Saturday, April 4, 2015

Answers to my Relic Mystery

In my previous post, I asked if anyone recognized this object as a piece of original C&S track work or as some more modern "junk."  

Below are some of the responses I received from the DSP&P forum group members:
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If it is 1" diameter thread I have found several ooze out of the ground.
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The bolt is 3/4” diameter and the nut is 1 1/2” across the faces
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That would certainly support the idea it is track related. And if they were cut off in dismantling it would also account for them being scattered about.
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Well - it's got a large square nut, so it's definitely old & not off a 4-wheel-drive. My guess is that you're right & it's a track bolt, but it could also be off a [rail] car or locomotive.
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Kurt:

That definitely is a track bolt which was used for bolting rail joiners to rails.

I have seen a great many of these on the ROW of many abandoned narrow gauge railroads in the West. Initially, I picked up a few of them but since there were so many scattered around on the various abandoned ng railroads, I soon took to seeing them but otherwise ignoring them. To a 14 year old in 1990, as you describe yourself, one would fall into the category of a "precious treasure". My wife and I and our 3 year old son first visited the West Portal of Alpine Tunnel (and the East Portal) in July 1968 as you probably know from seeing my photos of this visit which I posted in 1968 in the Photos section of this List at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DSP-P/photos/albums/915908745

I am over a generation older than you (I was 53 in 1990), so I had the advantage of exploring abandoned ng railroads by 4x4 long before 4x4s became so popular and numerous. I found all sorts of things including abandoned RR cars (one was on its side so I used the winch on my 4x4 to turn it upright) and parts which the scrappers had left behind or missed. Last summer, I donated a lot of useful such stuff to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Museum in Nevada City, CA, which restores old wooden ng RR cars. The donations will be helpful in their restoration work.

In some cases, the railroads still were running, such as the West Side Lumber Co. in 1959 and the SP Narrow gauge in January 1960. I watched a track maintenance crew replace a section of rail, using new track bolts like the one you have, to bolt the joiners and rails together on the West Side Lumber Co. in June 1959 when I was 22. West Side narrow gauge Shay no. 9, returning to the woods with a string of 19 empty log cars that day, had to stop and wait for the track crew to finish their work. I talked with 9's engineer, Bert Bergstrom, while this was going on and before I photographed the track crew. That Shay no. 9 presently (during the summer) is in service on the Georgetown Loop RR in Colorado.


With best regards, Hart Corbett

Thanks everyone for helping solve a very old mystery for me!

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