I have to see what the pipe size is, but they use a clamp that both holds the pipe, and sits on the well casing so you can rotate a pair of clamps. The problem is the top is 1" iron but I don't know what kind of pipe is in the casing. It could be iron, rigid plastic, or flexible plastic and they vary in size.
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is one type.
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is another.
If it is the flexible pipe, it can be pulled by hand by a couple strong people, and a third one to pull it away from the well head as they work.
OK, here's my news update. The rail tracks, despite being submerged, do pull out with just the bobcat. No hydraulic assistance is needed, the bobcat itself pulls them out. Some ties follow the rail occasionally, but it is not so bad. The ties are rotten to the extreme.
We ended the day by puncturing the bobcat tire. I have some extras though. The fun continues.
Glad to hear it is working out to be easier than it could have been.
You get a lot of flack about asking questions here instead of doing more research on your own, but I appreciate your posts. Much more interesting to read than the political posts.
Thanks. Answers to questions like "how to pull old rails with equipment you have" are almost impossible to find online due to
1) General lack of knowledge
2) Abundance of opinionated idiots unable to compose complete sentences, especially often found on website forums
3) Situation specific issues
Two people gave me the correct advice, it was my railroad neighbors and a scrapper who does business with railroads.
And I guess you have the rail jacks and crowbars and everything. I saw whe re someone was saying that the easiest way to cut hardened steel like all t hat is to anneal it with heat 'till red hot, then cool it while buried in a shes, then take a band saw or something to it pretty easily.
(I just don't what KIND of ashes are used, though)
To anneal something the thickness of a railroad rail with an oxy-acetylene torch would use more $$ worth of gas than the scrap value of the steel.
An abrasive saw isn't going to care much about the hardness of a rail. It's not that hard to begin with. New rails can be as hard as 43 Rc (400 Brinell), but old rails were softer. They work harden a bit but they are still retty soft under the top skin. I ground a piece down into a really rounded blob, like a big auto-body dolly, and it took a lot of grinding with my big Milwaukee grinder, but it would cut OK with an abrasive saw.
If Iggy only has to cut longish sections to remove it, O/A cutting is reasonable. And that doesn't care if the steel is hard or soft. If he needs shorter sections that he can handle himself, it might be more cost effective to use an abrasive saw. You'd have to try it to be sure.
That business about the railroads owning abandoned rails has become a sort of mixed bag. If it's on unused right-of-way but they still have rights to an easement, the railroad probably owns it. If they abandon it, the terms of the original easement, and state law,determine whether the railroad still owns anything on the right-of-way.
It sounds like you're unlikely to encounter any problems in your situation, but if you ever do a bigger deal like this, you'd better check with the county land office and see if the land is encumbered or if there are ancient easements. If there's much money in it, someone could give you trouble.
We had a bit of a battle over this in my town, over an abandoned Lehigh Valley coal line that we converted to a "Rails to Trails" project.
Ed, when it comes to scrap, it is very often difficult to determine who is the ultimate owner of equipment or material to be scrapped. For example, a distant owner tells the local manager to "clean up the place". Or, company A sold a building to company B, but claims to still own copper wire in dedicated circuits, going to where company A had its equipment. Or, as here, there are rotten and abandoned rails on private property. Or, there is a building to be demolished and it is not clear whether "Equipment in room 754b" also includes stainless and copper piping under the ceiling, pumps and electronic control equipment attached to that, 300 more feet of 4" copper pipe going to the next room etc. Or, after an auction, my lot is missing, but I offer to take down some 500 MCM wire going to an unused panel.
In all these cases, my number one concern is not to appear to be stealing. To that end, I make sure that 1) I get a written receipt and
2) someone in position of authority knows where I am and what I am doing, at least approximately.
I agree that, if or when it comes to dealing with larger rail installations, a deeper research would be warranted.
OK, that all sounds good. I just wanted to point out that, when it comes to rails and railroads, they're a law unto themselves. They have contracts and easements that go back a century or more.
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