Date Nails

Steam501 wrote:I,ve come upon some type of Date Nail ( Tie Tack ) which is about 1 1/4 " long, has a 1/2" diameter head with " P-K " stamped in the center of it. The " P-K " stamping is enclosed within a rectanglular area about the size of a pencil eraser.. There are several types of ways it was stamped on the head as well. I have only found these on the Maine Central Line up in The Notch. What can anyone tell me about what the P-K stands for? Thanks.

This is not a railroad nail. PK stands for Parker-Kalon, and PK nails are used by surveyors to mark points in their work. They drive them into poles, trees, fenceposts, ties, or whatever timber is available. Best to leave them where you find them, as they are a "permanent" type of marker......

Just yesterday I found a stretch of abandoned RoW with date nails still embedded in many of the old ties. I'm not telling where it is however...

I try to leave them be, for others to enjoy. On occasion, I find them loose amongst the soil on old RoWs along with other trinkets. A good place for this is near Ossipee depot in NH. Some shuffling of the dirt may be in order, but sometimes you can find interesting stuff. I've found insulators, telegraph wire brackets, spike plates, switch padlocks. A metal detector may be a good investment. Just be mindful of where you use it.

And truman, I could have sworn I've seen date nails from the 60s and 70s as well. I may be wrong, but I've got a hunch.

Mattydred,

Your memory of date nails from the 1960's and 1970's is correct. I have found date nails for every year from 1960 through 1975 with the exception of 1969. Smaller nails were used from 1942 through 1945 to conserve metal during WW II. Installation of normal sized date nails was resumed starting in 1946.