Marvin and Michelle’s Big Adventure

You always dream of making a discovery of insulators, somewhere down a dirt road or along a railroad track out in the country. Well it finally happened for us.

It all began a couple of months ago, my girlfriend Michelle and I started collecting insulators. We went to all the flea markets and antique stores in our area. Hemingray 42’s were $6 at the antique stores, but you could find them for only a quarter at the flea markets. We made a trip to see Mr. A.L. Rash in East Texas and bought some really beautiful pieces.

I mentioned my new hobby to friends and co-workers. My boss said he had an insulator he found when he was growing up on a farm in Wisconsin. It turned out to be a Hemingray No.40 -- not very exciting. Another co-worker, John, who lives along a railroad track “down a dirt road in the country” said the Santa Fe Railroad was taking down the old signal lines near his house. He said the line was built at the turn of the century. Needless to say we were very excited!

We went to the area when I got off work around 11 p.m. It was so dark, we couldn’t see anything. So we returned the next morning and discovered that the wires had been removed but the poles were still standing. We were really disappointed! Upon closer inspection we found a few poles had been cut down and found some CD 145 W. Brookfields and H.G.Co’s. Not a bad haul for a few hours of work.

A couple of days later I get an urgent call from John. He said they were pushing down the poles with a bulldozer. So we returned to the tracks to find poles that were standing a few days ago were now on the ground. The first poles we came to held more W. Brookfield and H.G.Co. beehives. We also came across several CD 145 Stars, CD 136 B&Os and CD 214 Hemingray 43s. Not to mention tons of B beehives, Hemingray 42s and CD 147 spiral grooves. After several trips and several miles walking along the track, we came home with about 150 insulators.

Marvin with several of the insulators he
salvaged from the down poles along the trackes.

Several days were spent removing spiders and cleaning the insulators. I’m glad we were able to save some of the insulators from this line before they were destroyed or wound up at the landfill. After nearly a hundred years of dutiful service they will spend a peaceful retirement in our collection.