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| Photo showing the 1869 completion of the intercontinental railroad (Courtesy of the Union Pacific Museum) |
Speaking of collectibles, while wandering around the tracks waiting for the train, I happened to find two old rusty spikes, which became my souvenirs of the day. (My older brother Ken humorously reminded me of how reckless I was being, poking around so close to the tracks, since both our great-great-grandfather and our great-grand uncle found that the 'end of the line' for them was directly under a choo-choo.)
So why did I pick those two rusty spikes up? I'm not sure. But after driving around with them on the floor of my front seat for almost a week, I decided to go online to see what people did with them.
I was surprised to see that people do collect them. But first, you have to clean them up! The suggested method was to soak them in white vinegar for 24 hours so that's what I did. (I even bought Heinz brand; no Great Value white vinegar for my spikes!) After letting them soak for the allotted time, I scrubbed them with a metal bristle brush. They cleaned up rather nice. And they're actually a little different from each other; one has 6U stamped on its head.
Anyway, it was a good time for me to refresh my memory about the Golden Spike used at the completion of the transcontinental railroad. There were actually four special spikes, and you can read about them here on the Golden Spike National Historic Park website.
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| The Golden Spike as depicted on an episode of "Quick Draw McGraw" |
I had a great-great-grandfather killed by a train, too! Mine was drunk, walking across a trestle, and ran the wrong way when a locomotive came along. How about yours?
ReplyDeleteI never thought about collecting railroad spikes (Did yours have that funky "hot metal and creosote railway smell" before cleaning?). eBay lists lots of 10 for various prices (shipping would be expensive). And it looks like specialist blacksmiths use them to forge knives of various kinds.
Hi Don! My great-great-grandfather was on his way hom in Mansfield after a night drinking and fell asleep on a train platform – and ended up getting snagged by a passing train, kind of like a human mailbag I guess. A very grisly end. And as for the spikes, they didn't have any smell, just layers and layers of thick rust.
DeleteWhenever I would walk near the tracks I would also look for spikes that were loose and take them for a souvenir.And I know that being on the tracks is illegal and dangerous but people have been walking the tracks ever since rails were laid on the ground all over the world.But what I would mainly do is I would tape a coin on the tracks and let the train squish it all out of shape.Then have a real souvenir.Probably have 25-30 of them from my youth.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea about taping it to the tracks! I did it once but didn't tape it down and I don't remember that I was able to find it.
DeleteIn the past, "Killed by Cars" was an extremely common way to die. Keep in mind most people walked where they were going and while roads in Ohio typically head north-south and east-west, train tracks went directly from one town to the next and so were the shortest path. Even more so in the winter when tracks were relatively clear and road might not be. Mis-judge your distance, and surprise! You're dead.
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