Question by crsrc_always: how do I obtain a permit to legally clean up discarded railroad scrap to recycle?
I would like to know how to recycle railroad steel that line the railroad tracks near my home. I’ve been told that I can’t just pick it up and take it to a recycling yard but that I could apply for a permit. I need to know what type of permit & what would be required to do this is in California?
Best answer:
Answer by dbl_barrel2
First thing you need to do is find out which railroad owns that scrap, contact the roadmaster and he could give you a permit…but I seriously doubt it. Railroads clean up their scrap and sell it too. Railroad detectives watch scrap yards and see who is selling it and then they can catch their thiefs.
What do you think? Answer below!
Contact the railroad it belongs too to see if it isn’t being use first of all. Second, see if they want you too scrape it for them. You might need to be an employee to be able to even go on railroad property, none the less touch it. But never let down, go ahead, call and e-mail.
THERE IS SOME TRUTH TO WHAT THEY SAY, BUT AND THERES ALWAYS A BUT, IT DEPENDS ON THE COMPANY, SOME SHORT LINES IN OUR AREA WILL LET YOU, BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LETTER OF PERMISSION TO DO SO. MOST LARGE COMPANIES CSX AND SO ON CONTRACT TO DO IT, NOT DO IT THEMSELVES, THEY DONT HAVE THE TIME AS IS
Not going to happen. They will clean up their own scrap. Furthermore scrap yards are not allowed to accept railroad items from individuals. If you attemp to sell railroad scrap at a scrap yard, they are required by law to call the police and you will be arrested.
Sorry but it’s not going to happen.Railroads recycle their own steel(including tie plates and spikes).About the only thing you would have a chance with is the ties.They bid the tie removal out to private contractors to be picked up and hauled off.So if you have trucks and loaders contact the railroad about how to submit a bid.
If you don’t own those railroad tracks, then somebody else does. Taking that stuff would be stealing, plain and simple. Stealing from railroads is a federal crime.
Now if it is merely the blight which offends you, and you want to see the junk cleaned up, contact your local government. Their power to negotiate with the railroads is limited… but the railroads do like to be good neighbors, so cleanup will get more attention if you complain.
Is it merely abandoned track you’d like to see gone? It’s there for a reason. Tearing up track nets about $10,000 a mile (after labor, steel is at an all-time high, but so is labor), but putting it back costs about $2,000,000 a mile. That makes ripping up track a VERY stupid thing to do. Historically, the reason they ripped up tracks is to avoid high property tax on railroads. But many governments now forgive tax on dormant rails to prevent that from happening. The industries down that line give jobs and depend on cheap transportation of their goods. The line went dormant because cheap fuel made trucks the cheapest way. Now that cheap fuel is gone, rail makes more sense again. New commuter rail systems are going in for the same reason.
Forget it. For almost 200 years, railroads have gone to extreme lengths to remove rail when they quit using it. Today, steel prices are very high.
They will NOT give it to you. Whoever told you the railroad issued stealing permits was just a blabbermouthed idiot.