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.
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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