Does anyone know what these are called? I think they were used to keep spare rail for easy access by MoW crews for small rail replacement jobs such as the occasional broken rail. We have these at several locations on the former Concord & Claremont branch in New Hampshire, and we'd like to be able to describe them correctly in our literature.

"Rail Rests" is what a number of roads called them. NYNH&H Valuation Maps showed them as "R.R."

These are undoubtedly original B&M rail rests. Interesting that they used 3 supports; I've only seen two supports, most always steel sections and old rail for the post in the ground.

Howard P.

a 39 foot rail will sag more than you might expect. If you happened to turn it on its side, i will easily bend enough it would touch the ground in he middle.

The center support, if aligned properly with the other two, would solve those issues as well as prevented the rail from becoming surface bent before ever being installed.

It also accommodates shorter rails, should the need arise.

Thank you for the information. I have seen these structures often and always wondered what they were called.

-Philip Marshall

These allowed MOW forces in northern climates to keep replacement rails high and dry in the spring, summer and fall and up and out of the snow in the winter so the rail could be found when there was more than a foot or two of snow on the ground.

Rob Gardner

Not dealing with rails frozen to the ground or encased in ice probably was nice, too. Especially if they were being handled by hand by the section gang that had to retrieve one.

Thanks all for the replies ... I'll go with "rail rests" ... it appears that "Today we are all gandy dancers"!

ISTR they may have also been referred to as 'rail chairs'. Don't know where I hear that term, but it's another possibility.

I second rail chairs. Was told a long time ago by old heads that's what they were. I have also heard rests, but the local term was chairs. LV/EL territory. I also seem to recall seeing 'chairs' advertised in an old distributor's catalogue somewhere.

Are the OP pictured versions capped with a steel cradle? Most I've seen were on the LV, a concrete 'H' or upside down 'U' shape with a 1/2" steel plate with upturned ends on top.

And digging up the old - I came across chairs/rests in use on the LV old main, courtesy of another post on RYPN.... https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerl ... 562839443/

We (C&NW) had these on our Skokie subdivision which was originally the North Shore Valley Line , except they were made of steel.