What is this steel good for?

[Fire&Iron]

I found a bunch of these at the railroad track today and wanted to know what this is good for. I also found a pole that I believe is used to push the tracks when they are switched.  Any information about either of these would be appreciated.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Those are sleeper clips, they attach to the botom of the rail and prevent the sleepers (ties) from creaping for and aft on the rail. Similiar to spring steel so they make nives and ither tools

one must warn you that removing anything from an active rail right of way is a federal offence. I suggest you ask the nearest rail maintinance yard for permition first. 

Edited July 25, 2015 by Charles R. Stevens

[dickb]

They are also called rail anchors. They are used along with tie plates to stabilize the rail with respect to the road bed. Ditto on similar to spring steel. Judging from the shape, they are pretty old, made in the United States. and usually excellent quality.  good for knifes, tomahawks, punches, chisels,  nail headers.  

[ThomasPowers]

usually around 1050-1060 so about double the C as a HC RR spike

[Squirrelonastick]

So good find then!

[ThomasPowers]

Well if you need that type of stuff---then a great find.  If you don't, then it's just taking up space on your scrap pile.

[Steve Sells]

I found a bunch of these at the railroad track today and wanted to know what this is good for. I also found a pole that I believe is used to push the tracks when they are switched.  Any information about either of these would be appreciated.

 

1 to 8 years for the theft. Maybe 6 months more for the trespassing

[Nobody Special]

Mid-carbon rail clip. I don't know specifically what kind of rod you found, so possibly part of a switch. I think those are mild steel...they certainly bend easily enough if you run through one...

That said, stay off my rails! Unless it's major, or part of something still attached, it's not the theft that's annoying, it's the striking people with a train that's really irritating. (once every three hours in the U.S.)

Edited August 11, 2015 by Nobody Special

[Frosty]

Mid-carbon rail clip. I don't know specifically what kind of rod you found, so possibly part of a switch. I think those are mild steel...they certainly bend easily enough if you run through one...

That said, stay off my rails! Unless it's major, or part of something still attached, it's not the theft that's annoying, it's the striking people with a train that's really irritating. (once every three hours in the U.S.)

Thinking of it as evolution in action helps so long as you're not one of the poor saps who has to clean the train.

1-8 years we don't have to worry about someone splattering themselves over the landscape sounds like a good thing to me.

You'd think this horse would be dead by now but reading the forum before asking or saying something is just so old fashioned.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nobody Special]

It's always a bit strange to me that people walk the tracks and take whatever they want, and many get very upset if you suggest that it's anything less than a God given right. 

I get the temptation of steel laying around idle, but what would they do if I just wandered into wherever they work and take whatever's lying around not being obviously used?

[Frosty]

It's always a bit strange to me that people walk the tracks and take whatever they want, and many get very upset if you suggest that it's anything less than a God given right. 

I get the temptation of steel laying around idle, but what would they do if I just wandered into wherever they work and take whatever's lying around not being obviously used?

Situational ethics. I don't dare get going on rationalizing theft as anything but just ticks me off too much.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Steve Sells]

oo I didnt think anyone was using that 1942 ford, it has just been sitting in that field so long.. so I took it home officer... didnt think anyone owned it,  I though it just popped into existence like many say the universe did

[TwistedCustoms]

First of all my apologies to the admin for an earlier post I put up somewhat releted to this topic. I posted a link regarding RR Spikes without reading the TOS. Mea Culpa. The point I was hoping to make in that post was that there are perfectly legal ways to go about aquiring RR Spikes for anyone who happens to have a bit of a spike fetish. As for all the other RR iron, most of it is of marginal quallity for the things folks seem to want to use it for. Salvage yards yield massive amounts of good high carbon automotive steels that are easily researched online and are cheeper than dirt.

 There is a national program in the US called Rails to Trails where the railroad lines donate long sections of out of use railbed to be reworked into running and biking trails. The work is performed by volunteers from the R2T program. For anyone who lives close enough to one of these projects spending a Saturday volunteering to tear up old track would be a good way to stock up on some scrap do-dads.

[seldom (dick renker)]

ns, we used to call it thinning out the defective gene pool. nobody thinks about the train crew in those situations at all

 

[Squirrelonastick]

First of all my apologies to the admin for an earlier post I put up somewhat releted to this topic. I posted a link regarding RR Spikes without reading the TOS. Mea Culpa. The point I was hoping to make in that post was that there are perfectly legal ways to go about aquiring RR Spikes for anyone who happens to have a bit of a spike fetish. As for all the other RR iron, most of it is of marginal quallity for the things folks seem to want to use it for. Salvage yards yield massive amounts of good high carbon automotive steels that are easily researched online and are cheeper than dirt.

 There is a national program in the US called Rails to Trails where the railroad lines donate long sections of out of use railbed to be reworked into running and biking trails. The work is performed by volunteers from the R2T program. For anyone who lives close enough to one of these projects spending a Saturday volunteering to tear up old track would be a good way to stock up on some scrap do-dads.

there is a 50 mile long stretch of north-south bike trail from Fulton county IN to Kokomo IN that had this done.  I have seen while riding my bike a few piles of rail and doo dads still sitting next to the trail in the weeds.  I think they just tossed them to the side?

[Fire&Iron]

Thank you for the replies, and especially thank you for alerting me that taking scrap from railroads is illegal.  I had absolutely no idea and I definitely don't want to break the law. I always just assumed that things like that and railroad spikes were abandoned and that the company didn't bother picking them up.

[Stuart Stegall]

You can always find out who's rail it is, then ask them ... chances are they will say no, but if you're nice they might refer you to who they scrap to.  (Scrap relationships get weird, but sometimes you get lucky.)

[JimsShip]

I think the comparison to rr spikes and an old truck on someone's property is a bit inaccurate.

People often think of railways as public areas like roads. If you found a bolt or piece of rod along the road while walking, would you keep it?  Of course you would, you'd assume it fell off a truck or whatever and justify it as helping keep the roads safe while thinking of what you'll make with it.

Same thing with rr tracks, people think if the spikes are there then they are discarded and fair game, but the difference is people often forget railroads are private property. 

Edited August 15, 2015 by JimsShip