A The numbers and letters are a rail brand, and railroads use it to keep track of their rails and easily identify sections in need of replacement.
On the rail you saw, 132 is the weight in pounds per yard of the rail. “RE” is the section type or design specification of the rail, in this case, it is American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association standard rail. “VT” stands for vacuum treated, which is one way to coax excess hydrogen out of hot steel to keep it from forming defects when cooling. “PST” refers to the rail maker, Pennsylvania Steel Technologies, which is a successor to Bethlehem Steel. “2002” is the year of manufacture, while the hash marks count months. Here, nine hash marks mean the rail was rolled in September. – Steve Sweeney
Wasn’t there also, at one time, an indication of the heat number?
Very interesting information ,