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Illinois Live Steamers!
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Track Dating By Carl Baskin The practice of using a "date nail" was used by real railroads to identify when ties were originally placed in service. Wooden ties were expected to provide 30-35 years of service. The ILS began using date tags on the 7.5" track back in the mid 1990's to indicate when track (rail, ties and ballast) was placed in service. The date tags are 1" to 1.5" round aluminum disks with a hole drilled for a #10 hex head sheet metal screw. The reference photo shows the application of one such date tag. (Click photos for larger view)
The stampings indicate that; 1) the track was placed in service in 1999 [99], 2) the ties were pre-drilled to minimize wood splitting after the rail holding screws were driven home [DR] and 3) this section of track uses crushed limestone ballast without any "fines" [NO FNS]. Every turnouts is dated too. An added benefit of the track date tagging system is that tags can be placed every 20 feet (or other distance) on the track. These locations can then be used as survey points to check grade elevation changes. Surveyors can return to the same mark time after time without worrying about missing/moved grade stakes. Like everything else, it takes a little time and effort to initiate a date tagging program, but it beats trying to remember the how's and when's track work was done years before.
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