' across and 4' deep with no problem. We run a Ford 4000 pulling a 20' trailer with hay across it all the time (8 - 10 tons gross) for the last 10 years. Just make sure you have a good base on each side for whatever is going to span the draw AND that the walls will not crumble out from under you. We have lots of 8-9' RR ties so we lay four of them parallel to the creek on each side for the foundation and lay the longer ties on top spanning the water.

bank H2O bank
l-l-l-l---------l-l-l-l l RR Tie
l-l-l-l---------l-l-l-l l -------- 15' RR Tie


We use two or three of the 15' ties and then place one or two layers of 2"x12"x8' rough planks (full 2" not planed) perpendicular to the 15' ties. We have never had a breakthrough. We do monitor the planks and ties though just to make sure. You could do the same using the rails instead of the 15' ties. You would have 5' or so on each side of the draw. I would drive my tractors across your bridge since its such a short span. Good Luck Dr. S

If this bridge is built as suggested please advise all of us where it is so we can steer away from it
:shocked: