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Dates bouquet
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I think to know when installed. Not in every one but in groups.
A friend of mine has a gallon? sized steel container, packed and shipped in looking shiny can with a key to open lid like sardines, bent back, full of19’s that were never used.
I've noticed on some new concrete ties that they have UPC tag, like ones scanned at the store checkout.
You can find in modern REA power poles today. Look for it hidden behind the ground wire, about a hammers length above you head Telephone co. 31 and the 10 is thumb tack sizedN.E Colorado, Nebraska panhandle
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That's quite a haul! There's a specific reason for the dating (or at least a reason why it was first introduced).
After the end of the Civil War the US rail network expanded so dramatically that, from the 1880s onwards, the demand for timber to produce wooden ties began to exceed the available supply. A typical track needed about 3,000 of them per mile and they only lasted 5-7 years before they needed replacing. The solution was to treat the ties in various ways to lengthen their life
Railroad companies tried steam treatment, brushing, spraying and soaking with chemicals (creosote and others) but they needed a way to monitor which methods worked the best. Dated nails were used on test sections of track for this purpose… first used by the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad in 1897, a few others from 1899 and then widely after the rail industry’s Maintenance of Way convention in 1900. Nails were both hammered into ties by the treatment plants and also during installation of the track. Some have a letter as well as a numerical date year, indicating type of timber (eg ‘C’ for cedar, ‘F’ for fir) or type of treatment (eg ‘Z’ for zinc chloride).I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.
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Thanks for that. This spur line used to stop here until ‘15 orso. When sugar beets became a hit on up the valley the route was extended.
Nowdays coal is only passenger.
I have the lease on the “wye” meadow. I haven’t looked for in long time.N.E Colorado, Nebraska panhandle
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I bought a big magnet recently. 500# I watched a Youboob video of course.
I float in aluminum jon boat. If I dragged it along? With light chain IDK. Stick to something.
Tomorrow Ill go drag it around and see.N.E Colorado, Nebraska panhandle
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