Eastern Railroad Discussion > Screw spikes

In the annual report of the New York, Ontario & Western Railroad it mentions the use of screw spikes during its construction in 1869.Can anyone top this? There were a number of railroads that used this system at a much later period tin the 20th century, but this is the first I've run across this. 

I'm not sure I understand the question but screw spikes have been utilized at various times over history but as modern history indicates, as well as practice, they have not been a superior techology. I'm not aware of any in use today. I'm certainly open to any corrections.
Go

The NP installed screws on Homestake Pass early 1950s. That line is not used but still intact with the screws
RB

I berlieve them Lackawanna RR used screw spikes in some locations.

Are screw spikes common in Europe?

OHfrog Wrote:
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> Are screw spikes common in Europe?

Thay have been in the past. Less so now i think.

Locoinsp Wrote:
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> I berlieve them Lackawanna RR used screw spikes in
> some locations.

The Erie Railroad used them also. Some were still in track in 1974 around Middletown, N.Y. (DW).

Screw spikes, or at least lag screws, are still in use to fasten clip style plates (e.g., Pandrol)  to timber crossties. In this use, they only have to be removed when/if the tie is replaced and the clips replace the gage (rail) fastening spikes. For gage holding, screw spikes have several disadvantages compared with cut spikes, with increased difficulty in insertion/removal being probably the greatest. In my 40+ years of working with track, I can't recall ever seeing a standard gage track fastened exclusively with screws, at least in the U.S. I have seen a few concrete crosstie designs that use a screw to retain the fastener clip, but that's a bit different.

A problematic account of screw spike failures leading to the derailment and oil spill into the Columbia River on the UP at Moiser (?) a few years ago sent a lot of us back to reconsider their use.
Up until then a very common, high quality track was Pandrol plate fixed to wood ties with four screw spikes.
They were also used in many turnouts, especially for frogs.
What happened at Moiser was that a sequence of 40 or so plates broke their screw spikes and allowed the track gauge to open up and derail the train.
IIRC there were two aspects to the failure:  First, the combination of longitudinal forces (thermal and braking) plus the lateral forces (curves) exceeded the design load for the spikes.  Second, the spikes all broke at a depth of 2-3" below the plate, where water was trapped and corrosion was induced from micro-cracking at the location of over-stress.  The tops of the screws stayed in their holes and the only way to detect this was a Gauge Restraint Measuring Car or a very sharp-eyed track inspector who might have seen evidence of the plates moving a smaller amount than what finally let to the derailment.

A few photos to illustrate.

1. A screw spike failure on the DL&W - probably 1920's. 

2. Drawing of a standard DL&W screw spike - 1910 (Steamtown Archives)

3. DL&W 80AS rail section with screw spike and plate still intact on the NYS&W Utica Branch, ex DL&W at Earlville, NY in 2015. This is currently an unused siding track. - my photo

 

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