Are Train tracks good places to use MDers?

[jeff of pa]

I've been md'ing along tracks for quite a while. when the trains pass, they just wave, smile and keep on rolling. here in the wheat state, when tracks are abandoned or pulled up, they are normally returned to the original land owner, unless the state shows an interest in the land for public recreational use.
BTW you will find lots of spikes and bolts LOL

Sniffer

Almost every RR track where a road crosses it around here has a No Trespassing sign.
Meaning Cars cannot cross the track. they also have the Stop, look & Listen signs
which contradict. and the Lights & Barriers at some.

The No Trespassing signs are there to To Protect them from Liability.
and they will Never say "Yea Go ahead"

However there are also Local Laws as a double Protection for Municipalities,
Which are Enforced.

an example I just found out about 2 weeks ago.

In one Local town it is illegal to Ride a Bicycle over the Tracks.

You Must stop & Push your bike across.


Even though it takes 10 times as long to Push it across
then it takes to Ride across at a good clip.
They do Fine you.

 

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[Zincoln Miner]

just took a quick pic of this.I believe it is a luggage tag.I just cleaned the dirt off nothing else.
I found it about 7 yrs ago at a train depot that no longer exists in nw n.j.

it says: roosevelt
1904
fairbanks
washington

nothing on back

any old place that people gathered at is worth a search.

HH

 

[boogeyman]

Yes & No

At stops Yes, & probably a few Nice Items lost while Building the tracks.

But there will be alot of Hot Rocks (coke) from the steam engines.

Also on the older abandoned rail beds there were camps (I think) about every ten miles or so, used when the tracks were layed. If you're in an area that had a lot of mines you might be lucky enough to find ore in the beds. Seems a lot of the old RR companies used material from tailing piles due to it being cheap. There are several books out like GhostRailroads of (fill in the state). If you find date nails (nail with a 2 digit number on the head) save them! Depending on the date, they sell pretty good at collectible shops & some Model RR hobby stores.

If there was a derailment or wreck in the area, you may be able to find whole RR cars in the ground. A lot of the time they would just bulldoze a trench & bury the unsalvageable cars alongside the tracks. Found a box car that was loaded with coffee beans in calif. Saw numerous piles of coffee beans next to ground squirrel holes. Spent about two hours digging before we figured out what was going on. Bet there were some really wired up squirrels out there! My grandfather also told me when I was a kid this was a common practice.