DATE NAILS
EXPLANATION AND USAGE
Information provided by Robert ‘Bob’ L. Myers
What is a date nail? It is a nail with an enlarged head to accommodate numerals or letters on top of it. Some have raised numerals or letters, and some are incised (indented). The numerals indicate the year of the nail while the letters represent many things, some of which could be the type of wood the railroad tie is made of (e. g. an “A” would represent Ash, while a “B” would be for Beech, “P” for Pine and an “R.O. for Red Oak”), while others might suggest a test section of track (e. e. one railroad used an “X” date nail for this purpose).
Date nails can come in many different sizes and shapes depending upon the needs of the various railroads. Some sizes ran from ¼” to 3”, while shapes that were used are Round, Square, Oval, and Pentagon (and others), and the material used for the nails ranged from Steel, Malleable Iron, Aluminum, Copper to even plastic.
The Long Island Rail-Road used copper nails in railroad ties from 1919-1927 and they were approximately 2 ½” long with round heads and indented numerals. The LIRR also used some copper nails in the wood of the third rail protection board. Two of them (1925 & 1931) were 2 ½” long while a 1930 copper nail was 3” long.
To the best of my knowledge, these are the only railroad nails used on the LIRR that I could find (there may have been others for the third rail protection boards that are forever lost to history).
This is by no means a definitive history of date nails. There are many publications devoted to the subject as well as several clubs, the most notable being the TDNCA (Texas Date Nail Collectors Association), of which I have been a long-time member.