Hi everyone
Is there an online source for deciphering the date codes and manufacture codes on the rail webs? If I think what the code looks like it should tell me there is some rail on a siding near my RR club that dates from the 30s.
Pete
Your raised lettering on the web of the rail usually says that.
weight of rail – particular section-mill method -mill name-date year- month rolled (repeated several times on the rail)
90 20 RE-OH Bethlehem 1930 lllllllll
(the indented stamped-in numbers are the “heat numbers” that tell you pedegree and ingot/billet data …sort of a mill serial number)
You have permission to be walking live track?
Mudchicken
Its not a very live track. It sees a trash train 4 to 6 times a week and a tourist train 6 times a week. If it was not for the Mass Coastal RR the track would be abandoned and the dinner train would be scrapped. I believe the ROW is owned by the state so it would kind of make it our RR.
Thank you for the info and next time I will write some codes down. How rare is rail this old? Is there an expiration date for rail in heavy traffic areas? How long can rail remain in service?
Pete
I have a 30 inch piece cut from a branch line being abandoned which says " NCRM Co. XII 80". This translates to “North Chicago Rail Mill Company December 1880”.
This piece came from track adjacent to my home where I saw my first train as a 3-5 year old and is 56# rail weight. It sits on my fireplace hearth.
Rail that is of 1930’s vintage isn’t that old, especially in side tracks. There is still older and smaller rail in service that is 50 years older (or more) that came over here by boat from Europe (and had a different way, not always easilly decodable, of showing when made and of what size).
Rail will remain in service until it gets too expensive to maintain (older rail is mostly open hearth [OH]and subject to abnormalities/anomolies in the steel that cause breaks) , when replacement parts (OTM like angle bars, tie plates, nut bolts and especially frogs and switch points) get to be too hard to replace or the tonnage increases. Rail is really durable stuff, managed properly.
Massachusetts was far sighted in saving some of the NH/PC corridors that it did. Unfortunately the State also did an incredibly poor job of managing what they got, made no attempt to understand what they got and is at the top of the list of poor custodians of the land and record keepers. The horror stories I have been shown on Bay Colony and Old Colony lines cost the public a small fortune later on and could fill a good sized book. (pure ignorance of railroad basics and ineptitude on the state’s part)
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"Its not a very live track. It sees a trash train 4 to 6 times a week and a tourist train 6 times a week. If it was not for the Mass Coastal RR the track would be abandoned and the dinner train would be scrapped. I believe the ROW is owned by the state so it would kind of make it our RR. "
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1.) It only takes one train to kill you (and probably at low speed, …the number of pedestrian tresspassers killed by trains is rising, grade crossing collisions are falling…you probably won’t see the one that kills you for that matter
Have two pieces of Krupp rail here from the original California Southern that somehow got cascaded into a backtrack near Redondo Junction…
First rule of railroading safety is to expect a movement or train on any track at any time in any direction. That used to be in the public’s mind, too, but no longer. There is still no excuse for tresspassing on railroad tracks or disrespecting and disregarding rules or the common sense of safety if you don’t know the rules.
Aside from that, I guess you have several questions. Your posted question is about dating rail. Most rail is date stamped witht he name of the mill or steel company which produced it, and usually in regular date code by year: 1953, 1965, 1924, etc.
Your second, and vieled question, is whether or not 1930 rail is safe for the traffic. It apparently is. Railroads don’t want accidents, be it frieght or passenger, because it disrupts the transportation process, damages property and equipment, can result in injury or death, be costly to clean up, and be even more costly to defend in court. Thier insurance companies (even the “self insured”) would not allow an operation of property in an unsafe manner. Therefore it is probably a safe bet that the track is in a condition to support the service being rendered, the railroad and its employees and managment, pretty well know what they have and what they can do. Do 90lb stick rail on rotted ties in a cinder ballast mean they are going to fly across the track at 80 plus MPH? Of course not. Overall they do know what they have and what they have to do…
Unless the law has changed within the past few years, the FRA requires an annual Sperry Rail Service or equivalent check of the rail if passenger service is ran on the line. If the rail was unsafe just because it is 50 years old, the FRA would not issue an operating permit.
This may be a dumb question, but wouldn’t it be possible to read the date codes on the rail without having to trespass? (Assuming a relatively narrow ROW) A pair of low power binoculars should make them readable when standing a safe distance away from the tracks if they can’t be read with the naked eye.
I can only imagine that having to do even one accident survey involving a pedestrian would sour you on people walking the tracks (cue stories about FRA rules written in blood). I would guess that many of the pedestrians hit were thinking that it isn’t any different than walking along a road and not aware of two critical differences: 1) unlike a car,the train isn’t able to swerve; 2) also unlike a car, the train probably can’t stop in time.
The original poster strikes me as being in less danger (note less not zero) than some of the bozo’s I see on the SDNRR (AT&SF) Surf Line - don’t get me started on the Surfrider Foundation…One thing in common is the track involves a lot of trip hazards - and I know someone whose boss was killed after tripping on the tracks in Del Mar in the early 1990’s.
- Erik
[Edit-June 5th: The SD UnionTrib reported that a woman was an apparent suicide by train in Del Mar this afternoon. The engineer applied the brakes but couldn’t stop in time.]
Yes that works.
I dispatched a train one day that killed a bicyclist. He decided to climb through the train switching on the crossing, and died en route to the ER. I got to answer the radio and call 911 on behalf of the crew, and relay messages back and forth for hours. That was a very unhappy day. Some here on this forum like to smirk about “Darwin Awards” but I don’t want to see anyone’s life lost. Anyone. Ever. Any reason. All of us have our own blind spots and capability of doing foolish things, and I doubt we’d appreciate others smirking at our deaths or dismemberments.
I believe railfans are watching for trains at all times. That is why we are near the tracks, but not neccesarily trespassing.
Just to second Erik, it’s completely possible to read date codes without trespassing—I’ve done it more than once. Particularly in the Northeast, the right-of-way is often quite narrow; it’s often possible to be on non-RR land perhaps twenty feet from the nearest track. (Of course, you can get closer than that at grade crossings or on station platforms.) At such distances, you don’t even need binoculars, unless your eyes are even worse than mine.
Of course, if you want to read date codes off a rail in the middle of a yard, you might need those binoculars, and not every ROW is as narrow as I’ve said. But safety/legality and reading date codes are quite compatible if you’re willing to put a little thought and care into it.
Peace,
–Peter
It’s easy in many areas to see the codes without trespassing. As for the thing about Darwin Awards, although I don’t like it when accidents happen and people wind up dead, when somebody blatantly does stupid stuff (like the usual trying to beat the train, for example), you just have to sum it up as natural selection at work, and be quite happy that the stupid genes won’t be passed on any further in that case. It’s really not bad at all in those cases as compared with a true accident.
In addition to all of what mudchicken posted (above): One of the better on-line sources - though there are others - is the A&K Railroad Materials, Inc. “TEE RAIL SECTIONS-DATA” chart at:
http://www.akrailroad.com/OnlineCatalog/RailJointBars/TeeRailSectionsData/tabid/76/Default.aspx
In particular, the 2nd column - “Type of Rail” and the last 3 columns under “Section Designation” would be the most useful to you for the “manufacture code” information; the dates should be obvious.
- Paul North.