Tracks removed

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Got permission to hunt about a 1/4 mile of old removed railroad tracks in town on private property.
Have my hopes up that this type of spot my be a good one.
Anyone hunted old RR lines before?

 

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[watercolor]

It's worth a try. . . but be prepared for a lot of small iron and "clinkers" (the coagulated slag of
metal by-products left over from burning coal) along the track bed.

But all is not doom & gloom

If this RR line was used as a temporary stop-over, try to envision where the train may have idled to
be cleaned and swept out. Back then, a lot of this trash was just tossed (within "bucket-throwing"
distance) into debris piles along the track and potentially, could yield some interesting finds.

Prior to your hunt, I would check out your local library's genealogy section or the historical society in
your area to see if they have any additional info or old photos of this RR line. . . good luck

 

[sniffer]

if it's an old line you could check local RR history and see if any buildings were used by the RR in that area
you may get lucky and find something really nice

 

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

The 1876 city map shows the RR line. It crossed the river then split east & west to hook up with another main line. The west side was removed many years ago and now the east side was removed last year. Train, river, and in the city is why I think it will be worth some time to hunt. Didn't give any thought to the trash that might be there (slag), clouded out be the thought of lost coins and such, oh thats right, one mans trash anothers treasure. thanks watercolor

 

[sniffer]

if it splits in that area, that means there was some kind of hand operated switch, so you might find something

 

[p2c]

Also, there may be some telegraph insulators to be found, depending on if or where they ran the telegraph lines. I used to collect those when I was a kid. Most are common, but some are rare, especially the old ones. Besides slag, there could be iron ore pellets depending on if that was carried on that line, also RR spikes and other iron, so be prepared to deal with that.

 

[Lowbatts]

I believe you had a water tower on the east end of that run. May have been a chance for some locals to do some trading for goods, usually snacks/pastries with travellers as this was not an unknown custom in some areas.

I've worked a couple old depot sites and yes, there are spikes, older rails still buried, the tie down plates and just plain noisy ground to deal with.

When they tore down the old depot in Harvard, they dumped most of the dirt from the platform in the ditch along East Diggins there, across from Lions Park. I got a few IH's out of it but it was torturously noisy from the iron. Maybe it's settled down by now, that's been about 15 years now.

About the only thing worse than detecting at an old railroad depot/watering station or stop site is detecting at an old railroad roundhouse. I'm thinking someone should come up with a 2" coil for those sites. Setting the sense down does little to get those coins in the hard pack along the edge of the rail beds that are only inches off of BIG iron pieces. That said, there's always goodies around such sites.

Pretty sure the red arrow indicates the water tower, the cyan indicates the depot, not sure what that square is in the blue box, cattle or critter corral? Town square?

 

[bugs]

Humans had to lay the track, and back then it was all all labor. many humans walking around with holes in their pockets, and seated was the money of the day. Keep us up dated.

 

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Didn't mention the name of the town (Belvidere). They cleared all Ties, rails, and
lots of the stone. The burm up to the bridge will be removed this spring to make way for a truck trailer parking lot and throughway to the back of the General mills plant. I'm going to ask if some other MD'ERS can hunt with me before they scrape and cover up the site. Will ask for PM'S when I find out. Hunting on a Sunday would be the best, I also have Mondays & Tuesdays off Great areal Lowbatts!! DPBOB has relation that owns that property.

 

[p2c]

DPBOB has relation that owns that property.

So that's how Bob does it, eh? Related to everyone who has property that is good to hunt. Wolf thanks for making us the offer.

 

[twistidd]

I've got bad experience hunting near railroad tracks. Let's see, once, I couldn't find jack $h!t and was shown up by Mikewaz. Another time, I was helping Kermit try to find a lost screw or nut or something that had fallen off his tripod right next to the tracks. That was fun.

Good luck with the hunt, like some have said here, hunting around the rails isn't always an easy task, but if you're patient you can very likely find some nice older coins or relics. Personally, I don't have that kind of patience. I hang around the tracks long enough for a train to come by and flatten my pennies.

Joe

 

[DPBOB]

DPBOB has relation that owns that property.

So that's how Bob does it, eh? Related to everyone who has property that is good to hunt. Wolf thanks for making us the offer.

If we were to hunt that property to the north it would have to be late in the season. After the trailers are moved out...

 

[Lowbatts]

Just remind me to tell you that Belvidere stop-over story sometime if we get together out that way....

 

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

I still have my train flattened pennies. A guy might get arrested these days for putting an object on the rails. I'll hit the site as soon as it thaws and pass along
what I find. Without the rails, should make it easier to hunt. Since they are going to blacktop over all of this, I'm hoping they will let any of you that want to hunt with me in. If you want to travel out this way send a PM. I've got a few sites around here. Some may have been hit by Lowbatts or DP.

Richard

 

[Lowbatts]

I still have my train flattened pennies. A guy might get arrested these days for putting an object on the rails. I'll hit the site as soon as it thaws and pass along
what I find. Without the rails, should make it easier to hunt. Since they are going to blacktop over all of this, I'm hoping they will let any of you that want to hunt with me in. If you want to travel out this way send a PM. I've got a few sites around here. Some may have been hit by Lowbatts or DP.

Richard

I'd be happy to hit it out that way, don't get out there enough anymore. My big bugaboo is transport and time. Don't know if Bob has been west of the Fox very much, but he's a yard vacuum along the Des Plaines area.

Planning on the Kish Splash and Beep this summer and looking forward to hitting Cherry Valley a couple times also.

 

[Bum Luck]

A very trashy afternoon for me when I did it.

No goodies at all.

I've crawled around on the RR banks in my work, and there may be some insulators. All I've found were broken (by guys like me at 12 years old), but you can always hope.

RRs pitch old creosoted ties and other crap over the bank to rot, so get ready for the 'S' irons from the end of the ties.

You can always hope, I guess, and the bottom line is a day detecting beats a day working.

 

[Lowbatts]

A very trashy afternoon for me when I did it.

No goodies at all.

I've crawled around on the RR banks in my work, and there may be some insulators. All I've found were broken (by guys like me at 12 years old), but you can always hope.

RRs pitch old creosoted ties and other crap over the bank to rot, so get ready for the 'S' irons from the end of the ties.

You can always hope, I guess, and the bottom line is a day detecting beats a day working.

Yeah, but it takes more than an afternoon! Squeaked out my second 1840's Bank Of Montreal Half Penny token last year between the rails in the downtown area here when they had the sidewalks over them torn up for awhile. It's good hunting if you can get the iron out of the way, big if though!

 

[bugs]

Treasure is were you find it, if you ain't looking you won't find it.

 

[Bum Luck]

Keep in mind that the train toilets used to empty out on the tracks

 

[p2c]

Keep in mind that the train toilets used to empty out on the tracks

So you are saying it's like a traveling privy