Another good insulator found
I went back to Gibsonia yesterday to look around the railroad. Last time I was there was the day I went out to visit Josh in Canton sometime last January. I went south on the tracks that time and didn't find much... I think just a couple "B" beehives and one chipped Hemingray CD-164 which was new and exciting at the time, but now it's an insulator that I ignore. In the time since my last visit, I discovered that line that runs through Evans City/Harmony/Zelienople that has yielded some of the best finds I've made yet, and that line just so happens to be the same one that runs through Gibsonia.
So I went back out there and decided to go North, towards Evans City. I wasn't finding anything at first, even though there were lots of poles. They were just filled with Hemi 42s, crappy plastic HK Porters and those REALLY ugly black rubber ones. I was getting a little disheartened and considering turning around, but I pressed on. Eventually I ran into a couple "B" beehives, but those should be very common so it wasn't much of a relief. I also started seeing a few signals, some 162s and a Brookfield 164 that I tried to get, but failed.
Soon the tracks came to a deep cut, the poles ran up and over the right hillside above the tracks. I didn't feel like following them so I just stayed on the tracks till they met back up on the other side. I missed about 4 or 5 poles; probably filled with good stuff that other collectors, thinking just like me, also left behind lol. On the other side I went up to one of the poles near the tracks and saw two single petticoat signals, I was able to get one of them. I also took a CD-164 Hemingray in blue which was in better shape than the one I have now. The single petticoat signal I got was a CD-134 Brookfield.
I moved on and soon came to a factory or something that was near the tracks. I pulled a couple "B" 145s here, but nothing special. One is a nice green color. There were a couple high poles near the factory that had sidepins on them. The first one had two sidepins that were just within reach and had CD-162 Star signals on em, in what looked like aqua. I got both of them down, one had bird poop on it and the other one was chipped in two places along the wire guide. I left the chipped one and took the bird poop one (which, besides the bird poop, was in great shape! lol) and then moved on. Soon after that I came across a short pole that had another couple signals on it, one almost looked like it was red amber colored glass. Excited, I checked it out but it turned out to be a porcelain piece with just a red glaze on it. Still pretty neat, but I left it there. Luckily for me, the pole also had a Star signal on it which, after a bit of work (it was still tied in to the dead wires), I got down. I checked it out in the sunlight and it turned out to be another dark olive green one! A few weeks ago I found a dark olive green CD-133 signal, which books for about $40 bucks or so. The Star olive green 162 was the same shade of olive. I cleaned it up and it turned out great; the book listing for it is $50! Woohoo.
After that, though, I didn't find too much. I was hoping that another olive Star would show up (sometimes certain ones are found in groups in the same area) but none did. I picked up a Brookfield CD-164 further down, as well as an ice aqua whitall tatum 154. I ended up walking just to within Mars, PA. The next time I go back I will continue from where I left off and then hike further North until I reach the area where I left off when I walked south of Evans City. Once I complete this little segment, I will have walked the tracks from Wildwood, PA allllllllll the way to just before Ellwood City, PA. Check that out on google maps, it's a LONG freaking way!
The only setback in the day occurred after getting the olive Star, but a little further down the tracks. I was trying to get the Brookfield 164 (which I ended up getting eventually) but it was tightly wired in. Sometimes when they are wired in, I can use the rope loop to hook the wires and untwist them from the insulator. It works a lot of the times, but it is always a ton of work and usually takes 10-15 minutes. I got halfway through untwisting the tie wire on this brookfield when my rope loop popped off the grabber pole and was left dangling 20 feet in the air from the wire. Without that loop I was more or less done for the day, so I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get it down, but it was twisted up in that wire pretty tightly. I scouted around the tracks looking for something to help and eventually found a small length of pure copper wire, which was thick enough that it was malleable enough to twist around the grabber pole and into a small hook, but not enough that it would untwist easily. I looped it around and made a hook on the end and then hooked the rope loop (rather easily) off of the wire. I reattached it to the grabber with EXTRA duct tape and then went back and got the stupid insulator that was causing all the trouble.
Anyways, here are some pics so you can know what the heck I'm talking about:
A light aqua WT 154 on the left and the new "ice aqua" one on the right. Pretty subtle difference.
The two Star 162 signals that I got off of the sidepins. Sweet bubble in the chipped one, and the one on the right has an inky black ribbon running through it.
Three great finds. The left is the dark olive CD-133 signal which books about $40, the middle is the newest dark olive CD-162 Star signal, which books $50, and the right is a dark yellow green CD-162 Star signal, which books about $30. Found these all in the past two weeks.
There are the two aqua Star 162 signals still on their sidepins. All the other insulators are ugly, plastic H.K. Porters (worthless).
The Dark Olive Star 162 right after I found it. It was hard to see the color of the glass since it was caked in black coal soot from years of service next to the train tracks.
