Very Old Rails Without a Doubt

You showed new rail. Here is some very old rail. In an old industrial site next to the Erie Railroad Bergen County Line in Fair Lawn, New Jersey lies some 80-pound rail made in 1912. The yard once served a coal company among other things. The tracks are still pretty much intact, complete with switches. The 1960 Erie employee timetable still listed the main line connecting switch as active. The site is being redeveloped. I don’t know the future of these rails, but so far they have survived for 105 years.

Article and Photographs by Jack Norris

Steel Mill That Made Rails Burns

A factory in Lackawanna, New York, that made rail burned this week.

The former Bethlehem Steel mill buildings in suburban Buffalo caught fired after a light bulb touched off flammable materials in the decades-old complex.

The plant made rail that is still used on many railroad lines today. The complex also was used to make steel for locomotives, tanks, warships and automobiles.

The mill that rolled the rails was closed in the 1980s.