Picking Up Some History

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Picking Up Some History

Sunday, June 09 2013 @ 01:50 PM EDT
Contributed by: masodo
Views: 1,122

The endless miles of copper spanned,
beside steel tracks across the land.

Slice of Railroad Track and Telegraph Insulators

While walking the dog today I picked up two aqua-green "Hemmingray 42" telegraph insulators and a "slice" of railroad track (1-1/2" thick.) Not exactly sure what I will do with these but they seemed way too cool to leave laying in the rocks.

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Picking Up Some History
Authored by: Dale.Harkness on Wednesday, June 19 2013 @ 12:12 PM EDT

The bluish-green tint of the insulators is so familiar. The weather worn look really adds to the character too. The railroad tie makes me wonder what its purpose was. Too thin of a slice to be used for an anvil, but purposefully cut for some reason. Ah, such mysterious objects we find discarded.

I recall seeing the insulators all throughout the countryside on telephone poles when I was a kid. That was before the lines moved underground of course. Makes me wonder what the electric cooperative did with the insulators after to poles were removed? Probably recycling if I had to guess. Hopefully, some collectors were able to snag some of them to keep history alive in the one of many ways we do.

-Dale

Picking Up Some History
Authored by: masodo on Wednesday, June 19 2013 @ 01:20 PM EDT

Thanks for the comment Dale.

They chopped down the telegraph poles only a couple of months ago from the railway behind my house. I recovered several modern plastic insulators but was glad to get some of the glass ones. I was able to talk the removal crew into giving me 100+ feet of the copper clad, insulated steel telegraph wire. This should make an outstanding shortwave longwire antenna. [smiley::D]

I think the slice of track likely came from an in-service rail replacement. Cut to fit onsite. I already have a 10" long piece of track that I use for an anvil I am thinking I might just try to polish this one into a unique paperweight or combine with the glass insulators into an accent lamp of some sort.

---
- save the pulp -

Picking Up Some History
Authored by: Dale.Harkness on Monday, June 24 2013 @ 10:05 PM EDT

I'm impressed by the fact you could talk the crew into giving you some copper wire. As a recyclable metal, copper brings a decent price. During the peak of the house crash here, marauders were raiding some of the foreclosed houses to pilfer every bit of copper they could find.

Heh heh heh, I forgot about the antenna usage. We used to do similiar style antennas when I lived on the farm. It's amazing what a person can set up with enough materials, space and ingenuity.

The rail would probably polish up nicely. I've seen how they start to shine on heavily trafficked freight train lines. Combining the track and insulators would definitely make for a cool mixture of retro goodness.

-Dale