Can you recycle railroad tracks for profit?

Question

need to make money

Answer 1

Where did you steal them from? Depends how much you paid for them!! I may never ride the rails again!!! Tracks may be missing???May be you can get ajob with the railroad.

Answer 2

You can recycle steel,     whether or not for profit depends on many variables.

You have the cost to pickup and transport,   the price of scrap must be high enough to make it worthwhile.    If you can sell for more than it costs to pick up the rails and transport them to the steel mill,  pay all your expenses,   that is a profit.

Answer 3

Rail tracks are extremely heavy - depending on the grade of rail you are looking at around 1 cwt per yard for each rail. In other words, 60 feet of rail weighs about a ton.

To cut it up into manageable pieces you will need oxy-acetylene equipment, to lift it you will need a crane, which means you need to be a licenced operator or know where to find one, and to transport it you will need a heavy goods vehicle.

In other words, unless you are a specialist scrap metal merchant or are seriously thinking of becoming one, it's probably best left alone.

Answer 4

yes you can

if you have any to recycle.

There are a number of companies that do just exactly that., from time to time there will be abandoned lines that need taken up and these salvage companies will bid on the job.

For the most part railroads pick up their own scrap with large magnets.

Scrap price is up right now, about $80.00 a ton last time I looked.

But second hand rail is re-usable.

I remember a branch line we tore up, and all that rail went to South America.

A lot of rail is taken to a facility where the ends are chopped off and it is welded into CWR (continuous welded rail) and re-layed.

But like the previous answer pointed out, it is heavy, unless you have a lot of heavy equipment . . . . it aint gonna happen.

And FYI, the weight of rail (U.S.) is given in pounds per yard, 115 pound rail means each yard weighs 115 pounds. You do the math, 39'=13 yds X 115 lbs = -------pounds.

Answer 5

yes, look in yellowpages under railroad ties etc. I must warn you, all ties must be obtained LEGALLY and you will be asked how you aquired them.

Answer 6

WRONG WRONG WRONG you all are wrong. A 115lb 39' length of rail weight 2.000 lbs now what are you going to do get your buddies to lift the rail which by the rules and regulations set forth by NYCTA you need 12-16 men with rail tongs. Even if you can lift the rail I personally have never seen it lifted higher than 10". On every rail their is a bar code and name of manafacture which acts like a social security number. Remember each rail weighs 2.000 lbs and is 39 feet long. You also have a 120lb rail which weighs I believe 2.700 lbs per 39 foot length.

If caught you will spend Fed time, good luck fool.

Answer 7

The only part nymoto got right was the 39 feet Rango was correct about the weight The number on the side of the rail is the weight per yard of rail So a 39 foot piece of 115# rail weighs 1495 pounds not a ton  Scrap dealers will not touch anything from a railroad unless you can prove you have the salvage rights to it

Answer 8

You could but scrap iron isnt worth much.  Now if they were copper....  

They're alse really f-ing heavy.  Even a 12 inch section is going to be hard for a normal person to lift.