http://cgi.ebay.com/like-new-railroad-spike_W0QQitemZ6630669844QQcategoryZ95163QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

In case anybody thinks Homeland Security is hot after railroad spike
thieves.

The are a gazillion abandoned mines around here. I doubt that those have
crossed the NSA's radar yet- better get 'em while you can. And yeah, once in
a while some moron falls into a mine, too- and they're not even moving.

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jake de Villiers" <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: Unlikely tool

Well, in our little corner of North America the Burlington-Northern line
runs right along the beach, behind the houses, then across a corner of
Boundary Bay on an ancient wooden trestle. People walk the tracks all the
time, sometimes all the way into White Rock.
Once in a while some moron gets hit by a train. I don't know how they miss
hearing/feeling it, and they are going very slowly, but............maybe
Darwin was right.    :-)

On 5/18/06, Stephen Overmyer <S.OVERMYER@uws.edu.au> wrote:
>
>
>
> 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)
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com