Railroad spikes and tie plates.

[ScrapperChad]

Don't mess around railroads . Those folks have 0 sense of humor . Will prosecute the smallest thing to the max .
Jim

Agreed. It's best to leave those things alone.

I did haul some rail road spikes and tie plates in myself once. But I did so because they were given to me by the railroad company themselves. The guy knows I do scrapping and I know him.

He came with a loader and dumped a bunch of rail road spikes and tie plates in my trailer. He had to write me an authorization paper stating that I had authorization to sell them.

I did get stopped by the cops on my way to the scrap yard and without that authorization paper I would have went to jail. Plus the scrap yard had to see the authorization paper as well.

So unless you get authorization to sell these items don't pick them up.

 

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[Davers]

In around 2010 there were piles of plates & spikes laying everywhere around a rarely used RR spur (some of the plates were dated 1930 something).
Now there,s a creek that runs near the side of the tracks that over the years people [kid,s] threw plates & spikes into, while I did not take any of the iron from the track/ rocky area I did pick up some out of the creek & took them to the scrap yard & got no lip.
but around the 3rd time turning in some of the RR scrap (all this in a months period) they told me they would not buy it.
It really was not worth the effort carrying 15+ lb plates from a creek 100+ yards to my auto in the Summer.
Needless to say the RR wised up & as of 2 years ago I could no longer see the piles any more.

I suppose one would have to prove that RR scrap came from private property (Creek ,neighboring land etc).
In the end without easy access & PERMISSION it,s not worth it.
Davers..................

 

[maipenrai]

It does seem a shame that all that iron is going to waste, but just think what would happen if the RR wasnt concerned about their property. Every spike would be pulled up for scrap, and there would be lots of derailments. The RR doesnt operate the same as an individual, if they have a few hundred tons of scrap somewhere, it will still be there 20 years from now. They just dont pick up every piece of scrap and run down to the scrap yard to sell it.