Even with a Schwellenpflug, returning the right of way to service is merely labor-intensive, because the rails are still intact. "Sherman's neckties", so named from General Sherman's march to the sea during the Civil War, were much more effective as a long-term destruction; the rails were heated, twisted, and then bent, often around a post or pole; the twisting of the rails would make it impossible to simply remount the rails on new sleepers, requiring that not only ties, but rails, be produced and installed. As Henry Hitchcock, Sherman's military secretary, wrote: "Merely bending rails in ordinary way, by piling ties, laying rails across, and allowing their own weight at ends to bend them, thus, is not effectual. If thus merely bent, they can be restored by reverse process. But if twisted, even a little, they are ruined and must be rerolled."
With modern railroads, this is less viable, due to the longer sections rails are produced in today.