Sort I have gotten you all confused. I have gotten permission from the RR to collect a minimum amount of items. Yes it's a federal offense if you don't have permission. And I do it when no one is looking because I could me mistaken for someone taking materials illegally. I must stress again I haves gotten permission from several people that are in charge of taking care of the used material once they are taken off the tracks. And they said I have permission to take what I like within reason. I HAVE PERMISSION
But yes it is a danger to be on the tracks at all. But I am always at the track dump store where they dump the used materials until it is picked up