Rail road Rail

**DiamondN** · 08-03-2013, 05:45 PM

Years ago, when I was clearing off my late uncle's farm, I ran across a rotting stump inside of an old wood shed. I thought it was a strange place for a stump to be stored. The much older (and wiser) gentleman that was with me said to look around for an anvil, as it was common practice to mount anvils atop stumps on dirt floors. We dug around in the dirt, and sure enough, there was the tip of an old anvil sticking up. It was one of those old railroad based anvils and looks to have been made using a cutting torch. I still use it to this day.

**newattitude** · 08-03-2013, 09:58 PM

My dad has a piece from HIS dad from way back when. There were two, I took one piece on my very first scrap drop off and got yelled at.

You cant get in trouble for owning it (what are they gonna do? arrest you for your father or grandfather for taking it in the first place??) but you can get in trouble trying to scrap it.

**TheRecycleGuy** · 08-04-2013, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by newattitude

My dad has a piece from HIS dad from way back when. There were two, I took one piece on my very first scrap drop off and got yelled at.

You cant get in trouble for owning it (what are they gonna do? arrest you for your father or grandfather for taking it in the first place??) but you can get in trouble trying to scrap it.

what about a case where you have written authorization from the R.R. company, cause behind my house is old old tracks that im thinking of calling them up and see what they say. once permission (written) is given a scrap yard should have no problem.

**Mick** · 08-04-2013, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by TheRecycleGuy

what about a case where you have written authorization from the R.R. company, cause behind my house is old old tracks that im thinking of calling them up and see what they say. once permission (written) is given a scrap yard should have no problem.

Take the letter to the yard with you and let us know. Like it was explained to me - You need that letter from the RR whose name is stamped on the rail. If that RR is defunct, you'll need a letter from the current owner of the defunct RR property. If there is no current registered owner, you can't possibly get that letter, right? If there IS a current registered owner, they won't give permission to remove RR property. Either way, it means you're not getting a letter.

**JohnC4X4** · 08-04-2013, 04:51 PM

4 foot lengths in the trunk of car being scrapped has never raised any red flags

**sawmilleng** · 08-04-2013, 05:18 PM

In my part of the world, there was lots of mining in the old days where a guy would dig a rathole in the rock and use those little mine cars like you see in museums. The rail was about half the size of regular RR rail. Does that stuff count as fair game? I got a few chunks I dug up when I cleared some land in the back 40.

What about rail that you can buy yourself by going to your friendly neighborhood steel supplier? I used to order the stuff to replace rail track used in lumber dry kilns--the wood was put on little cars that ran on rails thru the kilns. The environment inside the kiln would rust out the rails in a very short time.

I suspect that the kicker might be in the fine print--a railroad rail that has a name embossed on it, such as might be the case when a railway company custom ordered a thousand tons of rail...they would be able to custom order anything they wanted rolled into the rail as it was being made...

So if a rail section cannot be traced to an owner, ie, not having a RR name on it, wouldn't it have to be assumed to be just a piece of steel?

Jon.

**newattitude** · 08-06-2013, 12:04 AM

^^^Jon, mine didn't have a stamp on it and they still yelled at me. I think, with this kind of thing (where folks have old sections of rail from way back when scrapping laws weren't an issue) it just all still falls into the current law guidelines. it doesn't matter if the pieces I had/have were 80 years old or 10 years old, its still illegal for the yards to buy them from curbside scrappers or the average homeowner who just happens to have a piece of rail in their possession.

I mean, no way can I trace the pieces I have at dads nor authenticate and get any type of receipt of possession from them to be able to legally sell them. Unfortunately we aren't grandfathered in.