Nostalgia & History > Promontory rail orginal replacement or not???

The family story about this rail is as follows. For the war effort somebody went out to Promontory and took up the rail. My grandfather an Ogden boilermaker foreman for S.P. and 2-3or4 sons and a son-in-law all S.P. employees at Ogden and others? took some of this rail and sawed it into 1" pieces and made book ends out of them. There is a little brass plate shaped like a spike that states"1869-1944" "from" and on the 3rd line"Promontory Point Utah" On the bottom is a paper sticker that states to the effect that it came from Promontory etc etc and the railwas dated 1879 C.P. The sticker bares the signature of one Watson Beggs. All is well and good until I donate a H.O. train layout to a charity. I had alot of money invested and I was looking for a tax writeoff so I had it appraised (sp?). When the appraiser came I showed him the bookends and told him about them . He stated that they were not orginal replacement rail! So I need help in solving this.

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another view showing the signature of Watson Beggs

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and here is the 3rd view

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Thanks for bringing this to TO. The rail looks to be similar in size to the rail laid during the building of the UP and CP. I am of the understanding the rail was indeed pulled out after SP built tracks directly into Salt Lake. UP and CP both pulled out and abandoned the line. The tracks the engines operate on at Promontory are relatively new.

My two cents and I take change.

RickH

By "original replacement rail" do you mean the rail that replaced the orginals laid in 1869? Did the appaiser say why he didn't believe the claim? He didn't believe they were cut from 1879 rails or he didn't think the 1869 rails remained in place for at last 10 years? Is he an expert on railroad history?

The original line became a branch line when the Lucin Cutoff was built. Track was indeed yanked during a WWII scrap drive (after a sort of decomissioning / Golden Spike ceremony IIRC). What's there now is of course of recent vintage unless the NPS rounded up ancient rail which I doubt.

BTW, the correct name of the location is Promontory, not Promontory Point but that's a forgiveable mistake since it's one that's been repeated for 136 years.

Since this rail is dated 1879 I assumed that it replaced the rail placed in 1869. There is a lost newspaper story somewhere in the family. This pair of bookends belonged to my father see other thread I just posted . He is the erecting shop foreman in 1953 Bayshore post

Knowing how railroaders tend to "aquire" things like this I would have little doubt that it is what you believe it to be.

What is the overall height of the rail and what is the width of the base. That info will tell you a lot about the actual section and from thet you can discern something about its true age. A one inch section of rail isn't going to have and date info on it.

px320 Wrote:
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> What is the overall height of the rail and what is
> the width of the base. That info will tell you a
> lot about the actual section and from thet you can
> discern something about its true age. A one inch
> section of rail isn't going to have and date info
> on it.

The rail is 4 1/8 h X 4 3/16+ w

Appears to be French. 1871 Terrenoire

see: http://cprr.org/Museum/Caliron/index.html



tom

Here is another view.

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You have letters "S" which appears to be followed by a "T" as in Steel. And you have letter "R" followed by a period. Could this be Albany & Rensellaer Iron & Steel Co. Troy (A.& R. I. & S. Co TROY STEEL 1879. CP. ) ? The lettering is similar to the photo of 1880 Albany & Renseller rail found on the CPRR history site. There are other options but you obviously have old CP relay rail. You may want to email the website and ask for their opinion.
tom

sounds like 60 lb rail to me

56 1/2 lb rail.