What have you built using railway rails?

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The track past the farm is supposed to be getting some new ties and rails this summer to get the speed up (40 MPH currently). I thought I'd see about trying to buy some of the old rails for projects around the farm.What have you guys built out of rails?Ideas so far:- Anvil - Yeah, it's on the small side and a lot of work to do, but maybe....- Weld some pull chains on a rail and you've got a drag for around the yard. - Already have this one actually!- We used to have some rails to weight down an old field cultivator. JD 1600 (40 foot) was too light, so added a few rails to it for better penetration.- I was wondering about incorporating rails into making a hydraulic press. Maybe for the uprights and cross pieces at the top? 4 uprights, flat bottom of the rail facing the front and back of the press so that the bed can sit flush up to it. Any other ideas?Andrew
Reply:Andrew,rail is very flexible...place a standard 40' stick of rail on three foot high sawhorses on each end and it'll sag to the ground in the middle. Thinking of it another way...if those cars in the picture below were fully loaded with 1/4 mile long ribbon rail the train would still have no problem negotiating the tightest wye curve around these parts.So if you just need added weight or non-structural members it should work.Hard to tell if the rail laying next to the track in fresh or well used...looks about the same either way when its not held down.Last edited by WyoRoy; 03-06-2011 at 01:02 PM.Lincoln PrecisionTig 275Miller 251Miller DialArc 250Bridgeport millHossfeld bender & diesLogan shaperJet 14 X 40 latheSouth Bend 9" 'C'Hypertherm 900Ellis 3000 band saw21"Royersford ExcelsiorTwo shops, still too many tools.
Reply:I have used a section to make a radiant heater for a greenhouse...I got it heated up with a propane burner ,then used heat lamps to keep the temp up on cold nights..IN GOD WE TRUST
Reply:Personally I don't think every anvil has to be a replica of something brought over from the old country and used by only by master craftsmen. Mine is more of a "beater station". It's where you convince square pegs to fit into round holes and punish things that won't conform.  Attached Images"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -Theodore Roosevelt
Reply:Rail steel is high quality steel and has the same 30,000,000psi modulus of elasticity as any other steel. As an I-beam it's heavy for it's stiffness so yeah, a long length might noticeably sag. Notice in the pic above of the wavy rail amost all of the flex is along the weak (side-to-side) bending axis. Like any I- beam it has to be constrained to provide structural rigidity.  Short pieces used for a shop press will be stronger and stiffer than what a typical 20 ton press is made of. If you double the rails and weld them together they'll be 8x as stiff as a single rail.Lincoln SA200, HH135, Lencospot, HF80 Inverter, Rockwell 11x35 lathe, HF drill mill, Kama 554 tractor w/ FEL & BH, Belarus 250AS, lot's of Chinese tools
Reply:Sandy-  I like your anvil.  That looks like it would serve the purpose quite well.
Reply:I have a piece I use as an anvil. I also have two longer pieces that I made HD "saw" horses out of.
Reply:It's not likely they will sell it to you since it's not the track gangs rail to sell in the first place. You might be able to get some end cuts of new rail, but the old rail gets picked up and melted back down to be recycled. At 130 pounds per yard, that's a lot of weight for it's strength.....I wouldn't really suggest it for anything other than use for dead weight like an anvil or a drag, maybe saw horses if you don't need to move them much.Powcon 400SM2-PD60 wire feedersMiller XR controlAlumapro push/pull gunSpeedglas 9100xBFH
Reply:In addition to what's been posted already.Seen it used  for grizzly bars on top of a crusher or screening plant so oversize rocks and boulders slide down it while the smaller stuff falls through.I've seen truck bumpers made out of rail.I've seen root rakes for dozers made with rail.I've heard of rail being used as ripper teeth for dozers but never saw it personally.I've seen guard rails on a bridge made out of rail.I've seen rail piled on a bridge to keep a flood from washing the bridge away.You could also improvise a wide flange beam by cutting the head off two pieces of rail and welding the webs together."The reason we are here is that we are not all there"SA 200Idealarc TM 300 300MM 200MM 25130a SpoolgunPrecision Tig 375Invertec V350 ProSC-32 CS 12 Wire FeederOxweld/Purox O/AArcAirHypertherm Powermax 85LN25
Reply:Im on a rail job at the moment and there is heaps of sparre rail laying around.Pay for shipping and ill send in for nothin'.
