Railroad line found

[Burdie]

Found the Sumner Cowley railroad line or what is left of it. The line ran to the edge of the Indian Territory in the 1880's
I enjoyed the search. Through research and visits to museums I was able to pinpoint the area. This is for the guys up north that can't hunt. Thanks for looking

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

We Up North Wisconsin folk dont usually have to hunt for our railways...figure if we see a train moving, the track must be pretty dang close....LOL

Seriously you made a great find, and I know the research was part of the fun, making your end find even more enjoyable.... , those spikes arent light..must have made a heavy haul home...
Congrats !

 

[Burdie]

We never claimed to be smart down here. Good advise. Keep warm up north.

 

[JakePhelps]

Cool spikes! Have you found any date nails there yet?

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

ID,

the search, hunt, is more than half the fun. Got to love history.

Good job.

have a good un...........

 

[debid]

When I read "Sumner Cowley " I just knew you had to be in Kansas. I'm right here in Emporia.

 

[Burdie]

Welcome debid this is a great forum. Post your finds. Some of you talked about dates. Mine are very rusty and I am not sure what I am looking for.

 

[lionhrt9]

I have not heard of dated railroad nails either. I have found alot, but just walkin trax as a kid no MDing. Kewl post ID.

 

[LW HAWK]

This is my first post, I normally just read others posts and research. I hadn't thought about the date nails for many years until Jake Phelps mentioned them, I lived close to a Santa Fe railroad in southern New Mexico in the 1960's. Even then I had heard about the date nails. Well, one HOT summer day I was out looking for some buried stuff and encountered the rail line blocking my path; I decided to walk the line for a while. The date nails are driven into one end of the ties, they are 1/4" diameter x 2 1/2" long with a 5/8" diameter molded date head, with the last two numbers of year date. Since I was going to try and find the oldest nail, I walked about 2 miles and I pulled 11 nails. The oldest is 1928 (28) and the youngest is 1947 (47) with several of the 1930's in sequence. Thanks for the memory, I'll go put them back in the little treasure closet and check on them in another 40 years.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

That all sounds good, the research then the hunt. HH, Mike

 

[gldhntr]

what swr said, usually within 30 feet or so off the side of the trackbed.......saw a black glass one sell on e-bay for about 3600.00.....at the least a buck or two each, a little lighter than a rr spike too.......look swr we finally agreed on something..bound to happen sometime i guess .........have a great day........................gldhntr

 

[stoney56]

Stan, check out this site for a good assortment of date nails,

http://www.douglascoulter.com/Personal/date_nail.html