Rail spike is a large nail with an offset head that is used to secure rails and base plates to railroad ties in the rail track. Common sizes of railspikes are from 9 to 10/16 inch square and ~5.5 to 6 inch long.
Generally speaking, the rail spike is driven with the edge perpendicular to the grain, which brings greater resistance to loosening. Its primary function is to keep the rail in gauge. When attaching tie plates the attachment is made as strong as possible, whereas when attaching a rail to tie or tie plate the spike is not normally required to provide a strong vertical force, allowing the rail some freedom of movement.
Originally spikes were manually driven into wooden sleepers by hammering them with a heavy hammer. Nowadays, this manual work has been replaced by machines, commonly called "spike drivers". Splitting of the wood can be limited by pre-boring spike holes or adding steel bands around the wood.
Rai spikes mainly includes dog spike, screw spike, rail drive spike and spring spike, etc.
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| rail dog spike | rail screw spike | rail spring spike |
