Found old tracks on property...ID help

(Moderator) Forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong place and feel free to repost in the appropriate location

I metal detect as a hobby and was testing my gear in my front yard and came across a set of 10 foot railroad tracks that appear to be quite old and made of iron. The width between the tracks (believe it's called "gauge") was 3 feet. The one rail had "ET 40" stamped on the side and the other I can only read partial, "...S BUFFALO 400", or something like that. Both rails measure the same: the flat bottom measures 3.5 inches wide. The height is also 3.5 inches and the width of the top rail is 2 inches. The square bolt used in the (fishplates?) appear to be non-machined hand forged. I'm no expert. It is for this reason, I've posted this hoping someone on this forum can ID these rails and give me their age. Thank you for your interest. Tried to upload some pics (especially a cross section view, but can't seem to do it. If there is a way please let me know, and I'll upload.

Well it's more interesting finding a former narrow gauge line than a water line in your front yard. Now how did they get there. Are you near an old industrial area?

I did some research. There were a number of steel companies in Buffalo. The "ET 40" typically meant the "ET" company rolled the rails in '40. 1840 would be quite early for the railroad industry, but they were building tram roads at that time -- horse-drawn carts running on rails, and lightweight rails like the ones you found would be typical of the time. But rails that were buried for a long period of time would be badly corroded, whereas rails buried since 1940 would not be so bad.

Where exactly is your property? The location of most narrow-gauge railroads is reasonably well-known, apart from some mining or lumbering tram roads that didn't exist for very long.

Prepare-Ye end of the world is near ! I actually agree with Russ Nelson ! Are this tracks parallel and adjacent to a public way in your yard. I (gulp) agree that they are probably horse car rail and I wonder if at some point if either your town gave up some land or builders encroached on town land which reverted to their own property after a while. Put another way, when you're at your tracks, does it seem as if the edge of the roadway would have been there could have been there at some point judging by proximities only ? These tracks are all likely larger than what you are seeing, but just by chance if you see anything familiar, we may have entered the electric streetcar era.

RussNelson wrote:I did some research. There were a number of steel companies in Buffalo. The "ET 40" typically meant the "ET" company rolled the rails in '40. 1840 would be quite early for the railroad industry, but they were building tram roads at that time -- horse-drawn carts running on rails, and lightweight rails like the ones you found would be typical of the time. But rails that were buried for a long period of time would be badly corroded, whereas rails buried since 1940 would not be so bad.

Where exactly is your property? The location of most narrow-gauge railroads is reasonably well-known, apart from some mining or lumbering tram roads that didn't exist for very long.

Sorry I took so long to respond. I expected to be email alerted if I got a response but didn't.

Anyways, I live in central florida. I live on 5 acres. Here's some important info that may help you. I've uncovered evidence that highly suggests the presence of a diary farm at my location dating back to the 1920's or before. Found a DeLaval spigot handle of a turn of the century cream seperator used in dairy farms to separate the whole milk into cream and skim. I also found a small serum bottle with markings underneath that after careful research suggest it was used for vaccination of cows in dairy farms between the years 1888 and 1921. I have also found shotgun shells dating about the same time (1911 - 1924) and a 1933 cracker jack token.

Also, keep in mind that I live about a 1/4 mile from the Amtrak railway that services the eastern seaboard. The line goes from Miami to New York. Don't know if that helps. My take on these tracks is that a farmer may have simply gone to a local junkyard at the time and picked up some 10 foot rails in order to use them for lifting heavy equipment at the farm. It explains why the two tracks are marked differently. My interest, however, is in determining the original origin of the tracks he may have picked up. The point being that his junk back then may be of historical significance today. Just my thoughts.

I have managed to clean one up a bit better and it reads like this: " L S Co Buffalo 400". I had someone else look into it and we think it's Lackawanna Steel Company that started producing rail in 1903. They became a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel in 1922. So, it dates between 1903 and 1922.

It's the ET 40 rail that's got my curiosity peaked. This farmer may have just picked it up at the local junkyard for his own purposes, but a google search suggested the possibility of a connection to the narrow gauge 40 ET 8 box car used in WW1 and WW2 to transport 40 soldiers or 8 mules. After the war, these box cars were filled with gifts from liberated Frenchmen/women and sent to the US. One box car for every state. Don't know if they sat on ET 40 rails or if I'm way off. Just a thought.

Not knowing your exact location, I can only suppose, but it's possible you live on land once owned by the Orange Belt railroad.

http://www.taplines.net/March/obstory1.htm

Quote:

The railroad was built in a rural agricultural area, that produced traffic only in the late Winter and early Spring. The Orange Belt Investment Co. owned hundreds of thousand of acres, but growth was slow in this section. Also they had to compete against Henry B. Plant's South Florida RR and his port at Tampa. Only a third of the road was profitable and that was the line from Lachoochee (connection with the standard gauge Florida Central & Peninsular RY) to St. Petersburg. All the communities along the Gulf coast prospered. However the other two thirds of the railroad ran in the red, which brought the railroad into receivership in 1893 when they couldn't pay the interest on their bonds. The road was sold by the court, right back to its owners, and they reorganized as the Sanford and St. Petersburg RR. The road limped along until March of 1895, when Florida had the great freeze, killing all the Citrus trees. The ownership threw up their hands and meekly sold out to the Plant System of Railroads. Plant promptly standard gauged the profitable section of the road, while leaving the narrow gauge section in place from Trilby to Sanford.... The ACL slowly converted the road until the last portion was completed in April of 1908, ending the long run of the last narrow gauge common carrier in Florida.