CJ,
Your memories will ring a bell with anyone who has been actively involved in resurrecting an abandoned railway. I have experienced a "rail too long" - we'd measured carefully, cut it and it had expanded when we got it to the gap
Fitted the fishplates (UK term for joint bars) at one end and left it overnight, arrived next morning and it had dropped into place so we fitted the fishplates at the other end with no problem
I've read something about your involvement with the use of explosives as well........ We haven't got to that stage but we have used a locomotive to remove a really stubborn tree after the JCB failed and another member once got a 45ton crane to do the same thing though I have used a teleporter
Gavin
Linslade
Bedfordshire
UK
Garratt Locomotives
[
www.beyergarrattlocos.co.uk]