With spring finally here, track work has begun on the Conway Scenic Railroad Conway line and soon the Mountain Division line to Fabyan NH. I have been pulling out and saving the old date nails from the ties we are replacing. Some are very old, and go back to 1917! The newest (from the old ties)date 1974.
Does anyone know what the range of years were for the use of date nails in railroad ties? I'm attempting to get one from each year and make some kind of a small display out of it.
Funny thing, We have not seen any from 1966. I'm not sure why there are no ties with date nails from 1966. Perhaps Maine Central had a strike that year, or simply didn't renew ties? There may be some that we haven't found yet, but I'm stumped on that one.
One note that seems appropriate, is that we have been recieving and installing switch timbers with new stainless date nails! The ones I've seen say "98". Perhaps Koppers is now dating ties again? Very interesting.

Brian Hebert



Conway Scenic Railroad
btamper@hotmail.com

Check out this website for date nail info.

Date Nail Info
tsridenhour@ptmc.net