Rail Sources, update

[Dale Reynolds]

at the recent annual meeting of the sc rr museum, it was announced that a local power plant has donated about one mile of large rail and ties to the museum. therefore, a project has/will begin to replace a mile of 56# rail on the railroad with this new rail. as many of us know, there has been a committment from scrm to provide us with excess small rail. fred morse and howard shepherd have had an ongoing relationship so i will give him a call, but want the members who watch out for rail to know of this development.  dale

[Wayne Laepple]

I understand the power plant rail, along with concrete ties, has actually been delivered to Winnsboro. The big question now is how long it will take SCRM to actually lay the new rail. It will be a major undertaking, not at all for the faint of heart, and if they decide to use the concrete ties, it will require professionals using heavy machinery to complete the work.

[Jock Ellis]

What is scrm?
Jock Ellis

[John McNamara]

What is scrm?
Jock Ellis

South Carolina Railroad Museum

[Ken Fleming]

RailSwap has an ad for 60# rail at $650 a ton. Best price that I've seen in awhile.  Company is in MN, not sure where rail is located.  Maybe rail shipment to Wiscasset.  Someone needs to check on it.

[Ira Schreiber]

I have been on top of this rail issue for several months and have negotiated a rail and shipping cost.
It is up to the BOD to decide what to do although my recommendation is to purchase the rail.
The rail is in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

[John Kokas]

Ira, you may have mentioned it but I can't remember/find it - but how much rail is available in MN?  Does it come with "jewelry"?  I know the lack of it has created objections in the past.

[Vincent "Lightning" LeRow]

At a $350/ton discount the possible lack of jewelry shouldnt be an issue.  The museam has piles of bars and if they don't fit, some scrapper must have some.

[Ira Schreiber]

The rail purchase includes matching bars at a slight additional cost.

[Ira Schreiber]

There are slightly over 30 tons available with bars and another 30 tons with no bars.
100 tons of 60# rail equals about ONE MILE of track.

[Vincent "Lightning" LeRow]

That works out to roughly 3,000ft of track (6,000 rail ft.) for all 60 tons; about .57 miles.  Over two years worth of rail, for $39,000.  Maybe since we aren't laying that much (if any) mainline track this year, we could save money with an eye towards this? It's my understanding that this is a good deal for 60#.

[Mike Fox]

Joint bars. Got to have matching Joint Bars. The last rail we purchased for the museum went together perfectly because we had the joint bars. For a number of years before that, it was always trial and error. We do now have quite a variety of them atop Joint Bar Hill,(aka Alna Center N. Yard limit) but always seem to fit something other than what we get.

 This will ultimately be a board decision. Thank you Ira for doing the research, and hopefully it arrives in Sheepscot, all 60 tons.

[Vincent "Lightning" LeRow]

Enough rail to get to carlton brook? I would love to see it arrive in sheepscott too!!

[Mike Fox]

60 tons would get us part way there. It's roughly a mile+ there. 30 tons would do about 1500 track feet, based on past history. There would be enough to make it to the washout area, rough guess.

[Jock Ellis]

We've got a good grant writer. Let's apply for some stimulus funds. Georgia isn't getting jack. Neither is Texas. I don't think Georgia even qualifies to get its money for a study. But the WW&F already has a shovel ready project.