Using Railroad Track for bridge beams

[Hay Dude]

Related to rail:
When I go for hikes, I usually walk the abandoned tracks in my area. At one spot, there must be 100 lengths of track, probably 40’ long or more each just abandoned laying in the weeds for 40 years. This was a freight rail line back in the 70’s. I am no rail expert, but it looks fairly in tact and simply surface rusted.
Why aren’t they repurposed or recycled? They wouldn’t require too much work to get to. Only about 1/2 mile from the road and the railroad ROW is still owned by the railroad.

 

[bcp]

Cost for the RR to retrieve is greater than scrap price.

Bruce

 

[Eagle1]

But if you take their track they will come after you in court if at all possible. They are VERY protective of their ROW and track, even if their will NEVER use it again.

 

[Jstpssng]

But if you take their track they will come after you in court if at all possible. They are VERY protective of their ROW and track, even if their will NEVER use it again.

I'm the same way. Take something of mine without asking and I get rather POed. Why should they be any different?

 

[muddstopper]

Related to rail:
When I go for hikes, I usually walk the abandoned tracks in my area. At one spot, there must be 100 lengths of track, probably 40’ long or more each just abandoned laying in the weeds for 40 years. This was a freight rail line back in the 70’s. I am no rail expert, but it looks fairly in tact and simply surface rusted.
Why aren’t they repurposed or recycled? They wouldn’t require too much work to get to. Only about 1/2 mile from the road and the railroad ROW is still owned by the railroad.

I can give a partial answer. Rail is usually removed becaused it failed testing. The test cars cover a lot of gound in one day and the result is usually bad rail scattered all over. While one stick of rail might seem like a lot of scrap weight, it cost a lot of money to go pick up one piece of scrap rail. As far as repurposeing the rail, well it failed a defect test and you cant just put it back in service someplace else. It can be repurposed for things such as pile driving, retaining walls and such, but the railroads have been in place for a lot of years and most places that need retaining walls already have walls. I have worked with vranes picking up scrap, it usually involves a train engine and crew, several gondolas, and laborers to help stack the rail in the cars. The engine pulls the gondolas and crane on the track stopping to pick up each piece of rail, stack in the cars, and then move on to the next piece until the car is full and then they switch out the loaded car for an empty one and do it all over again. It takes a lot of rail to fill one gondola so you can see why the railroad company isnt exactly worried about one or two pieces of rail laying in the weeds.

 

[4570Man]

But if you take their track they will come after you in court if at all possible. They are VERY protective of their ROW and track, even if their will NEVER use it again.

Nobody would care if someone stole a few pieces of already pulled up abandoned rail in the woods. But if they didn’t take it seriously scrappers would be pulling up good rail which would obviously be expensive to replace but the bigger problem would be trains derailing.

 

[Eagle1]

Track here has not been used for 50 years and all the road crossings are paved over. I would still not take a piece of track. Seen some try and get busted. They will also take any effort to re-purpose their ROW straight to court, some local town just had to pull their new walking trail.....
Now the cast off concrete ties in the weeds you are free to take. These tracks would require an entire reinstall, new ties, ballast and most likely rail to put to any use. Thing is if they remove track they may never get their right to use it back and as such it is cheaper to defend their rights.

 

[Jstpssng]

One of our former clients had an old siding and when scrap was at it's highest he gave somebody permission to take it. There were trees growing between the tracks and his viewpoint was that eventually it would be forgotten, and could cause problems further down the line.

 

[Hay Dude]

I can give a partial answer. Rail is usually removed becaused it failed testing. The test cars cover a lot of gound in one day and the result is usually bad rail scattered all over. While one stick of rail might seem like a lot of scrap weight, it cost a lot of money to go pick up one piece of scrap rail. As far as repurposeing the rail, well it failed a defect test and you cant just put it back in service someplace else. It can be repurposed for things such as pile driving, retaining walls and such, but the railroads have been in place for a lot of years and most places that need retaining walls already have walls. I have worked with vranes picking up scrap, it usually involves a train engine and crew, several gondolas, and laborers to help stack the rail in the cars. The engine pulls the gondolas and crane on the track stopping to pick up each piece of rail, stack in the cars, and then move on to the next piece until the car is full and then they switch out the loaded car for an empty one and do it all over again. It takes a lot of rail to fill one gondola so you can see why the railroad company isnt exactly worried about one or two pieces of rail laying in the weeds.

It’s more like 50, but thanks for the explanation. Im sure even 50 pieces probably isn’t worth it

 

[redman135]

Is it practical to weld the rails togather in a truss style?