I recently found a site on the armor of the CSS Georgia. See: http://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/20 ... thout.html . It shows a wonderful cross section of pear-head rail used as armor on this confederate gunboat. There can't be a lot of pre-Civil War rail left around. The only piece of pear-head I have ever seen was excavated in Baltimore along the Maryland & Pennsylvania. Any other examples still around?

Yes, there are examples in existence. I bought a piece of Mt. Savage pear shape rail years ago in Western Maryland and pieces are on exhibits in museums.

Forty years ago, the property markers along the C&NW Belvidere branch in Marengo, the next town west of IRM, used to be lengths of pear head rail set like fence posts. I imagine they are all gone now. they were down across the tracks from Arnold Engineering, which occupied the old Elgin & Belvidere carbarn, where there is still some E&B T rail with copper bonds in place.

If I recall correctly, there are a couple of samples of pear-headed rail in the rail section collection at Hoosier Valley. I'll have to check when I'm there next time, to confirm.

Les

The best collection of weird and wonderful rail I ever came across was at the Ely Thomas Lumber mill in Fenwick, WV in 1965. Many different mill marks and pre-1900 dates in their pile of spare rail. The prize was several lengths of bullhead rail rolled in Sheffield, England in 1868.

I happened to grab a still of some pear shaped rail on display at the Ellicott City station (America's oldest, built in 1830). It was excavated a few decades ago when they incorporated an early "turning table" to the property. This section of rail was originally part of the B&O's Old Main Line and dated to the late 1830's.

Used to build railings at the old Western of Alabama shops in Montgomery.

We have a very large collection of historic rail profiles at the Technical University of Denmark. The collection will be discarded next year as part of a house cleaning. It is likely to go to the Nord Sjællands Veteran Tog in Græsted, but like anything, it takes labor to move and space to store. We do not have a public exhibit space for it in Græsted at this time.

I have a slice of pear head rail that probably came off the Western and Atlantic Railroad and a four foot length of iron bridge rail that has been authenticated as having come off the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia. The bridge rail was located by a historian at/near Big Shanty and railroad records show that bridge rail was still used on about half of the railroad during the war. I also have a small piece of strap rail that also apparently came off a southern road.

One nice thing for historians interested in the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia and the Western and Atlantic Railroad is that there are two significant official histories that have been compiled about the roads. The first is the Legal History of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway that was published in 1899 and included complete legal descriptions of the W&A, including the full language of the 1890 lease.

In the 1920s, due to issues with the railroad in determining the valuation of certain pieces of property leased to the railroad by the state, the Georgia Legislature ordered the state historian to compile and publish a complete historical record of the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia. Both books are still available from used book dealers and typically command $300-500 each dependent on condition. The state's history included details as to what types of rail were originally used in the construction of the road.

At the North Carolina Transp. Museum there is a large display board that illustrates the styles of rail used. These pix are just part of the dispaly.

Robert Yuill

I have about a foot of it that my Uncle used as an light anvil on his farm in central Minnesota. It's anyone's guess where it came from.
Mike N.

Last November, we found a length of Strasburg original-build during an MOW project. We tagged and bagged it for posterity.

Has any consideration been given to display the preserved rail somewhere on the Strasburg property? I think such a historic artifact would make an interesting showcase and highlight the railroad’s longevity.

I believe there is a 2 or 3 foot piece of pear-head rail, which was donated to the public library in Moorefield, WV. The South Branch Valley Railroad (SBVR) which the state of West Virginia took over from the B&O in 1978..It was dug up from the buried end of the siding at Grace's Cabin Rod, towards the north end of the SBVR, about 1980 The rail was probably put down in the siding second hand, as that part of the current SBVR was put in after the civil war. The rail carried the raised name of "John Brown" and "Sheffield" on the web. Wikipedia says John Brown & Company was an iron/steel maker in Sheffield, England. Brown began making rails in the 1860s. I have a small piece of the rail somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and attach a photograph of it to this message.

G.F.P.
Baltimore, MD

I've often wondered what might lie beneath various pre-1840 railroad rights of way in the urban Northeast like the Boston & Providence in MA, the New York & Harlem and LIRR in NY, or the Camden & Amboy in NJ. Surely they must be filled with antique rail sections, coupler links, and even bits of hardware from prehistoric rolling stock, the detritus of almost 200 years of railroading. In most cases I think we'll never have a chance to find out what's down there, unfortunately.

-Philip Marshall