Reply:About the best place that I've seen it used was to make a cattle guard. It works really good!!Paul I live where the cattle guards are not paid, and the goverment doesn't need to retrain them for other things!
Reply:Saw a cool use in a farmer's shop. (More like the back end of his pole barn. The rails were only usable when Tobacco was not hanging... Yeah, I grew up in KY.) Seems a rail company crew dropped about 4 sections of old used rail down a hill side and landed on his back 40, and told the farmer they would not try to reclaim them unless he insisted. He bedded them with cross ties and built a set of tractor splitting fixtures that rolled on the rail. He also built some fixtures to scoot some other heavy equipment back and forth.The splitting rig was used when he needed to pull the back end of the tractor away from the front end for a number of drive line related repairs. (Other ones as well, I am sure. People who know more can certainly give more info.) The heavy equipment fixtures were presumably for similar things. I was shown this when I asked the farmer in question how he ended up with a tractor that was John Deere green on the front end and road equipment yellow on the back end... :-D
Reply:I have made at least 6 sets of bookends out of rail, cut off on a 35degree angle to keep the look of rail. Felt pad on bottom and a hammer finish paint - about an hour build time including paint, fifty bucks a set. Usually after someone sees ones I made already.Also a 10" piece rides on my tool dolly at work as a mini anvil / door holder.
Reply:fact :All steel has the same "flexibility" (within your ability to measure it)  it's properly called youngs modulous.so rail steel is no more or less flexible than a36 structural, or surprisingly even 4140 or any steel alloy.use it for whatever you deem it usefull for.
Reply:Some great ideas so far!I'll see what happens this summer.....Andrew
Reply:I bet theres half a mile of rail at the end of my road. Theres 3 (use to be 4) rail road crossings less than a mile apart from eachother at the end of my road. One of them has been abondoned for years and the rails are ust sitting there.
Reply:it makes for a very good anvill.. high  rebound
Reply:At my work, they got in the scrapping mode-we cut / broke a trailer truck load of it, "short steel" @ $250 a ton!  Boss said Weeeeeeee!!  BTW, ever "break" any sideways?  1/2 inch cut on rail part, and mount part (flange?), hit it with a down blow on the excavator and it shatters / breaks, quite  a site to behold indeed! specially when it launches!
Reply:I made an anvil with some I had then it walked off...I built another one out of smaller rail for a crane system we tore down...I'll post pics as soon as I can...it does work great...the rebound is fantasticIf it's too . get an office jobLincoln wp225g7 Lincoln 250 idealarcFrankenstein O/A set-up Weld-tech  tig set-upLincoln sp 175 plus profax  arc gouger
Reply:makes a good set of bottom dies for bending tread plate stair treads.Vantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.
Reply:I use it to keep crap strait when welding.And so on and so forth.
Reply:I used to make cattle grids out of old rail. The only problem is they are ****in heavy.
Reply:Originally Posted by browncoatSaw a cool use in a farmer's shop. (More like the back end of his pole barn. The rails were only usable when Tobacco was not hanging... Yeah, I grew up in KY.) Seems a rail company crew dropped about 4 sections of old used rail down a hill side and landed on his back 40, and told the farmer they would not try to reclaim them unless he insisted. He bedded them with cross ties and built a set of tractor splitting fixtures that rolled on the rail. He also built some fixtures to scoot some other heavy equipment back and forth.The splitting rig was used when he needed to pull the back end of the tractor away from the front end for a number of drive line related repairs. (Other ones as well, I am sure. People who know more can certainly give more info.) The heavy equipment fixtures were presumably for similar things. I was shown this when I asked the farmer in question how he ended up with a tractor that was John Deere green on the front end and road equipment yellow on the back end... :-D
Reply:Originally Posted by WyoRoyAndrew,rail is very flexible...place a standard 40' stick of rail on three foot high sawhorses on each end and it'll sag to the ground in the middle. Thinking of it another way...if those cars in the picture below were fully loaded with 1/4 mile long ribbon rail the train would still have no problem negotiating the tightest wye curve around these parts.So if you just need added weight or non-structural members it should work.Hard to tell if the rail laying next to the track in fresh or well used...looks about the same either way when its not held down.
