The effect of corrosion and stress concentration on the fatigue life of older structural steel is studied for a typical loading history and some types of damage encountered in practice. The structural steel specimen represents a railway beam that is severely corroded during the 80 years of service. Standard uniaxial tension testing at ambient temperature and notch toughness testing at -20 deg C are carried out. It is found that the residual life is, in general, reduced both by mechanical damage and corrosion. The combined effect may be reduce the residual life significantly.