Need help

My kids wanted to know if they find railroad spikes in Montana can they take them and recycle them in Idaho?

railroad material requires permits from the railroad in order to be scrapped......you could actually go to jail for picking one up and putting it in your pocket,,,,,i really doubt that would happen, but it could by the letter of the law......i had a bunch i got from a cleanup, i had all my papers in order...i sold them on ebay, they did not require me to have any paper work at all...lots and lots of folks sell them on there...i made good money from mine

Thank you for your reply wadarbr549. I heard that in Montana its not illegal. I was trying to find out if it is or not..

in my area you can apply for permits to remove old crossties and spikes...they are good for x amount of each item....also you can bid on lots of scrap at auctions or bid on clean up jobs for the rail road.....these are the only legal ways i know of to obtain the material....you receive paper work this way...and you can then scrap, sell, or keep what ever you have the permits for

Also..doing a search on here will net you even more info on this very topic. I remember a couple of lively threads from the past about it.

The railroad police have much sway an don't take kindly to even parts left for 50 years.

I would also check your actual state laws on it. Hearing about it, an asking a forum with folks from all over can get you many varied answers. Best bet is to check with whatever authority you need to be sure. Not sure if that would be the Railroad, the gov., etc.

Good luck an hope it works out in your favor. If I recall we have a couple montana folks here so maybe they shed more light on it for you.

Sirscrapalot - Keeper of the traveling cooler, an a inspiration to Hypoman. Truely.

i will NOT even mess with railroad stuff! too much red tape and can get you into trouble.

For the record I'm like JM above. I won't deal with it. To much of a hassle far as I'm concerned an got better things to do then jump through hoops, an cut through red tape.

Sirscrapalot - Mini Me? Where are you? Could someone put a fricken bell on him or something? - Dr. Evil

I've used RR spikes for duck decoy weights before. Work pretty good. There's a semi-abandoned line that runs past our church. The kids have a blast finding all the loose ones laying around. Let the RR Nazis take them to court...