Reply:meet ya in the Pit if you haven't started napping yet"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/Sorry Sambo, gave up the Train God status years ago just as soon as I had enough seniority to hold a better job....five days a week, regular hours and not on-call anymore. Where else can ya' make a 100K sitting on your tail?Lincoln PrecisionTig 275Miller 251Miller DialArc 250Bridgeport millHossfeld bender & diesLogan shaperJet 14 X 40 latheSouth Bend 9" 'C'Hypertherm 900Ellis 3000 band saw21"Royersford ExcelsiorTwo shops, still too many tools.
Reply:Originally Posted by WyoRoySorry Sambo, gave up the Train God status years ago just as soon as I had enough seniority to hold a better job....five days a week, regular hours and not on-call anymore. Where else can ya' make a 100K sitting on your tail?
Reply:Originally Posted by WyoRoySorry Sambo, gave up the Train God status years ago just as soon as I had enough seniority to hold a better job....five days a week, regular hours and not on-call anymore. Where else can ya' make a 100K sitting on your tail?
Reply:Originally Posted by Bryan27Yardmaster?
Reply:Originally Posted by WyoRoyYardmasters are becoming a dying breed...along with all clerks. Too darned easy to hire some kid trainmaster fresh out of the military that will follow orders from management that will do the job for less. Doesn't seem to matter whether the switching goes correctly or not...after all, most of their superiors are ex-military wunderkinds themselves that couldn't do a straight set-out to save their collective souls.
Reply:Originally Posted by Bryan27You must have more faith in management than I, to think they know how to do the job well enough to direct orders at a green pea. Getting the work done requires knowing what needs done AND knowing how to do it. I'm tickled to work with a few of them that at least bring one part to the table. There are 2 kinds of YM's, those who work yard crews and those who captain an operation. One is like being a third switchman that sits in the shack all night, the other makes the operation work.
Reply:What method are you guys using to cut the rails? Originally Posted by mammaogiI have made at least 6 sets of bookends out of rail, cut off on a 35degree angle to keep the look of rail. Felt pad on bottom and a hammer finish paint - about an hour build time including paint, fifty bucks a set. Usually after someone sees ones I made already.Also a 10" piece rides on my tool dolly at work as a mini anvil / door holder.
Reply:Originally Posted by WyoRoyMore faith in management? You need to work on your reading comprehension...
Reply:Originally Posted by gator9329What method are you guys using to cut the rails?
Reply:Have you seen how the railroad guys cut rail? They have an abrasive saw that clamps onto the rail in question. then they just let the sparks fly.Lincoln Power Mig 210MP MIGLincoln Power Mig 350MP - MIG and Push-PullLincoln TIG 300-300Lincoln Hobby-Weld 110v  Thanks JLAMESCK TIG TORCH, gas diffuser, pyrex cupThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 101My brain
Reply:Originally Posted by Joker11Have you seen how the railroad guys cut rail? They have an abrasive saw that clamps onto the rail in question. then they just let the sparks fly.
Reply:Originally Posted by mammaogiI have made at least 6 sets of bookends out of rail, cut off on a 35degree angle to keep the look of rail. Felt pad on bottom and a hammer finish paint - about an hour build time including paint, fifty bucks a set. Usually after someone sees ones I made already.Also a 10" piece rides on my tool dolly at work as a mini anvil / door holder.