Hi Randy,
Nice artifact.
I'll have to as others about it. Hard to say. Railroads cast rail with symbols indicating the initials of the railroad, the date of the casting, and the weight of the rail. I don't know if that practice was universal.
What part of the symbols could be are the initials of the railroad - the two left-most - and the rest become the year, per roman numerals. If the letter to the right of the "C" is a "M", then I think the series is "MCMVIII," or 1908. I suspect that the rail casting has the left-most letters are perhaps the railroad, the left "M.C." is a standard date, and the rest is created per year, thus looking rough. And perhaps it is MCMIIII for 1909, if the crew did not use "XI" for 9? Just speculating here. The "80" may be the rail weight (per yard).
But that letter under the right hole just doesn't look like an "M". And the spacing of the periods indicates something else after the "C".
I will have to ask someone else.
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