Okay. For the record, the bridge rail that I have is approximately 56 inches in length and weighs approximately 56 pounds (according to my balance scale). One can imagine that it would have made a fine "necktie" courtesy of Uncle Billy's men. Most rail historians seem to overlook the fact that steel rails didn't exist at that time. Iron is very ductile and certainly did get heated up and wrapped around trees.

That said, the "neckties" could and were straightened out in the field. Haupt determined that rails could be straightened in the field, so long as they were only bent and not twisted. Twisted rails required reheating and rolling to make them usable again.

I really enjoyed reading this thread a few years ago. So how about some 134 year old rail that still carries passengers! This is all on the BC Forest Discovery Centres 3 foot gauge railway near Duncan BC Canada. The oral history on this rail is that it is from the original construction of the Canadian Pacific, when the CPR purchased the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway in the early 1900's some of this rail was being replaced on the mainline and so was used for the expansion of the E&N. As the E&N was upgraded this rail again became surplus and found its way into logging railway use, as railway logging was winding down in the 1950's this rail was purchased by Gerry Wellburn for his private railway and logging museum, which later turned into todays BCFDC. It's also interesting to speculate as to where it was first used, assuming it was first used in BC it may have been used on the Onderdonk contract building eastward from Yale BC, if this is the case I wonder was it shipped 'round the horn direct from Britain, or across the USA by rail. The rail from Blaenavon Wales is particularly interesting as this was the iron works where the Gilchrist Thomas steelmaking process was developed, and is today a part of a UNESCO world heritage sight.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Blaenavon_Ironworks

We have rail in our yard at work that carries tons of tank cars every day. Some is as old as 1912. That may not seem that old in this context, but to think that it was 15 years before a diesel locomotive had been introduced, and was the same steel technology as the Titanic.

Steve

The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum (WW&F) in Maine recently purchased about 160 tons (~1.5 track miles) of 60-lb. rail from the much lamented Kettle Moraine Scenic RR in Wisconsin, meaning it's ex-Milwaukee Road. The rail will be in use again in the next few years as the WW&F continues its northward expansion down the original ROW toward Head Tide.

I had a chance to examine the new rail pile this past Saturday during the WW&F Spring Work Weekend and found it to be mostly Joliet rail with mill dates in the 1880s, so roughly 130 years old.

I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the markings, but this is what it looks like in aggregate:


-Philip Marshall

I notice no one answered "Hot Metal" question (from the first page of this thread) about "pear rail".

Pear rail was a pretty standard profile for American iron rail in the 1850s and 60s. It was designed to be connected with "chairs" (see photos attached below). The Central Pacific used pear rail and chairs up until the fall of 1866. The chairs were a pain and slowed construction. The tie that supported the chairs had to be adzed to accommodate the thickness of the chair. And the rails didn't always fit the chair, but had to be driven on with sledges. Transitioning from chair to "fish plate" joint bars (along with adopting longer rail) sped construction somewhat, but the rail's pear shape limited the size of the joint bars. Oddly, the CPRR continued to use pear rail until 1871, making do with skimpy joint bars.

Because the first steel rail laid on the CPRR (also in 1871) is more modern T iron, it is easy to assume that the change from pear to T corresponded with the transition from iron to steel. And, I have never seen T iron, or pear steel, but I'd not want to claim that both transitions were simultaneous. The first steel rail was rolled at Ebba Vale (Wales) in the 1850s, and the first steel rail in America was rolled at North Chicago in 1868, and I'd imagine that both were pear profile. Still, it's a pretty good bet if you have pear rail that it's iron. Once you've seen both polished, the difference in quality is clear.

The first photo shows a piece of pear rail in position in a chair. The spikes fit through notches in the base of the rail, serving to resist creeping. The second photos shows chairs in place. Note, the CPRR and Southern Pacific used only "square" rather than staggered joints until roughly 1900.

Here's the second photo.

One small clarification to the above, the first steel rails rolled in the US were rolled by the North Chicago Rolling Mill Co., which was actually located in Chicago, along the North Branch of the Chicago River, about where Finkle Steel was until recently, not the city of North Chicago as the name might imply.
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2793.html

I remember seeing some of that CP 1880s rail at Mesachie Lake, BC in 1978. This was the track used by Hillcrest Lbr. Co. One siding at Snoqualmie, Washington is still laied in English rail from Moss Bay Steel which came around the horn for construction of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Ry.

The Snoqualmie Depot (east of Seattle) has a short section of 1888 Joliet rail:

Someone woke a thread from a few years back that I haven't kept track of.

Going through the pages of the thread, that picture with the Grand Union is actually taken in Johnstown, PA at the US Steel Moxham Works (nee - Johnson Steel Street Rail Company) on the south end of town.

I had a job a few years back where I was asked for a cost estimate to reinstall the recently torn-out trackage of the Johnstown and Stony Creek.

Everything you could ever possibly want to know about the history of this mill is at:

http://www.johnstowncafe.com/johnstownhistorylocjohnsonsteelstreetrailcompany.pdf

Also, a lot of info (and pictures!) here:

http://faculty.upj.pitt.edu/jalexander/Research%20archive/Johnson%20Company/Johnson%20Company%20Historical%20Archive%20Part%20II.htm