Rail Yard Studios

There are many ways a man can help to preserve a legacy, with perhaps the most obvious being simply not making that new Tron movie. For a family that's keeping the early 20thC alive via train track furniture, check out Rail Yard Studios.Nashville-based Rail's a father/son team that handcrafts furniture from salvaged centuries-old railroad materials, started after the kid purchased an RR contracting biz and noticed rails being sold for scrap that were inscribed with storied names like "Carnegie" and "Bethlehem", making you wonder if Jesus' birth would've gone smoother if his parents had ditched the donkey and shelled out for a sleeper car. Everything's individually numbered/cataloged, including glass-topped items like the Switch Point desk with rail cantilevers crossing two naturally finished white oak timbers, and tables like the 2ft-high 3-Rail Side with a central square block of gumwood and 70lb rail legs (circa 1908), and one with a granite stone-filled center tray called Sleepers, the sale of which'll help both you and them bring home the Bacon. There're also seats like the Armchair with stocky logs of polyurethane-finished oak held together with spikes, and the Streamlined bench with rail armrests, plus a four coat accommodating rack, a 3ft-tall hickory wine rack, and even a pair of rail bookends, or what happens to those lucky Simon and Garfunkel groupies who make it backstage.The Rail crew's currently working on a rail-bottomed bed, and they also make art pieces from stained white oak wedges stacked atop each other and held together by railroad bridge bolts, such as the zig-zag "Shoulder Chips" -- also what Sam has since his dad died wearing tights in a movie nobody cares about.