Collected from Northern Nevada's Southern Pacific Railroad
"...I think it important that the life of ties should be
determined in some such way. I think the better way may be to
use a galvanized tack, such as our friend here Mr. Chanute has
devised, with a date on the head...certainly a numbered nailhead
is not very expensive and not very difficult to apply..."
QUOTED FROM MR.W.C. CURTIS OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
COMPANY AT THE FIRST MEETING OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING
AND MAINTENANCE-OF WAY ASSOCIATION-LATER TO BE CALLED THE
AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION-
MARCH 14-15,1900 STEINWAY HALL,CHICAGO,ILLINOIS
These are a few of the Datenails I have collected when I worked along the Northern Nevada Southern Pacific Railroad.
Datenails were used from **1900-1947**
to identify when the railroad ties or telegraph poles were installed so that Railroad maintenance workers could visually check the age of a section of track or telegraph pole and replace as needed to prevent Track failures or Signal outages.
**From what I've heard - There were no Datenails used in the years 1944-1946 due to a metal shortage as a result of World War II.**
Please check out the links below to other datenail Web Sites ..
Or you can check out old messages in the "Discussion Forum" by clicking on the button below.
Unfortunately my travels have brought me to a place where a railroad is something that is only found in books. I'd like to thank all those that have assisted me in completing my collection of Southern Pacific Datenails (and sampling quite a few other lines) that I started years ago.
It was fun passing time during work and recreationally with the kids wandering miles of track across Nevada,Utah and California looking for them. Flipping and inspecting ties-wandering miles of split tie RR cattleguard fence posts and finding a new nail for the collection was great with alot of good memories
Good Luck and Happy Hunting to all of you and keep safe....
