The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Old railroad track as a dolly

A buddy of mine has his own body shop and still uses an old railroad track his grandpa cut up as a dolly. It's about 12" long. Not something you can hold in your hand for any long periods of time cause it's heavy as heck, but a handy tool anyhow.

Just thought it was perty cool to mention!

Just watch for the creosote.

Track, not the tie. I use my grandfather's for all kinds of anvil work.

I have an anvil made out of a piece of rail,just as good if not better than a store bought anvil.

I have short pieces of 3 different sizes of rails and lots of different sizes of whammers. I like to beat on stuff.

In that case, watch your toes!!!

Had a friend that worked at Southern Railroad here in town until it closed. He got me two pieces about 18 inches long and I use them regularly as a pounding block :hammering:

See Old stuff can be recycled ...new stuf just fills Landfills !

Yep, bet most of us that have been around metal working for any length of time have a chunk of rail road track on the bench. The only problem with it is it's about impossable to cut or machine with conventional tools so most of them thar anvils have those sloppy flame cut ends on them!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Same here Denny. Mine has flame cut ends also.

Don

mine smooooth as a baby's bottom

How you do that munk, you know some secret that we don't???
Every one I've ever seen has been flame hardened, I suppose if your lucky enough to find a piece that hasn't been in use it might still be relativly soft. The couple that I have are really hard, they got a nice ring to them when you tap them.
Denny G
Hope your rested up those feets for this weekend papa, ya don't want to trip walkin down the isle ya know.

i made a ton (literally) of track "anvils" when i was in high school. gave most of them away but kept the one i liked the best. a little stubby thing that fits into small spaces and cut from a narrow gauge railroad. i still use it frequently when i am working on any number of projects.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2813893330099732965CKYzAQ

If you want to pay the shipping, send it to me. I'll give it a smooth cut!!

I got mine from my late stepfather's bench. It caught my eye because each end is smooth and comes to a straight line point centered down each end. He was A retired navy gunner and his small shop at home was a lesson in care and appreciation of tools. What a man he was.

Ya must have access to a machining center, right MN? I can't touch it with carbide in my Bridgeport.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I had mentioned earlier that the husband of a friend of mine worked at Southern Railway before they closed the shop here in Spartanburg. He got me two pieces about 18" long and they are smooth cut very good. I don't know what he used but I sure use the pieces a lot. I use the top, end, turn it over and use the narrow thin part on bottom etc etc.... I keep one of them right outside the shop door next to the vice!

Denny Graham,

I'm confused on this rail metallurgy thing. The track (sectional) in my neck-o-the woods is plain old medium carbon steel...easy to cut with a torch, grind, drill and machine with a funky old Bridgeport and HSS tooling. They must have sophisticated rail on the east coast. I tried to find the analysis of the rail, but alas, no soap.

Maybe old, well worn rail that has been replaced is so work hardened by the wheels and flanges that it has a layer of kryptonite on it.

Stuart

Stuart,

Superman almost died trying to bend some East Coast rail.

not just smooth ends , but a pretty good freehand hole as well that makes it easy to carry around - plasma?

Denny got some badly work hardend rail that got subjected to too many hotboxes passin by

actually rail steel is different - hasta be to stand up for any length of time - the steel has a denser grain structure than yer average stuff, and it is surface hardened ... "austenitization", like for good blade steel

nowadays it's done with lasers: "Laser glazing treatment is applied on the gage face of the rails to help minimize flange and rail wear, reduce fuel consumption, and decrease the likelihood of derailments caused by flange climb and low-rail rollover." here .... but it doesn't affect the entire block of steel, only the surface to some selected depth

Bill

Got a big ol' ugly horizontal band saw in the shop. Seeing as how there are plenty of rail pieces all over the shop, they had to get cut somehow!!

That'd be one heck of a plasma!! How about water jet??

we cut up some Track on the metal cutting Bandsaw at work with just patience an a new blade ...an lottsa lube flowing set the downpressure as light as it would go took over 20 minutes too make a cut ...but it cut it smooth ???....no big probs

Sure! Just walk away and let the machine do the work!!

We use a gasoline cutoff saw. Carborundum blade or diamond. Slow but effective.

Grandpa made fence post out of some and strung chain link in between. This was probably 50 years ago. Last time I saw that fence a few years ago it looked the same as the day he built it. I always wanted front and rear bumpers of the stuff in order to clear the lousy drivers outa the way. Sure would work good on tailgaters.

here's a saw web page

I have a 5 ft chunk of mainline track, and it is a little difficult to move around when I need it. I have a metal cutting wheel for my two cycle wheel saw, and wonder how long it would take me, and how much wheel I would use to make one cut.
Bob