Railroad Insulaters and a creepy woods shelter...

aquachigger · Jan 31, 2012

Yesterdays Treasures... I spent most of the day yesterday hiking along the railroad tracks looking for Civil War camps. Though I didn't find a camp, I did run across a bunch of these old telegraph/electric insulators. I kept some of them that weren't broken or chipped and have several different varieties. Two of them are marked "Patent Dec. 19 1871". My favorite is the green one in the center. I'm surprised no one had picked them up as they were just scattered along a hillside in the leaf litter, completely visible to the passerby. They are kinda heavy , so I only hauled out these for now.

I also found this weird structure. It is in line where the poles for the insulators would have been, up away from the track on a steep hillside. I wonder if the core of the pole rotted out? Any ideas?

The inside of the "pole"...

Here is a neat beech tree with some graffiti carved in it. I think the date is "194?"...

And finally I ran across this stick shelter. It kind of startled me as it is well camouflaged. Thanks for checking out my post!

Roland58 · Feb 1, 2012

aquachigger said:
PikesPeakCharlie said:

Fantastic Insulators !!!! Congrats on a rarer find now a days !!! I dont know a whole lot about insulators prices,,but the emerald green one should be worth something,and the one marked B & D looks like it might be a rarer version ?

Click to expand...

Thanks PPC... the "B&D" is actually a "B&O". I found them along the old Baltimore and Ohio line. I have several hundred insulators I collected as a kid (mostly blue Hemingways), but that is my first B&O. I'm stoked with that one, especially since I just visited the B&O RR museum in Baltimore and they didn't have any like it. I'll probably donate it to them on my next visit there. The volunteers there very helpful and kind on my visit and even took me behind the ropes to see things that I was interested in.

If you have several hundred of the "Hemingway" insulators, you better be hanging on to them, they have to be worth a small fortune!!! Now, if these are the run of the mill "Hemingray" insulators, they aren't worth as much.

DigginThePast · Feb 1, 2012

Cool insulators, love the green one especially. :icon_thumright:

I've built similar "creepy"

shelters in the woods for various wildlife to take up residency in, helps to protect them from predators. I wouldn't put it so close to a brook though for potential of flooding.

jeff of pa · Feb 2, 2012

First Insulators I'v seen in awhile.
to my Knowledge Non threaded ones are most Valuable.

Great Finds ! Thanks for posting them :icon_thumleft:

Is that shelter a crocodile Nest ?

GreenHorn · Feb 2, 2012

Nice haul

your insulators from left to right are: CD162, CD132, CD145 which should have a "B" embossed on the skirt somewhere, CD136 B&O, and finally another CD132. Hope this helps. I can help with values if needed.

Richie

aquachigger · Feb 2, 2012

GreenHorn said:
Nice haul your insulators from left to right are: CD162, CD132, CD145 which should have a "B" embossed on the skirt somewhere, CD136 B&O, and finally another CD132. Hope this helps. I can help with values if needed.

Richie

Thanks for passing that along. Can you direct me to to good source of info on insulators? The fact that they actually have id numbers is fascinating. As for values, I'm always interested in what the things that I find are worth :read2:

Bum Luck · Feb 2, 2012

Great finds!

As a surveyor, I see my share of railroads, and rarely come across unbroken insulators. You're very lucky!

The hollow object is a rotted out pole, see em all the time. The creosote preserves the outside.

Get back there with a back pack and get the rest of the glass. :hello2:

aquachigger · Feb 2, 2012

Roland58 said:
aquachigger said:

PikesPeakCharlie said:

Fantastic Insulators !!!! Congrats on a rarer find now a days !!! I dont know a whole lot about insulators prices,,but the emerald green one should be worth something,and the one marked B & D looks like it might be a rarer version ?

Click to expand...

Thanks PPC... the "B&D" is actually a "B&O". I found them along the old Baltimore and Ohio line. I have several hundred insulators I collected as a kid (mostly blue Hemingways), but that is my first B&O. I'm stoked with that one, especially since I just visited the B&O RR museum in Baltimore and they didn't have any like it. I'll probably donate it to them on my next visit there. The volunteers there very helpful and kind on my visit and even took me behind the ropes to see things that I was interested in.

Click to expand...

If you have several hundred of the "Hemingway" insulators, you better be hanging on to them, they have to be worth a small fortune!!! Now, if these are the run of the mill "Hemingray" insulators, they aren't worth as much.

D'OH!

aquachigger · Feb 2, 2012

GreenHorn said:
Nice haul your insulators from left to right are: CD162, CD132, CD145 which should have a "B" embossed on the skirt somewhere, CD136 B&O, and finally another CD132. Hope this helps. I can help with values if needed.

