A lot of instances of a static mesh?

I need to place a large amount of instances of a static mesh on my level, in advance and by hand (struts for a roller coaster track). What would be the best way to do it?

Currently I’ve got the strut mesh assigned to foliage, but working with foliage is more troublesome than with static mesh actors. They don’t have object-space transformation and they’re dependant on the landscape.