Found near a long gone rr track. railroad related?

[turtlefoot13]

Here is a piece of larger iron found late last fall. I found this near the bed of a narrow gauge railroad line that was used to haul logs out of the forest to the saw mill. It was around 18" deep and took about 30 minutes to get out of the ground! The tracks were in use from the 1870's-1890's (most likely the 1890's). This area is heavily forested now and has been since the 1930's or earlier (info from some of the "old timers" in the area).

I don't have anything in the pic for scale but it is sitting on a standard 8.5x11 piece of paper. The round part is about the same diameter as a shovel handle.

Other finds in the immediate area was a mid 1930's shotgun brass, small pieces of coal on the rr bed itself, railroad spikes and the remains of a HUGE copper gasket.

I would just like to know what it is.

Thanks for your help,
Doug

 

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[creskol]

Looks like an early ad for E.D.

Actually, I think it was a long handled pry bar used for aligning the tracks.

 

[turtlefoot13]

I'm guessing that you second response is right BUT I like the first idea a lot better!

Thanks,
Doug

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I was going to ask what the heck is E.D.? ...but I googled it myself. Now I know.

 

[lastleg]

Mister Ed ?

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Don't know about yours - but here back in the 1890's the actual "rails" were hardwood timber not steel... it wasn;t until the 1920's and 30's that steel rails were used.

I worked for railways for 10years in track engineering and never saw any track tools that looked like that!

Not saying it isn't a "fettlers/ghandi dancers/snake charmers" tool of some kind - just not one I'm familiar with is all.

Cheers

 

[creskol]

Don't know about yours - but here back in the 1890's the actual "rails" were hardwood timber not steel... it wasn;t until the 1920's and 30's that steel rails were used.

I worked for railways for 10years in track engineering and never saw any track tools that looked like that!

Not saying it isn't a "fettlers/ghandi dancers/snake charmers" tool of some kind - just not one I'm familiar with is all.

Cheers

Are you talking about the tracks or the ties?

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Originally the ties and the tracks / rail were made of hardwood here around the 1890's for timber haul railways in SW of Aus. Later they were changed to steel around the 1920 & 30's.

Cheers

 

[creskol]

Originally the ties and the tracks / rail were made of hardwood here around the 1890's for timber haul railways in SW of Aus. Later they were changed to steel around the 1920 & 30's.

Cheers

Here is an interesting little snippet of history.

 

[DCMatt]

Originally the ties and the tracks / rail were made of hardwood here around the 1890's for timber haul railways in SW of Aus. Later they were changed to steel around the 1920 & 30's.

Cheers

Tracks in the US have been steel pretty much from the start. Here is an artist's rendering of Sherman's troops destroying southern rail tracks in the Civil War. They would remove the tracks and lay them across a fire. When they were hot enough they would bend them around a tree.

DCMatt

 

[ivan salis]

shermans bow ties * a turning point in the way --most railroads being owned by northern interest early in the war the north did not want to wreck them *so the south used the rail roads to rapid mass troops to meet northern attacks raidly shifting troops by train --finally the north figgered out that the south had very limited rail making ability and only 1 rail straighting place and started on a massive train track bending spree crippling the souths ability to move troops to counter northern troop build ups --that and the use of "freed" black troops "tipped" the power balance in the norths favor.

 

[DCMatt]

Back to the topic...

I don't know what your tool is, but I found a neet book from 1921 called:

Railway track & structures cyclopedia, Issue 1 By American Railway Engineering Association

It is available in Google books with full view. It shows pictures and has descriptions of all the equipment used on railroads in the early 20th C.

Good luck!

DCMatt

 

[Broken knee]

TF, I think it's a gate hinge by looking at the half rnd. attachment holes on the left.
or a door hinge?
Broken Knee