NJKLAGT
Bronze Member
- Oct 18, 2014
- 1,118
- 1,913
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett Euro Ace 350
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hey Everyone,
Yes, spring is finally here. That winter went pretty darn fast, actually. The ground is still hard in the shade, and the mud can make you cry, but whatever!
I didn't expect to start the year with an insulator hunt, I don't collect insulators, but right now it's hard to resist the allure of a big colourful chunk of glass. This was a two day hunt, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera on the day that I actually found whole insulators, so I'll describe that here:
When walking the tracks sometime last year, I noticed a telegraph pole that had cracked about a quarter of the way up and sort of sat back down again. It didn't really fall over because some of the wires were still attached, and a tangle of vines and shrubby trees helped hold it upright. There was a nice blue beehive insulator up on the top beam. The pole was leaning just enough that I thought I could probably keep my footing, and pull my way up using the vines and distributing my weight carefully. It was about a twenty foot drop onto a steep gravel slope. I stood there weighing the risk and reward, and then recalled swinging from a vine in 2012, the vine breaking, and my ankle breaking...
So I went back hoping that the pole had somehow wiggled its way down, that some of the storms and wind we had over the winter months had worked to bring the gem down and within my reach. When I got there, there was some confusion about which pole it was. I hadn't been there for months, and there were plenty of other poles that were fractured and split and half-toppled over. I don't know anything about railway maintenance, but do they have some giant blades or beams that come out on either side of a train and hack everything down? Haha, because sometimes I'll walk a stretch of track where on one side, or both, the trees are all broken over - not cut clean, but like, whacked down. Anyway, I checked a few pole bases and found only the clear Dominion 42s, and some rubber insulators as well. Where's the colour? Down in the ditch I meandered along hoping to find one that a worker had tossed long ago, maybe one that got lucky and landed in a soft spot, but I found only those unfortunates that met their fate on the railbed gravel, smashed to bits, exploded stars of blue. Then my luck changed quite unexpectedly. While climbing up out of the ditch I paused for a moment, at a pole base that I had already checked, because there was a bit of a plateau and I could stand there without sliding, and finish off one of the water bottles that I brought with me. I tilted my head back to get every last drop, and there, hanging only a foot and half directly above me, is this beautiful Brookfield. I don't know how I didn't see the rest of the pole, but it was obscured by vines, and when you're going down a steep slope you're usually looking down and not up. Hah! This was the right place to get thirsty! Too good to be true, right? I wrestled the beam down a bit, because only a few pegs over was this Dominion 42, but an aquamarine colour rather than clear. Suddenly I had two keepers in my pockets. It was when I continued on my way and moved a few poles over that I recognized the one I saw last year. It had come down a bit, but not much. It was still a big drop. It was still a tangled mess. It was still dangerous. The blue insulator was still there, up on the top beam. I could go home with the pair, or go for the trifecta - in the end I made the climb. I got the insulator, and only a few minor abrasions. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
The one I climbed for was this Hemingray, but the Brookfield is still my favourite.
So that was my first hunt of 2019! Thanks for coming along, and good luck out there,
NJ
Yes, spring is finally here. That winter went pretty darn fast, actually. The ground is still hard in the shade, and the mud can make you cry, but whatever!
I didn't expect to start the year with an insulator hunt, I don't collect insulators, but right now it's hard to resist the allure of a big colourful chunk of glass. This was a two day hunt, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera on the day that I actually found whole insulators, so I'll describe that here:
When walking the tracks sometime last year, I noticed a telegraph pole that had cracked about a quarter of the way up and sort of sat back down again. It didn't really fall over because some of the wires were still attached, and a tangle of vines and shrubby trees helped hold it upright. There was a nice blue beehive insulator up on the top beam. The pole was leaning just enough that I thought I could probably keep my footing, and pull my way up using the vines and distributing my weight carefully. It was about a twenty foot drop onto a steep gravel slope. I stood there weighing the risk and reward, and then recalled swinging from a vine in 2012, the vine breaking, and my ankle breaking...
So I went back hoping that the pole had somehow wiggled its way down, that some of the storms and wind we had over the winter months had worked to bring the gem down and within my reach. When I got there, there was some confusion about which pole it was. I hadn't been there for months, and there were plenty of other poles that were fractured and split and half-toppled over. I don't know anything about railway maintenance, but do they have some giant blades or beams that come out on either side of a train and hack everything down? Haha, because sometimes I'll walk a stretch of track where on one side, or both, the trees are all broken over - not cut clean, but like, whacked down. Anyway, I checked a few pole bases and found only the clear Dominion 42s, and some rubber insulators as well. Where's the colour? Down in the ditch I meandered along hoping to find one that a worker had tossed long ago, maybe one that got lucky and landed in a soft spot, but I found only those unfortunates that met their fate on the railbed gravel, smashed to bits, exploded stars of blue. Then my luck changed quite unexpectedly. While climbing up out of the ditch I paused for a moment, at a pole base that I had already checked, because there was a bit of a plateau and I could stand there without sliding, and finish off one of the water bottles that I brought with me. I tilted my head back to get every last drop, and there, hanging only a foot and half directly above me, is this beautiful Brookfield. I don't know how I didn't see the rest of the pole, but it was obscured by vines, and when you're going down a steep slope you're usually looking down and not up. Hah! This was the right place to get thirsty! Too good to be true, right? I wrestled the beam down a bit, because only a few pegs over was this Dominion 42, but an aquamarine colour rather than clear. Suddenly I had two keepers in my pockets. It was when I continued on my way and moved a few poles over that I recognized the one I saw last year. It had come down a bit, but not much. It was still a big drop. It was still a tangled mess. It was still dangerous. The blue insulator was still there, up on the top beam. I could go home with the pair, or go for the trifecta - in the end I made the climb. I got the insulator, and only a few minor abrasions. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
The one I climbed for was this Hemingray, but the Brookfield is still my favourite.
So that was my first hunt of 2019! Thanks for coming along, and good luck out there,
NJ
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