Most stuff now on a freight line is like 132/136 lb.
They label the rail in the US mostly by weight/yard and profile. Much older than that in the US and you start getting into specialized stuff incompatible with current standards, so I wouldn't really count it as "able to be used". History isn't really my strong suite, but I believe they standardized and started stamping the rail around the Civil War, it gets pretty in the weeds and is pretty regional dependent, but I've definitely seen rail in yards from pre-1900 that could have been used, but hasn't in years and that's like in a handful of spots in the country. It sounds like a lot but wear isn't really an issue in straight track segments, and generally takes years pretty much 100% of rail maintenance is done in curves. Lastly there was defect testing, where rail is tested internally for defects, that would also occur about twice a year. Rail profile affects fuel efficiency through friction and can also cause additional maintenance though so the rails would also be scanned more throroughly ahead of something called the "grinding train" which was another specialized train that reprofiled the rails, this was done from a hi-rail vehicle at about 10-25 mph. When a likely bad section of rail is found, a supervisor would go out and verify the wear with this, but usually the supervisor knows about it already cause it's been getting bad for years. Can only speak for freight in America, but no I never saw this specific device in their processes, on mainlines generally, the rail profile is checked with less precise methods at track speed using specialized trains with sensors installed on them, taking thousands of readings per minute.
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