In the latest issue of the Upper Falls News, I wrote about my daughter bringing home one of the rusted railroad spikes from the Upper Falls Greenway construction site and my wife’s kitchen experiments in de-rust’ing. After a few attempts she hit a working formula, soak it in a Ziploc bag full of ketchup on a radiator for a few days … and repeat.
An UF News reader and neighbor, Margaret Alexander just sent these photos of a homemade Christmas present that she and her husband Mick gave to their sons this year.
The hardware was also retrieved from the Upper Falls Greenway site and turned into a neighborhood historical artifact. How cool is that?
Jim Lerner just sent along this photo of a few “date nails”. Whenever the railroad replaced a wooden tie they would bang in one of these nails to the new tie. The number on the nail head was the year (20th century) that the tie was replaced.
I saw a few of these on the Greenway ties before they pulled the tracks up but didn’t think to snag them.
Incidentally, Jim says he de-rust’ed his old RR hardware up with plain white vinegar rather than ketchup.