Abstract: A rail spike for holding a tie plate on a tie, embodied in accordance with the invention so that tie cutting is prevented, spike removal for track maintenance is facilitated, and a free rail load wave is allowed. This preferably is attained by providing the spike with left and right side tapered shoulders and a tapered rear surface, such that a unique wedging and swaging action occurs in the tie plate hole during a final driving of the spike, limiting the depth of penetration of the spike into the tie and securely maintaining the gauge of the tie plate on the tie.

Abstract: In a railroad spike forging machine of the type comprising a steel stock pointing roller assembly which longitudinally feeds pointed spike blanks along a centerline to a head forming station, a main die of hardened tool steel having a die zone defined between its leading edge and an intermediate point of said first longitudinal dimension, and a wipe zone defined between said intermediate point and the trailing edge of the die by a transversely extending entrance wall surface to the die zone, whereby a transverse wiping of the channel is enabled in said wipe zone. Further, a sensing means generates position signals from the rotation of a pointer roller, and a spike positioning mechanism comprises a first hydraulic cylinder operable transversely to extend a stop mechanism in response to a first position signal, thereby to stop forward motion of a spike blank at an appropriate distance downstream of the die leading edge.