Errrr, is your watch a bit slow? My calculation says it is 135 years old, assuming it was rolled early in the year.

Rail just never wears out, so it seems. Once taken out of the mainline, it could last a long time on an industrial spur; when 100 ton cars finally forced upgrades there, it could still be used for bridge guard rails, as is the rail in the picture.

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Jim -

Thanks for posting the photo of the section of 52# rail made at Joliet in 1887. The "VIII" after the year probably means it was rolled in the 8th month, or August, of that year. This is the first I have seen of the Roman numerals used to indicate the month rolled. The rail sections I have seen would just have had 8 I's ("IIIIIIII") to indicate the eighth month. I wonder if this indication was peculiar to Joliet or if other producers once used the Roman system.

BTW, Joliet Iron Works eventually became part of American Steel & Wire and eventually fell under the control of U.S. Steel where it was known as USS-Joliet. I don't know how long Joliet actually rolled rail, but at the end of their existence they were making wire products including nails, barbed wire, steel fence posts, etc.

Les[/quote]

here's a nice photo of that area in Joliet, click on the photo to get the large size, so you can see the guy riding the train between the ladles and the locomotive
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6945

Technoguy66 -

Thanks for posting that Shorpy photo of Joliet Works. The little 0-4-0 tender engine pushing the ladle cars up on the long bridge, is really an eye opener! And check out that "banjo" signal on what must have been the C&A main. Lots of other neat stuff in the photo too.

Les

CPR

http://www.bigdoer.com/6956/exploring-h ... n-alberta/

That needs resurfacing, but WOW!

CD

Might get more interesting. Closest I've been able to come is that this is contact rail from the Rheinische Stahlwerke (in Germany, hence the unusual form of the stamping).

Anyone with distinctive competence in foreign rail marking conventions?

Visiting the Cumbres & Toltec RR yesterday, I found at least one rail in the siding at Osier that was marked "Carnegie 1897". I'm sure it's not the only one.
-Philip Marshall

Actually, the oldest rail that I have come across were a couple of pieces that I purchased from a collector in St. Louis, Missouri many years ago. One piece was a four inch section of strap rail, the largest piece was a four foor length of bridge (U) rail and the third was a slice of pear rail. None has roll markings but the information on the strap and bridge rail is that they came off the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia. The historical information I have clearly indicates that both types of rail were used on that road during the initial construction and that as late as the Civil War, roughly a third of the road was still made up of bridge rail. Thus the strap rail and bridge rail date to the construction of the road (1845-49). The pear rail could have been laid anytime between the late 1850s and the late 1880s.

I often wonder what it must have felt like to ride over such, quite frankly, flimsy rail. Especially during the Andrews Raid when both General and Texas were pushing 50+mph on the line.

Probably not much different than if you were to ride over the road of the average tourist railroad of today at fifty miles an hour. Bear in mind that the locomotives and cars of that age were much lighter-if a train and a cow had a collision, it was an open question as to who would win.

And, the rails weren't a hundred years old when the Great Locomotive chase was on.
A description of the 1st long distance run at 60 miles per hour, for 26 miles near Boston, Mass. in the early 1800s, mentions a trail of snake heads flying out behind the train!

Granted, the strap rail was mostly (if not entirely) gone by the time of the war. The records indicate that the bridge rail was still being used on the nothern sections of the line (about 50 miles worth). The rail (for that era) was fairly heavy. I haven't put it on a scale, but I would estimate that the length I have is about fifty to fifty five pounds.

In looking for old rail, don't overlook overhead or structural devices where old rail could be re-cycled. In the ex-PM, ex-CSX, now Lake State RR yard in Saginaw, MI there is 100-year-old rail that was recycled for some overhead structures near the roundhouse. I would presume it came from the PM narrow-gauge lines in the area. I would guesstimate it was 50-pound rail at the most.

The Central Nevada Museum at Tonopah, Nevada, has an old piece of rail in one of its display cases. It was second hand rail to the Tonopah or the Tonopah & Goldfield that came from the Central Pacific about 1904-5. The piece of rail has a roll mark and while I cannot recall what it says I seem to recall that the display sign says it was from the early 1870s. It survived because it had been recycled into a protective bumper post in the railroad yard.

The other day I saw this sticking up in a yard along the road in Joliet, (it's labeled Joliet 188? can't make out the last number ) it was just north of the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Yard, (now CN) the mill it was made at was just northwest of this location by a few miles, the people that lived in that neighborhood back in the day either worked for the Railroad or the Mill