Silver Spike

To travel the United States (maybe not by air) like the carefree, railroad riding hobos of the past.  Please upload pictures of the TB as it travels so we know the TB is actually traveling and # isn't bein gpassed around. 

This is the Silver Spike.  It's a poor cousin of the famous Golden Spike.  Okay, a VERY poor cousin indeed.  The Golden Spike  commemorates the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad where the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad met on May 10, 1869. The final joining of the rails spanning the continent was signified by the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike. This occurred near Promontory Summit in Utah.  There is now a museum on the location called the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

There is also a Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs, Iowa

A rail spike (also known as a cut spike or crampon) is a large nail with an offset head that is used to secure rails and base plates to railroad ties in the track. Robert Livingston Stevens is credited with the invention of the railroad spike,^[5] being first used in at least 1832.^[6] The railroad spike was an invention which resulted from the state of industrialisation in the United States in the early 19th century: English mainline railways of that period used heavy and expensive cast iron chairs to secure T shaped rails; instead, Stevens added a supporting base to the T rail which could be fixed with a simple spike.^[7] The spike is still (as of 1982) the most common rail fastening in North America. Common sizes are from 9 to 10/16 inch square and ~5.5 to 6 inch long.^[9]

A rail spike is roughly chisel shaped and with a flat edged point; the spike is driven with the edge against the grain, which gives greater resistance to loosening.^[10] The main function is to keep the rail in gauge. When attaching tie plates the attachment is made as strong as possible, whereas when attaching a rail to tie or tie plate the spike is not normally required to provide a strong vertical force, allowing the rail some freedom of movement.^[9]

Originally spikes were driven into wooden sleepers by hammering them with a heavy hammer by hand. This manual work has been replaced by machines, commonly called "spike drivers" (A machine that removes spikes is called a "spike puller").^[11] Splitting of the wood can be limited by pre-boring spike holes or adding steel bands around the wood.^[12]