That is all for now, will update soon if anything exciting happens! I think I'm going to go mountain biking one of these upcoming days; Your Mom is all serviced and ready to ride (snicker). I was having issues with the rear cables being too tight... when I sat on the bike (activating the rear suspension) the flex swingarm would tighten the cable enough to shift the gears when I didn't want it too. It wasn't a problem with the cables so much as it was with the new housing I installed last fall; the routing was a little off, so I loosened it up and reinstalled it and voila, works great!
So I went back out there and decided to go North, towards Evans City. I wasn't finding anything at first, even though there were lots of poles. They were just filled with Hemi 42s, crappy plastic HK Porters and those REALLY ugly black rubber ones. I was getting a little disheartened and considering turning around, but I pressed on. Eventually I ran into a couple "B" beehives, but those should be very common so it wasn't much of a relief. I also started seeing a few signals, some 162s and a Brookfield 164 that I tried to get, but failed.
Soon the tracks came to a deep cut, the poles ran up and over the right hillside above the tracks. I didn't feel like following them so I just stayed on the tracks till they met back up on the other side. I missed about 4 or 5 poles; probably filled with good stuff that other collectors, thinking just like me, also left behind lol. On the other side I went up to one of the poles near the tracks and saw two single petticoat signals, I was able to get one of them. I also took a CD-164 Hemingray in blue which was in better shape than the one I have now. The single petticoat signal I got was a CD-134 Brookfield.
I moved on and soon came to a factory or something that was near the tracks. I pulled a couple "B" 145s here, but nothing special. One is a nice green color. There were a couple high poles near the factory that had sidepins on them. The first one had two sidepins that were just within reach and had CD-162 Star signals on em, in what looked like aqua. I got both of them down, one had bird poop on it and the other one was chipped in two places along the wire guide. I left the chipped one and took the bird poop one (which, besides the bird poop, was in great shape! lol) and then moved on. Soon after that I came across a short pole that had another couple signals on it, one almost looked like it was red amber colored glass. Excited, I checked it out but it turned out to be a porcelain piece with just a red glaze on it. Still pretty neat, but I left it there. Luckily for me, the pole also had a Star signal on it which, after a bit of work (it was still tied in to the dead wires), I got down. I checked it out in the sunlight and it turned out to be another dark olive green one! A few weeks ago I found a dark olive green CD-133 signal, which books for about $40 bucks or so. The Star olive green 162 was the same shade of olive. I cleaned it up and it turned out great; the book listing for it is $50! Woohoo.
After that, though, I didn't find too much. I was hoping that another olive Star would show up (sometimes certain ones are found in groups in the same area) but none did. I picked up a Brookfield CD-164 further down, as well as an ice aqua whitall tatum 154. I ended up walking just to within Mars, PA. The next time I go back I will continue from where I left off and then hike further North until I reach the area where I left off when I walked south of Evans City. Once I complete this little segment, I will have walked the tracks from Wildwood, PA allllllllll the way to just before Ellwood City, PA. Check that out on google maps, it's a LONG freaking way!
The only setback in the day occurred after getting the olive Star, but a little further down the tracks. I was trying to get the Brookfield 164 (which I ended up getting eventually) but it was tightly wired in. Sometimes when they are wired in, I can use the rope loop to hook the wires and untwist them from the insulator. It works a lot of the times, but it is always a ton of work and usually takes 10-15 minutes. I got halfway through untwisting the tie wire on this brookfield when my rope loop popped off the grabber pole and was left dangling 20 feet in the air from the wire. Without that loop I was more or less done for the day, so I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get it down, but it was twisted up in that wire pretty tightly. I scouted around the tracks looking for something to help and eventually found a small length of pure copper wire, which was thick enough that it was malleable enough to twist around the grabber pole and into a small hook, but not enough that it would untwist easily. I looped it around and made a hook on the end and then hooked the rope loop (rather easily) off of the wire. I reattached it to the grabber with EXTRA duct tape and then went back and got the stupid insulator that was causing all the trouble.
Anyways, here are some pics so you can know what the heck I'm talking about:
A light aqua WT 154 on the left and the new "ice aqua" one on the right. Pretty subtle difference.
The two Star 162 signals that I got off of the sidepins. Sweet bubble in the chipped one, and the one on the right has an inky black ribbon running through it.
Three great finds. The left is the dark olive CD-133 signal which books about $40, the middle is the newest dark olive CD-162 Star signal, which books $50, and the right is a dark yellow green CD-162 Star signal, which books about $30. Found these all in the past two weeks.
There are the two aqua Star 162 signals still on their sidepins. All the other insulators are ugly, plastic H.K. Porters (worthless).
The Dark Olive Star 162 right after I found it. It was hard to see the color of the glass since it was caked in black coal soot from years of service next to the train tracks.
That is all for now, will update soon if anything exciting happens! I think I'm going to go mountain biking one of these upcoming days; Your Mom is all serviced and ready to ride (snicker). I was having issues with the rear cables being too tight... when I sat on the bike (activating the rear suspension) the flex swingarm would tighten the cable enough to shift the gears when I didn't want it too. It wasn't a problem with the cables so much as it was with the new housing I installed last fall; the routing was a little off, so I loosened it up and reinstalled it and voila, works great!