A shoulder for use in retaining a railway rail fastening clip, comprising two interconnected spaced-apart walls, between which a portion of the clip to be retained is held when the shoulder is in use, and clip-engaging means, supported by the walls, for engaging a portion of the clip to be retained, does not have any feature or surface which engages the surface of that clip portion which faces downwardly when the clip is in use. Alternatively, or in addition, none of the contact regions, at which the device engages the rail clip, can be seen when the anchoring device is viewed from above when in its operative orientation and all of the contact regions can be seen when the anchoring device is viewed from below when in the operative orientation. Alternatively, or in addition, all the contact regions lie substantially at the same horizontal distance from the edge of the rail foot when measured perpendicularly to the axis of the rail and in the plane of the rail foot.