I got an email back from the Mn DNR. They will be letting out bids next year for removing the rails n ties of the Minnesota Zephyr line behind the house. I want to get enough rails for that day down the road when I have my own RR car in static display when I get my own place. So I’m guessing I will need total 120 feet of rail for 60 feet per side. Are there any markings for what weight rail it is? Some I have seen is from about 1910. I have a place to store the rail. I have a heavy duty F250 and could build 2 “A” frames in the bed to carry sections of it above the cab. Aren’t most sections 30 feet long? Anyone know what price I should expect to pay for it?
My guess is you’d have to wait to see whose bid wins and see if they will sell you a couple of rails. I’m pretty sure the state won’t let you come and take up a few pieces of rail yourself, leaving the rest for someone else to remove. I’d think an online search would give you some idea of the current scrap value of rail. Since the company removing the track will probably be selling the rail for scrap, I imagine they would sell a few pieces to you at scrap value if you agreed to come pick it up.
Jointed rail is normally 39 feet long, unless it has been cut for a special purpose such as being adjacent to a switch. This standard length goes way back to the days when 40 foot flatcars were standard equipment.
Bruce
The web of the rail will contain information about all the particulars about when and where the rail was manufactured as well as the weight and original section contour of the rail head.
What if you get lucky and your RR car is a full-length passenger car ? So maybe you want to consider getting instead either 4 pcs. at 39 ft. long = 78 ft. per side; or, 5 pcs. at 33 ft. long = 82.5 ft. per side with 1 pc. cut in half; or, if they really are 30 ft. long, then 5 of those = 75 ft. per side.
At 100 lbs. per yard - merely a guess, but an easy and conveninent one for the little bit of math that follows - that’s 33.3 lbs. per ft. for each 39 ft. piece = 13 yards = 1,300 lbs. or 0.65 tons, and so on. Sure, it’s worn a little bit - but less than 10 % of those figures, in all likelihood.
While you might be able to build an ‘A’-frame for the bed of your truck, I doubt if the cab roof could take that kind of concentrated weight from even one end = half of a rail like that - which would be around 650 lbs. minus the wear. Then you have to consider the stability of each 33 to 39 ft. rail overhanging both ends of your truck, and supported mostly in the middle and not too far apart, and that high up - I wouldn’t want to do it. Instead, see if the removal contractor has a hydraulic boom crane on his truck and will deliver the rails for a few bucks more - or maybe a case of beer or two or something else more benign ‘on the QT’ to the truck driver and foreman of the removal crew will get that arranged for you.
Scrap value fluctuates wildly with the location, state of the economy, rail condition, time of year, etc. A good ‘middle’ value would be about $500 per Gross Ton = 2,240 lbs., which is about $450 per Net Ton of 2,000 lbs. So for each yard or 3 ft. of 100 lb. rail, that works out to about $22.50, or about $7.50 per foot of rail. Hence a 39 ft. piece would cost around $300, or $250 for a 33 ft. piece, etc. If the rail weight or scrap prices are different then - they’ve been down to as low as $150 per ton a year or so ago, and as high as $1,000 per ton about 2 years ago - you should be able to pro
Hopefully he will go out and read the rail in a couple places (The raised letters as opposed to the stamped/indented heat numbers on that 1910 Open Hearth rail which is probably 33 ft. sticks from the billets and mills of the time.)…plus sufficient OTM for that size rail.(on probably about 44-50 ties)
One section behind the house has 1903 on it. I’m guessing the rail they laid here in 1870 would all be lighter than what is there now and gone. I doubt I’ll ever have the money for a passenger car. I’d like to get a PS2CD high side hopper car some day and paint in CNW green. If I really got lucky coupled to it would be an SD40-2.
You should figure about 10% by weight for OTM, Other Track Material, at same price per ton as the rail. You will want tie plates and joint bars to match you rail. Scrapper may save you some bolts and nuts if you ask ahead of time. Normal practice is to torch them off in which case you will have to find new and buy them by the each, both difficult and expensive.
Mac
I also have a 16’ car hauling trailer that might be another way of hauling them.
OR, I could rig up a truck axle to carry one section of rail at a time by making a simple frame off of the axle to support rail. And then rig up a coupler for a 2" ball hitch so that it can bolt to the front of the rail. Similarly to how people pull logs one at a time with a garden tractor, ATV or farm tractor using the log as the frame of this trailer. I have an add on Taillight kit with magnetic bases and an extention flat 4 wire cord so the lights can reach the end. If I hauled it this way I would only do it in good daylight as that would be a long trailer: 40’+ 18’ long F250.
Rail is marked with information regarding what it is, where and when it was made. For example this is a portion of the marking on one rail:
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This rail was produced by Algoma Steel in their Sault Ste. Marie facility. It is 100 lb rail (100 ,lbs per yard) and made with the R.E. (something) cross section. Probably out of the picture to the right was date of manufacture.
The ‘‘R.E.’’ means it is one of the American Railway Engineering Association’s standard rail sections - the AREA was the main predecessor of the current AREMA. Here are links to a cross-section drawing of it, and more information
http://www.akrailroad.com/Images/100_lb_rail.gif
http://www.akrailroad.com/rail-sections
http://www.akrailroad.com/tee-rail-sections-data
- Paul North.
Interesting thread discussing rail weight. While chairman of our rail holding company every time we had a “green” employee we would give him a problem to solve before our next meeting: How much does a yard of 130 pound rail weigh? Some got it and some really were perplexed.
Have them carry it around for a while - and then they’ll figure it all out quick enough . . . [swg]