Last summer while hiking in the rockies with my faithful golden retreiver, checking out historical rail bridges,roadbeds and such on the long ago abandoned original C.P. main line. We came across a snowshed ( or what was left of it) that had been built in the 1880s. I picked up a piece of old wooden beam about 18 inches long and thought this would make an interesting conversation peace on the mantle in the train room. However not wanting to pilfer an historical site I dropped it back on the pile of rubble and we carried on.
A few hours later and several miles I might add we passed back passed the same snowshed and still had a couple of more miles to go to the truck. When we got to the truck I opened the back the dog jumped in, turned around and handed me that very same piece of beam. Although I knew she was carrying something I had not seen her pick it up. Well I was just to exausted to take it back so the rest is history.
That got me to thinking. What interesting topics of conversation do you have in your train rooms.
At least you didn’t take it and what can you do about a great dog. It certainly is a great conversation piece.
While walking along the roadbed where a rail line was recently removed, I found an insulated rail joiner that was used at the point where the railroad wanted the crossing signals to be activated. It is about 1/4 inch thick, is in the same shape as a 115 pound rail, and is made from a greenish fiberglass material.
At least that’s what I think its purpose was.
Walking down the CSX mainline in Richmond,VA I came across a few spikes that seemed to be pulled for maintenance. I found a spike that was not messed up too bad and brought it home. After painting the spike black I was planning on using it on my layout in the Rail Museum scene as the “Worlds Largest Railroad Spike” exhibit. I was planning on having the WS tourist people set around it with a guy taking a photo of his family standing by the spike. I still have the spike and people even tho I never did get the scene built on different layouts.
Batman,
I suppose that because I firmly believe in the preservation of history and that you are of the same mind, your intent was firmly established about not picking up a piece of history, however as a 57 year old who grew up with history at the forefront of my life I can add this bit of wisdom and risk possible negative feedback.
Important parts of history remain that way because they are not disturbed and who hasn’t felt the temptation to pick up a rock, piece of wood, etc. from an innocent looking site. I have an extensive collection of slides (as I am a freelance photographer) of historic sites all over the Southwest and some are of historic railroads and I research every photo I take with great care to assure the accuaracy of the photo. One such railroad was in Cloudcroft, New Mexico about 50 miles Northeast of White Sands Missile Range and the city of Alamagodo. The temptation to retreive a piece of the timber from the last remaining of the 20 some odd trestles that made up the railline was overwhelming, instead I am a proud owner of about 5 photos from different angles of that last trestle. Had I taken one of the timber slivers the whole thing might have been jeopodized and fallen apart for all I know. In spite of the hike back to the car, the cold rain and the fact that my wife had trouble walking up and down the hillside, we both managed very well with the thought that a photograph will far outweigh an actual piece of timber. Besides the enlargement of one of the photos looks better than the actual piece.
Sorry for the lecture, just part of my nature,
johncpo
The closest thing I have any more to anything neat is a reproduction of an old Union Pacific wall thermometer.
As a kid I had latched on to tons of stuff…I grew up 2 blocks from the local Wabash/NW scrap pile. I had loads of spikes, switch stand lanterns, smudge pots that were once used to close off small unlit side street crossings when a train was parked at night, pieces of rail. The speeder shack was next to the scrap pile, and I had all kinds of speeder parts. One of the old railroad guys used to tease me about building a speeder in our garage. Much of it was in an old rented garage that got buldozed while I was away at college…and most of the rest got pitched by my mom while clearing our garage and basement after my dad passed. The last thing I had was a heavy as all get out huge pry bar that my dad always said had been used to move boxcars. A contractor friend was helping me with building my garage, saw it, wanted it, so I gave it to him.
Several years ago we helped a friend clean out her father’s garage after he had passed away. We found a short (about4-5" long) piece of rail. It’s not rea; heavy. I guessing it’s part of the trolley system that used to be here in town. I use it as an anvil.
Tom