Haupt, United States Military Railway Department. Construction And Transportation. No. 48.
Haupt, Photographs Illustrative of Operations In Construction And Transportation, As Used To Facilitate The Movements Of The Armies Of The Rappahannock, Of Virginia, And Of The Potomac, Including Experiments Made To Determine The Most Practical and Expeditious Modes To Be Resorted To In The Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction Of Roads And Bridges. No. 48–Nos. 47 and 48 represent various small instruments for loosening rails. They consist of steel hooks, provided with sockets, into which wooden handles are inserted; the handles may be pieces of round poles, four feet long and three inches diameter at the larger end. These hooks are designed simply to force back the heads of the spikes without extractiing them. They perform the work very expeditiously; about four spikes in a minute can be bent back, so as to unclasp the rail and permit its removal.
