Black rocks (weld "biscuits")??

Hi, Just had a question.
I found 3 rocks in my yard that I thought were maybe meteorites.
They are black, shiny, heavy and a magnet will cling to them.
After talking to my husband, he thought maybe they were the remnants
of what a rail resurfacer would leave, especially since the people that
had built our home in 1980 were employees of the RR.
My question is, does this sound right and if so what are these rocks called?
Thank You!
Sincerely,
D. Cwik

They might be the slag left over from a welded joint on the rails.

Iron ore.

-r

If its bigger than a baseball, smaller than a bread box and has streaks or grooves on it, like it has flew threw outer space, its what was left over from a repair on the track. Theres a couple laying around the right of way around here also. I've thought about snatching them up and selling them to someone on Ebay before as possible meteorites.

UPRR engineer wrote:If its bigger than a baseball, smaller than a bread box and has streaks or grooves on it, like it has flew threw outer space, its what was left over from a repair on the track. Theres a couple laying around the right of way around here also. I've thought about snatching them up and selling them to someone on Ebay before as possible meteorites.

A.K.A. "biscuits". Left over from a new joint in welded rail. Wanna become popular with the welding gang while they're making a new joint? Piss on the biscuit while it's still red hot.

When i was a single track pilot i became friends with the form B guy. One of his stories had to do with when he was new on the welding crew, he said he tossed the pot off a bridge into a river while the rest of his crew was screaming dont do it. Taking a leak on it would put you a little too close to the action. lol

Man, pissing on a hot weld would reak soo bad.