Today we were doing a home project that required some railroad spikes. I was plum out, but I knew where to get some; several thousand of them to be exact, and not all that hard to obtain either. My 3 year old daughter could use a nice walk too, just to work off some of her energy, so the wife and I headed out onto a railroad track nearby and grabbed some of the old spikes lying along the track. (32 in a half mile of track if that tells you anything about the condition of said railroad bed. Needless to say this is NOT federally inspected track). But when I got home and used one of the spikes for my project, I noticed a drop of silver solder underneath the head of one of the spikes. I used to remember what that signified, but can't for the life of me remember now. Was it the center of the curve, or was the utmost height in super-elevation; I honestly cannot remember?! We are giving this barnwood/railroad spike coat rack away as a wedding gift and it would be nice to tell the couple what the drop of solder was for!
I don't have an answer, but I have heard before that you can find spikes along railroad tracks. Blasphemy! There's about a mile stretch I use to walk home when I go fishing and over the past 5 years I have yet to find a single railroad spike during that walk!!
