Yesterday I had to remove a section of my plate girder viaduct, and noticed that a lot of the spikes are coming up out of the ties. A few were actually missing. I pushed them all back in, but I’m wondering if it would help to pull them out, dip the tip of the spike in glue, and then replace them?
I’ve dipped spikes and brads in glue prior to driving them. It does help but the best way is to use steel that rusts itself into the hole. Stainless especially and also nickle silver and brass all seem to work themselves out eventually.
Ray,
on outdoor structures (trestles/bridges), I always use ferrous nails as they rust and grip the timber. Also, they produce the ‘burned’ wood effect around the nail head which I find attractive on trestles. Similarly for rail spikes. Non-rusting nails (stainless, etc) are unable to grip the timber effectively and will work loose over time. It will be many years before the nail rusts away completely.
Another idea would be to use paneling nails. They have ridges along the shank. Only problems with them are they are usually too long and have a round head, but they can be cut to length easily enough and if you buy the black ones the head isn’t as noticeable.
I figured out why the spikes were coming out on this bridge, while all my other bridges are still sound. The track leading onto the bridge at one end needed reballasting. This caused an up-and-down motion in the rails which was working out the spikes. Also, some of the bridge “feet” were not properly supported, allowing a very slight wobble which contributed to the problem.