Wrought iron spikes and creosote

From: "Randall Hees" hees@rcn.com

The track crew on the Niles Canyon Railway exposed a stone work culvert while doing track work last week. The location was at the East end of Brightside, in a section of track built under CP ownership, but where some work on the grade had been completed by the previous owners, prior to their embarrassment.

Also found were a couple of wrought iron spikes and both creosoted wood, associated with the replacement culvert, plus untreated redwood beams (probably from the original open culvert.

This brings up two questions, when did CP start using steel spikes, and when did they start using creosote on bridge timbers? We are studying the commissioner's inspection reports and maps to try to understand what we found.

—Randy Hees