Railroadforums.com is a free online Railroad Discussion Forum and Railroad Photo Gallery for railroaders, railfans, model railroaders and anyone else who is interested in railroads. We cover a wide variety of topics, including freight trains, passenger and commuter railroads, rail news and information, tourist railroads, railway museums and railroad history.
I purchased this at an antique shop in Omaha a few years back. It was created by Rail Inc. There's a registration number, REG 1826. If it happens to be authentic, then was it used for testing or simply a souvenir? I can't find another one online or any provenance. Any help is appreciated.
Yes, it's real. At least it's quite probable that it is. In 1984 San Francisco did a massive rebuild of the Cable Car system, the old rails were pulled out and new rails were installed. Lots of the old rail was made into souvenirs. I have one around here someplace, it even has fake gold coating on it.
This doesn't look to be cable car rail, as it doesn't have the built in flangeway. However, it's likely that an old section of track in the area was removed and they cut chunks up for souvenirs in the same manner.
