The Southern Forest Heritage Museum of Long Leaf, LA will have between 300 and 600 33' joints of 45# rail available before the end of the year. This rail was last used in 1954 as part of the Crowell Long Leaf Lumber Co. tram road and most of it dates from around 1914 or slightly before. This rail is currently stored in a location deep in the woods and will be pulled out of the woods before the end of the year. If there is anyone out there with a NG operation, or motor car operation that would be interested in either helping to salvage the rail, or would be interested in purchasing some, please contact me by PM. If there is no interest, it will go to scrap.

Is it possible that they also have 30# rail also, stashed deep in the LA woods somewhere? If so, let me know.

Loco112:
If you want some 25 pound rail, about 100 sticks are due to be cut up shortly here in NJ. The contact data is:

Blewits
246 Herbertsville Rd, Howell, NJ 07731
(732) 938-5331
Contact is Susan

Looking at about 10 cents per pound, 30 foot lengths. I can help orchestrate here locally if there was interest. No joint bars.

J.R. May
Wall, NJ

I want it.

I prefer 30-ASCE, but Ill take all the 25-ASCE I can get for: sidings, turntable and shop tracks, guard rails, etc..

Do you know a truck driver who likes to go to Dallas?

Loco112

To my knowledge, we have no 30# rail at SFHM. However, we do have a small stock of 35# that is also hidden back in the woods. I have not been back to where it is in several years, but you are welcome to come down to visit us in the winter when we can get back to where it is located. It will take some work to get it out, but I have been wanting to do that for a number of years now.

I might be interested in some 45# rail on behalf of a couple operators in western PA. What is the wear like, particularly the base/web. Photos would be helpful.

Have you talked to the WW&F in Maine, I know they are generally looking for rail this size.

What are you asking per stick or per ton? Are joint bars available?

We will be getting into the woods to look at the rail when the weather gets a bit cooler. Right now access to the rail is not easy. When I saw the rail last, about 5 years ago, it did not have much in the way of joint bars with it, but I don't remember much else. As soon as I can get to the rail, I will take lots of pictures and will post a report as to condition and how much rail is actually there.

Is any of this rail still available?

We made it back into the woods this weekend. Fought the deer hunters, the mosquitoes, and the soggy ground. The rail pile is 3 joints high, and two joints long, basically about 70 joints per level. The rail on the upper two levels both head and base are in excellent condition, with little wear on the head of any of the rail that we could see. There are other scattered joints in the woods that we will salvage also. In the interest of a complete and accurate description of the rail, the lowest level is on the ground, the supports underneath it having rotted away since it was placed here in 1971-72, so I can not speak definitively on the condition of the lowest level in the pile.

Based on what we could see, somewhere between 15 and 25% of the rails still have good joint bars on one end, which we will not remove,

The current plan is to salvage the rail, and move it to the Southern Forest Heritage museum this coming January (weather permitting) where we will grade and stack the rail according to condition. I think that I can reasonably say that there will be a minimum of 150 joints of usable rail, but it could go as high as 225 joints. The joints are 33 feet, so you can calculate that there is somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a track mile of rail in the pile.

They have completed logging around the rail pile and the weather has dried out enough that we were able to get to the pile this past Friday.
It appears that there may be as many as 800 joints of rail in the pile, plus some other rail scattered about.

The museum has need of about 100 joints for its own use, but any good rail remaining must be sold. Current scrap price for prepared scrap in the area is about $190 per ton, four joints per ton. Most rail has joint bars still attached to one end. Rail was used between 1920 and 1954 for woods lines of logging company. From what we can see, most of the rail is both straight and in good condition.

We will be getting a price from a mover next week to remove the rail from its current location. Rail to be saved will be moved across the road to the museum grounds and stored on a concrete surface until it can be claimed.

We will need to know interest in this rail by October 8, as movers may move in on the 10th. Rail not sold will be sold as prepared scrap (which means cut up into 9 pieces per joint).

We will have up to date price on Tuesday, Oct. 4 should you wish to inquire as to price but we are estimating at present $50 per joint FOB Long Leaf, LA 71448.

It is possible that rail will not move until Oct 17 or even Oct 24 but we are at the mercy of the mover regarding moving date, and what ever is not spoken for will be scrapped.

Any pictures and have you determined a final price?

Found on the narrow gauge forum:

We have not gotten a final price yet, but are still looking in the $50 per stick range. That is equivalent to the price of prepared scrap (which is like $47.50 per stick) plus the added cost of moving it and stacking it for storage until it can be picked up by the purchaser.

Just notified that scrap prices have nosedived. Looks like we will be asking $25 per joint. That is about $17,500 for 700 joints that we think can be salvaged.

We got a commitment on the rail this friday, so it is going to be saved.