I recently bought a box of RR spikes on eBay and thought they were bigger than this. Are these the normal size, and if not what's a good seller on eBay to buy from? About 6-1/2 in long and 1/2 in thick on the square part.

  Thanks

The lighting in your pics is such I can't read the thickness. Line spikes were typically around 5/8" thick I've seen different versions but I don't believe they were used on the line. Their length was sometimes fairly long probably for spiking through thicker lays of plates, pads or who knows what.

Frosty The Lucky.

Those are probably about average.  I've seen longer and thinner spikes and some thicker... depends on the RR and the tracks laid.

made this one with a spike exactly that size

made this one with a spike exactly that size

 

wow that is a really nice blade! Thanks for the help

 

Those are probably about average.  I've seen longer and thinner spikes and some thicker... depends on the RR and the tracks laid.

ok thanks

The lighting in your pics is such I can't read the thickness. Line spikes were typically around 5/8" thick I've seen different versions but I don't believe they were used on the line. Their length was sometimes fairly long probably for spiking through thicker lays of plates, pads or who knows what.

Frosty The Lucky.

sorry I stink at taking pictures, yeah they are 5/8 inch. Thanks for the help

You'd be surprised at how much material is in the last 2 inches of that spike. You can get a pretty good sized blade out of it.

Current common size is 5/8 square  x 6.5 long, the other size is 9/16 square x 5.5"  If you paid less then $1 each you did OK, they are available new for ~$2 each from McMaster.com ($11.76 & $9.87 per pack of 5).  IIRC they go for about $1 each when bought from a RR Material supplier in Keg quantities (~200pcs).

Even though plenty can be found next to the tracks I would not suggest walking near the tracks picking up spikes, especially in the terrorist scared society we currently live in.  Walking in the Right of Way (corridor maintained by the railroad) is considered trespassing, despite the amount of people that do it regularly.  If you can, wait until the local railroad is doing tie replacement and talk to the crew during one of their breaks, if they are in a good mood and there is no rumor of a manager or higher visiting the site, you maybe able to get enough used spikes to fill a 5 gal pail if not a pickup bed (I suggest bringing baked items and better then average coffee, but not Yuppie grade...)

Rich C.

Ct Eastern RR Museum

Willimantic, Ct 06615

www.cteastrrmuseum.org

Ok never worked with spikes before.

Thanks

Ok thanks, I paid 12 bucks for 10 including shipping