Awesome Railroad finds!

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Screwtop

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Today I hunted for several hours along an old abandoned railroad line in Kentucky. This particular stretch of railroad was in use from the 1870s, through the 1940s when coal stopped coming out of that particular area. As I was walking along the overgrown mess that is the area now, I was picking up plenty of 1930s Hemingray insulators, but these three were the ones that took the cake.


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I don't know anything about CD numbers, or how old they are, but they are not from the 1930s! The one on the left is marked Hemingray Pat. May 2nd 1893, with all drip points intact, the aqua Brookfield Beehive (I've always wanted one!) is marked Brookfield / New York, and the other one is marked W. Brookfield / New York.

I was finding a mix of household and telephone line insulators as well, but they were broken.


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The beer bottle is a West Virginia Brewing Co. bottle from Huntington W.Va, a nearby town. The druggist bottle came from Cincinnati. Weird how that ended up all the way out here! The beer bottle is a BIM, So 1900-1905 era. The druggist is from the 1890s.
 

BillinMo

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Nice finds. The H.G. is probably late 1890s-1910 or so, and the same for the W. Brookfield signal. The beehive is a hair later, probably 1903-1910.
 

willong

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Searching along an abandoned and overgrown railroad line that operated from the 1870's sounds like a dream day to me! Virtually nothing like that out here in western WA where the majority of our rail lines date 1890's or later.

Two advantages to western Washington woods though: no venomous snakes, and I have never picked up a single tick in wading through our underbrush. Some Salal stands (https://green2.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Plant.aspx?Act=view&PlantID=33) can actually grow over head height despite what plant guides say; and it can be mightily frustrating to tunnel one's way through such jungles. In such encounters it is nice to not be also encumbered by thoughts what what might be slithering around one's feet or latching onto one's clothing!

If you find cuts and fills along the way, be sure to check the fill embankments for items discarded by the original workers as well as toss out the windows by train crew and passengers. A potato rake or small cultivator, even a pitchfork, is a good tool for raking and probing through the forest detritus. What would be really great is to encounter the crunchy feel and sound of crumbling tin cans with a trace of solder sealing a small hole in the center of the lid, a great indicator that you've located a vintage dumpsite. Ravines and gullie, as well as creek banks, were always popular disposal terrain.

Hope you find more so we can all enjoy the adventure vicariously!
 

dario

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View attachment 227161

Today I hunted for several hours along an old abandoned railroad line in Kentucky. This particular stretch of railroad was in use from the 1870s, through the 1940s when coal stopped coming out of that particular area. As I was walking along the overgrown mess that is the area now, I was picking up plenty of 1930s Hemingray insulators, but these three were the ones that took the cake.


View attachment 227162

I don't know anything about CD numbers, or how old they are, but they are not from the 1930s! The one on the left is marked Hemingray Pat. May 2nd 1893, with all drip points intact, the aqua Brookfield Beehive (I've always wanted one!) is marked Brookfield / New York, and the other one is marked W. Brookfield / New York.

I was finding a mix of household and telephone line insulators as well, but they were broken.


View attachment 227163


The beer bottle is a West Virginia Brewing Co. bottle from Huntington W.Va, a nearby town. The druggist bottle came from Cincinnati. Weird how that ended up all the way out here! The beer bottle is a BIM, So 1900-1905 era. The druggist is from the 1890s.
You have a CD 145 BROOKFIELD, a CD 162 HEMINGRAY, and a CD 133 BROOKFIELD. The May 2nd 1893 patent on the Hemingray is for the drip points. The CD 133 is most likely the oldest of the 3 insulators. They are all about 100 years old or a bit more.
 

margclearlake

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I was walking the Santa Fe line near, well my property near Santa Fe. found a whole bunch of Thomas Edison Battery Oils. really cool bottles with his signature done in cursive. they were so small couldnt figure out the use. seems battery oil was put over the water in the batteries to help with evaporation. seems the workers just threw them. I donated them to a railroad museum that surprisingly did not have any.

Also found a whole bunch of the china that they used on the train. red and white, with aztecy birds and such, from Mimbreno Syracuse factory. I can just imagine the spoiled jerks throwing it off the train, there was so much of it, sherds. pretty though. donated that too.
 

Bohdan

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View attachment 227161

Today I hunted for several hours along an old abandoned railroad line in Kentucky. This particular stretch of railroad was in use from the 1870s, through the 1940s when coal stopped coming out of that particular area. As I was walking along the overgrown mess that is the area now, I was picking up plenty of 1930s Hemingray insulators, but these three were the ones that took the cake.


View attachment 227162

I don't know anything about CD numbers, or how old they are, but they are not from the 1930s! The one on the left is marked Hemingray Pat. May 2nd 1893, with all drip points intact, the aqua Brookfield Beehive (I've always wanted one!) is marked Brookfield / New York, and the other one is marked W. Brookfield / New York.

I was finding a mix of household and telephone line insulators as well, but they were broken.


View attachment 227163


The beer bottle is a West Virginia Brewing Co. bottle from Huntington W.Va, a nearby town. The druggist bottle came from Cincinnati. Weird how that ended up all the way out here! The beer bottle is a BIM, So 1900-1905 era. The druggist is from the 1890s.

Wash the bottle before you post it!
Common sense.
Common courtesy.
 

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