Why I should...

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", August 1997, page 32

"Why I should carry a cross-arm when I hunt insulators...,"
said Bob Jones of Lynchburg, Virginia.

This could be bad, I thought in that moment the water rose above my boot.... very bad!.. .as my knee disappeared into the murky water. Just how deep could this trench be?

It's December 30th and thankfully one of the warmest Decembers in Virginia history. Tommy Snead, NIA #5419, and I are spending the day following up on several insulator leads.

The first three produced nothing positive, but this one seemed more promising. An ex-railroad employee had given us a general location and description and had personally gathered insulators there including CD 154 Lynchburgs. The railroad had removed the top cross-arms and had tossed them beside the poles and strangely enough in this instance across the property fence into private pasture land. With the owners permission, we could search for the insulators without trespassing.

Bob Jones and Tommy Snead leaning on that lifesaving 
cross-arm surveying the day's cache of insulators.

The insulators were there: Hemingray 42's in clear, Hemingray 19's in Hemi blue, plastic H.G. Porters, CD 162 , Stars in blue and yellow green, CD 126.3, CD 133 and CD 145 Brookfields, and the biggest surprise, several CD 151 I-bar 8's in celery green. In all, there were about 80 insulators.

We did find two CD 154 Lynchburgs, but in poor condition. Most had minor damage, probably a combination of the drop to the ground, being stepped on by livestock and vandalism as the railroad bordered a rural road. Oh, by the way, the water was at least 2-1/2 feet deep, and what had appeared at first to be about 18" wide was well over five feet. That pasture grass is really deceptive. The cross-arm I was carrying on my first trip across became a temporary bridge enabling me to pull myself out of this swamp -- a real Kodak moment! I only wonder what the result would have been if I had decided to start with the bag of insulators!