Oh, ties. Are yalls soaked in goo to make them last longer or just raw wood?
Older ones are just wood but newer ones are coated/dunked in creosote but they are a softer local wood ( they burn real well in my log burner ). To be fair All the older ones I have seen have been taken out of service within the last 10 years ,most around here were new from about 1947 so I dunno what they looked like then .
I had to take really fine cuts when dressing ......hard as all hell and most of them still had those big nails that hold the rails down .
My Granddad was a ganger on the NZ rail and Im sure he called them dogs but I cant find any reference to that . He died in the mid 70's . He was a dedicated smoker ,fingers and face stained with nicotine ,lip ,most of tongue and most of his throat removed due to cancer and in the end he had a hole in his neck where he breathed and he would stick the Pallmall plain ( no filter ) fag in there right till his last breath .
