# Damaged Rails



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I have some rail that has been stepped on my large animals., Cows ,Steers. Deer, Horses and two legged people

Have any one found a way to salvage this rail?

At the price of Rail Today I would like to straighten the dips out of this rail and fix twisted rail and rail that has been bent inward and out ward.


Any one got Ideas. I will be looking into my Single Rail Bender from Aristo Craft.

JJ


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 08 Feb 2010 04:53 AM 
I have some rail that has been stepped on my large animals., Cows ,Steers. Deer, Horses and two legged people

Have any one found a way to salvage this rail?

At the price of Rail Today I would like to straighten the dips out of this rail and fix twisted rail and rail that has been bent inward and out ward.


Any one got Ideas. I will be looking into my Single Rail Bender from Aristo Craft.

JJ


Depending on just how badly it is kinked, you can rejuvinate some twisted or damaged rail by bending it into a curve and then reversing the bend. It might take several rebends to make the rail usable again. Unfortunately, brass rail will "work harden" when doing this and that will leave the rail brittle and prone to small cracks or even complete breakage when bent.

To reduce the possibility of cracks, you can heat the rail with a torch to the point where it just begins to glow red and then cool it before doing some more bending. Cooling it can be either slow in the open air or pouring water on it or plunging it into water; unlike ferous metals (iron/steel/etc.) which harden when cooled rapidly, brass and other copper alloys remain soft no matter how rapidly it is cooled.


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## Wesley Furman (Jan 2, 2008)

John, 
To get the dip out of some track rocks fell on I took the piece out and used a 1/4" flat nose punch and hammer on the back side, working back and forth on the bent section. Do this on a anvil or 1:1 rail section. 
Wesley


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

I bend it back and forth in my rail bender until it trues up.

But typically the bend is vertical and there is not much you can do to fix bad vertical bends. I cut out the bad part and replace it with another piece of rail. Treating it like a sun kink or cracked rail just like the real railroads. 


And if you think replacing brass rail is expensive, try replacing stepped on sections of nickel silver rail


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