Richie

Just finished a little on-line research

I couldn't find info on the exact examples in the numbers you gave me, but very similar ones were quite pricey :blob7:

Any more info would be greatly appreciated. One question I do have is whether chipped insulators have any value? I would think that the pricier ones would retain some value even if chipped? I guess I'll have to dust off my rucksack and head back out! :tard:

GreenHorn · Feb 2, 2012

Hi AC.. Your two Pat Dec's would be your best money wise. Depending on exact color, embossing and condition (bb pings, chips, fractures, etc) and from the colors they appear to be on my laptop, i'd say in the $35-$45 range each. Now the price could very well vary depending on what i said above. The star, maybe $5 and i say maybe cos it appears to have a little stone in the dome (which is a good thing), otherwise, less than five bucks. Your green "B", $5-10 and your B&O anywhere from $10-15 or so. Popular embossing at times.

Yes some chipped or cracked insulators have value. You find something that only a handful or less or known, or get one of those pat dec's in the same green as your "B" and you'll always have a buyer for then. Generally as Jeff said above, threadless do command a higher value than threaded, but there are always exceptions.

I'd like to see what else you haul back in chipped or otherwise. Post anything else you might pick up.

PS: I'm always looking to buy better insulators for the collection :P :icon_thumleft:

Richie

PikesPeakCharlie · Feb 2, 2012

aquachigger said:
PikesPeakCharlie said:

Fantastic Insulators !!!! Congrats on a rarer find now a days !!! I dont know a whole lot about insulators prices,,but the emerald green one should be worth something,and the one marked B & D looks like it might be a rarer version ?

Click to expand...

Thanks PPC... the "B&D" is actually a "B&O". I found them along the old Baltimore and Ohio line. I have several hundred insulators I collected as a kid (mostly blue Hemingways), but that is my first B&O. I'm stoked with that one, especially since I just visited the B&O RR museum in Baltimore and they didn't have any like it. I'll probably donate it to them on my next visit there. The volunteers there very helpful and kind on my visit and even took me behind the ropes to see things that I was interested in.

Aqua,Love the B&O :headbang:

,had no idea it was from the railroad,love the idea of it going to the museum,maybe there is another one on the hill waiting for you to keep. I dont have hundreds,but have a bunch 30-40 I found up in the gold town of Central City Colo,when I was a kid, Hemmingrays,WFG (western fint glass) Denver Colo,Robert Good,Denver Colo and some Brookfields. In a friends parents house in Wyoming,we put up 2 old telegraph poles that had 2 peg arms on them,on each side of the room,then put insulators on the 4 pegs,and ran the speaker wire for the stereo,back and forth between the insulators,looked great ,and still being used today.

HH

aquachigger · Feb 3, 2012

GreenHorn said:
Hi AC.. Your two Pat Dec's would be your best money wise. Depending on exact color, embossing and condition (bb pings, chips, fractures, etc) and from the colors they appear to be on my laptop, i'd say in the $35-$45 range each. Now the price could very well vary depending on what i said above. The star, maybe $5 and i say maybe cos it appears to have a little stone in the dome (which is a good thing), otherwise, less than five bucks. Your green "B", $5-10 and your B&O anywhere from $10-15 or so. Popular embossing at times.

Yes some chipped or cracked insulators have value. You find something that only a handful or less or known, or get one of those pat dec's in the same green as your "B" and you'll always have a buyer for then. Generally as Jeff said above, threadless do command a higher value than threaded, but there are always exceptions.

I'd like to see what else you haul back in chipped or otherwise. Post anything else you might pick up.

PS: I'm always looking to buy better insulators for the collection :P

Richie

Thanks for taking the time to teach me a few things. I now have a new interest and there appears to be a lot of info online to get me started. I'll post up any more I come across. I imagine there could be something unusual out there as there does seem to be quite a variety. And thanks too PPC for your story. Gives me some ideas :icon_thumright:

Hunthicks · Feb 3, 2012

Find a B&O or a Pat 1871 "bullet" in the same colour as that middle insulator and you have yourself a few hundred dollar insulator. Whenever I find a good one, it's broken. Go figure.

Ken in Georgia · Feb 5, 2012

Do to the downfall of Business in American, I've been reading that people are moving and Squatting in the woods and looking for work we may find more of this in the future.

mfitzy111 · Feb 5, 2012

hey nice glass. I found some of the common ones up here in north eastern PA- mine were only worth a few bucks, but in my research I found out that mickey mouse eared isolators were getting up to a few hundred bucks for ones that weren't smashed. so they are worth looking for....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cndwvpriF0

this link shows what I'm talking about ...

good luck man, get back out and pick up the rest of the treasures...

SkyPirate · Feb 5, 2012

What signs do you look for to find a CW camp and did they camp a lot around RR tracks? Nice insulators BTW! :icon_pirat:

Huntin' 59er · Feb 7, 2012

Nice insulators. I also have a small collection.

mfc83 · Feb 7, 2012

the glass is cool the hut is a honey badger lodge ...................watch out there crazy

aquachigger · Feb 7, 2012

SkyPirate said:
What signs do you look for to find a CW camp and did they camp a lot around RR tracks? Nice insulators BTW!

They camped along this RR because it was guarded very heavily throughout the war, yet destroyed by the Confederates MANY times. The biggest hint that you may be in a camp is finding melted lead blobs. Almost all camps have them, but very few other types of sites do. As to location, they can be just about anywhere.