ate:    Thu, 18 May 2006 20:24:59 -0600
From:    George Thorburn <thorgk@ACCESSCOMM.CA>
Subject: Re: Unlikely tool

>>Gee, there's a railroad track just a couple of miles away, I'll go =
pull
>>one.  Anyone else need one too?

Just walk along the tracks fo a while.  You can usually find a loose =
spike that has been left behind by a work crew.
George
'85 Westfalia

While George is certainly correct...used railway spikes are usually all
along a rail line, you should be aware that to "just walk along the
tracks for a while" is actually trespassing on railroad property. 
In the last 5 years or so, US railroad companies have become very
paranoid about any unauthorised persons on or about railway
infrastructure without good reason for being there and they will
prosecute you if they find you.
Also increasing safety regulations require anybody with any legitimate
business to be on railway property must have a basic training in safety
and track awareness. Sure I know it's common sense stuff but you still
gotta go through it to be able to be on railway property (and you still
have to have legitimate business being there)...unless you are a
passenger on a station waiting for a train that is...  

If you want to find your own spikes, go to a railway museum and ask some
railway nutter for some old ones. I am sure they will be only too happy
to oblige...I mean, how many do you really need anyway?

I know there are miles and miles of lonely railway lines where finding a
spike is probably easy...but just be aware that there is far more
surveillance of railways than ever before. 

Sorry to sound like a wet blanket here...there are others out there on
the list far better at that than me ;-) but as a director of a
Not-For-Profit Heritage Railway Company, I hear lot about the new
attitudes to railway trespassing coming out of Nth America...

Cheers,
Steve O
NSW Australia
'92 Transporter WBX Kombi
'00 Transporter Double Cab
'03 Transporter Double Cab (work truck)
'78 Land Rover 109 Series 3 soft top ute (ex-Aust.Army)