Date Nails
Updated: Apr 9, 2019
Every tie on the system is dated based on the year it was made. Pre-1960 the ties were dated using a nail with the year it was made stamped into it. Post 1960 they stamp it into the wood directly. Which means there are a handful of ties still on our system that have yet to be replaced with Date Pins. While doing a pre job survey of the tie gangs outside of Bemidji, Minnesota I found my first date pin. Turns out they are actually pretty hard to get out of the ties. While I wanted to grab the '57 pin (the year of Senor Hop's birth) it was pretty stuck. I managed to find several that I was able to yank out of some ties from '56 and '58. I saw some from '48 but once again I couldnt get 'em out of the tie. A buddy of mine also found me a '52 last week when we were working in Arizona. Here is your well deserved Railroad Trivia for the day!
