Dating railroad spikes
As it turns out, steam locomotives could handle stiffer grades but required easier curves. Similar issues were encountered in figuring out what materials to use for the track structure and its width. This width proved to be the industry's standard gauge still used today although it took several decades before it was officially adopted across the industry.
Railroad spikes dating
Mounting either strap-iron or solid rails to their wooden or stone crossties also posed a problem. At first, simple nails or pegs were used but this setup proved problematic and unreliable since sometimes these would come loose or simply could not tightly secure the rails to the ties.
It was a simple but ingenious setup that came to be known as flat bottomed rail but today is commonly known as "T"-rail flipped upside down it resembles the uppercase letter "T". Stevens initially ran into problems trying to prove his concept since there were no iron works then in operation within the U.
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So, he sailed to England and had pieces of rail, 15 feet long weighing 36 pounds per yard rolled in early It was the first use of "T"-rail in the country and eventually caught on with other railroads. Colonel Stevens also invented a large, hooked nail to hold the rail to the tie via the elongated base. Over the years variations of Stevens' spike have been employed such as the "dog spike" which utilizes a shortened head with outward facing lugs at the top which aids in the removal process but essentially, the same basic design has been used for the last two centuries.
When tie plates were introduced around the spike's effectiveness greatly increased. The plate has a very wide horizontal base, usually with four holes on each side for spikes to hold the rail and then fasten everything to the tie.
Once forced into place the plate provides more lateral support and also helps hold the rail to correct gauge. The pole height will be a multiple of five e.
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