Somewhere in a town called horse branch KY there's a suspicious looking culvert....
Gotta love seat of your pants engineering! I believe it is WC that used an old sand hopper and turned it into a sand tower... also, it was CN or some ore line that made the abuntment for a bridge out of old ore cars...
The infamous William Brosnan when Southern started using ribbon rail back about 1955 set down with several engineers and came up with the Southern train. Then recycling cars made back in 1927 and used them to haul the rail. Then never forget NS used the former 55 ft boxes and used to haul TOFC around 1990. I guess what I'm saying is on the rails you don't spend money if there is a way to reuse. Old sidings pulled up and used for new ones. Rail from one main when worm reused to a lower main then to sidings and later yard tracks. I spent many a day on work trains picking up scrap and junk to be reused. I've even seen them use old xties from main lines on branch lines and yard tracks.
8) I learned from the BNSF track charts that anywhere you see a 10'x50' steel-pipe-culvert you can bet it is a "recycled" tank car...
Dont forget the (Thousands??) if signal bridges out there on the Southern, made from the center sills of retired passenger and freight cars. If you know what you are looking at, you can easily spot slots for the brake rigging, mounting studs for the triple valves, reservoirs ect.
Old Rail, moved from the main to a siding, from a siding to a spur, then drove in the ground to hold back a hill side, used as a gate post, fence....