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I Forge Iron

Old way of cutting railroad rail


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Does anyone know how the rail workers would cut railroad rail while on the job back before torches were around and way before gas powered chop saws? I seem to remember a conversation that I had with someone and I believe I remember them saying they used to use huge cold chisels and hammers and just chisel the top and eventually the rail would break. This conversation might be a figment of my imagination but if any one has any knowledge of this I am curious to know. It is tough to cut rail with modern technology but they did it back in the day I am sure so how did they do it?

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I heard the rails for a streetcar were cut all around with a cold chisel, and next the piece was given (a few) tap(s) with a sledge. Other option is sqaing it with two people, saw a pic of two chinese workmen doing so. Tried it once and it works, but takes a lot of time... (oil helps).

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A coworker of mine's father retired from the railroad a long time ago. (He's 94) He said they would just score the top of the rail and drop it across another rail section and it would break off. Not sure how they scored it, though.


I work track maintenance for a railroad and the old heads say take a cold chisel and score a cut line across the top and sides of the rail. Set it up on a cross tie hang the end over and hit the end down with a sledge. I bet the workers could do this very quickly. The old heads said it was a clean cut also. Have to remember the rail was a lot smaller back then only in the last 35 years they have using big rail. I'm talking small rail as being 90# and 100# now the big rail is 133# 136# 141#
Remember back then the rail was jointed every 39' to 40' so if a rail broke the would change to the hole rail no cutting needed. Where they may need to cut rail would have been in a switch. It is cool how back in the good old days they had thing down to a science. The trains run just as fast then as they do today. But on time.
When scraping rail today all you have to do is cut through the ball and down into the web a inch or so and pick it up with a crane and it snaps straight down from the torch cut.
Hope I made this so it is understood.
Rick C
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sgropp, you have to remember what the purpose of the rail is.
it is meant for two things.

1: to not deform under extreme pressure
2: distribute that pressure to the ties that are under it

when you think about it like that you realize that the rail is not supporting the train the ties are.

feel better? :D

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Im not sure about cutting it but I have seen first hand a "C" frame punch that used rifle casings as power to punch holes for the tie plates, You put the blank in and smacked it with your hammer... and BANG you got a bolt hole....


I have a box of those cartridges in my collection. I would like to see the tool that does this job. Sounds frightening. I've only seen drawings of it..
Gobbler

19768.attach

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One of the locals here who is only 50 said when he worked in New Mexico every mornig they stopped and got a chest or two of ice.
They went out to the location where they needed to cut some rail.
Scored all the way around with the handled cold cuts and spike hammers
They then used jacks and put pressure on the rail which was spiked in place on the side of the rail they did not want to cut.
The then packed ice on the warm or hot rail and it broke were it had been scored.

As for drilling holes there was a manually operated drill similar to the drill to make timber frame mortouses. (SP) These were double crank like bicycle pedals but hand operated.

I have a single crank one. It bolted in one hole and there was a crank that was turned to drill with a blacksmith made flat bit make out of a file. Operated similar to the hand drill that was sold with a vise. You turned the handle for a while then tightened down the bit to continue drilling. Looks like a lot of work but then labor was cheap.

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Back during the war of northern aggression, as some reffer to it, haha when Sherman was marching to the sea his men would pull up the rail and make huge fires to heat the middle of the rail up and then the men would wrap the rail around the tree. They were called Sherman bow ties. So just get a bunch of your buddies and build a big fire and you could bend the rail, easy as pie.

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In the U.S., Warren made most of the track tools, first in Warren, Ohio, with the stamped trade name "Quikwerk." I think they may have moved to Hiram, Ohio, at a later time. In their Hiram catalog, they outline the dimensions and grinding specs for their "Track Chisel." It's overall length, new, was 10

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When I was young, a century ago or so it seems, a friend gave me the head of a tool that looked like a sledge hammer with a long, straight peen that was sharpened at an angle that was obviously for cold cutting steel. He said it came from a silver mine and was used by the guys who laid the track down into the mine. If one guy was to hold the handle and another to smack it with a double jack I GUESS they could cut a rail.
I rounded off the peen and use it as a straight peen forging hammer.

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