
George—many scrap yards are less than scrupulous and will take items that they absolutely KNOW are stolen. I know of no federal or state law that applies specifically to railroad-related material. The people caught are usually charged with a whole host of offenses, including trespassing, theft, etc.
Best regards,
Jerseyman

Sounds like there is about $600k worth from Atsion to Chatsworth.
I work for a civil engineer. Years ago, manhole lids were going missing. We had to visit local scrap yards to look for them. When we found some in a yard in Camden, the Police had the scrapyard's management watching out. In a few days, we got a call that someone just off-loaded 17 manhole lids. If I recall correctly, there were around 15 incidents of people driving into open manholes.
In 2006 more than 24,000 manhole covers were stolen from the streets of Shanghai.
