Markings on the side of rail?

[Motte]

Does anyone have any ideas what do the markings mean?

Also, the rail should be steel, because it is 'labeled' as such. Can anyone tell me what the "F.V.C.L" in the markings on that 176 means? Where was it rolled?

 

[Ploughman]

Is it a piece of rail or is it an I beam / Column that has been cut?
Those markings are not familiar to me.
Could it be the beam used for wagon under frames?

For Flat Bottom Rail I would be expecting to see something like
"Skinningrove 1957 BS 109"
Indicating The mill rolled at.
The year and the rail weight and standard.
There are many variations on this.

 

[Motte]

Thanks a lot for all the great info, Ploughman!

In fact, I am not only not a specialist in this field, but also not the ‘artifact’ owner. It was found in Russia. The finder believes what he is told by some experts: it is a rail and most probably - an English one. The foot width is 90 mm.

We will be grateful for any ideas regarding the year of manufacturing you could give us.

 

[Ploughman]

That rail foot width sounds very much like narrow gauge rail.
Probably of the order of 15 kg per metre.
By comparison the 2 standard rail sizes in use in the UK CEN 56 or CEN 6o are 56kg and 60 kg /metre respectively.
With a rail foot width of 140 or 150mm again respectively.
As can be seen the rail in question is a very small size by comparison.

Still no idea on the markings though.

 

[edwin_m]

Just googled "rail FVCL" as it sounded a little like the Belgian Vicinal or something similar. This thread comes up #4 and the for the three above it Google obviously assumes I was trying to type "F**k"!