Spikes, so what?
The outside two were taken from the standard gauge tracks in Elizabethton, TN from the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR, and were so badly pitted I could only assume they were there when steam was still running (as the last steam engine left there in 1967). I painted them because there wasn't a good reason to think they were used by the arrow gauge line.
The middle one was recently recovered from the right of way before milepost 13 on the 3-foot gauge line, before the covered truss bridge over the Doe River between Valley Forge and Hampton, TN. Very few identified pieces of the NG line have been found over the years as the track crews clearing those tracks in 1951 did such a complete job. I just got the middle spike, which to me is worth its weight in gold! I for sure won't be painting this one, and will be mounting it on something to hang on the wall of the train room.
