mine would be this Southern Recipie box I own. It even has a few recipies in it.
I have a copy of the list of all the passenger trains that entered and left New Orleans, I think close on to 100 years ago. (I would have to search for it to check the date). I also have a copy of the Western Railroad Guide printed in 1916 (it is not here where I am living). I do have the November, 1937, issue of the Guide, which the city agent in Bristol, Virginia, gave me when I was a freshman in college in the fall of 1954--that is the most precious item that I have.
Johnny
Copy of a 1920's wire (telegram) between two superintendents and a GM arguing over the practical location of the red-light district at Las Vegas, NM .
Most of what I have has no way to know the age... so I don't know what is the oldest. There is no provenance on anything I have that is RR related.
I have 2 oil fired lanterns (a switch lantern and a caboose lantern).
I have one of the "Y" sticks used to hand up orders to a passing train.
I have a spike maul (probably a replaced handle, but no way to know when it was replaced).
I have a ICRR long-spout oil can.
A 3-ft. length of rail that I bought from a Scrap Iron dealer that came from a pile where one of the pieces had a 1927 embossed date (I'd have that hunk but the fellow that was doing the cutting for the Scrap Iron dealer had gone home and I had no way to get that 39-ft rail in the back seat of my Nisson Pulsar and no red rag to hang on the end of it if I left it hang out the back of the hatchback! ).
The only thing RR related I have that has a date is an 1899 copy of the Chas McShane book, "The Locomotive Up-to-Date". (But the reprint I have of the 1909 version is much better!)
I have a steam whistle, but I am fairly certain it is off of a farm traction engine.
I have a Steam Engine Indicator, but it was probably only used on stationary engines.
I have several steam pressure gauges, but none are from a Locomotive. (One I was told was from a Roundhouse boiler, so it is ostensibly RR related!)
I have two bells (one cast iron and one brass) but both are from Diesels and thus not as old as most of the other items I have.
I have many other items that are only vaguely RR oriented but not necessarily from a RR company directly (such as Rock Island lead typesetting symbols and emblems for printing).
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Most of my collection is fairly standard, a number of Official Guides dating from 1946 to around 1973, two Passenger Equipment Registers, a Railway Equipment Register from 1977, a handful of builders plates and a spike. Nothing really unusual.
A friend acquired and gave to me a 1926 New York Central Lines and Rutland Railroad "Fire Prevention and Protection Rules" book. It's even numbered (B2670).
Since it's not a timetable or operating rules most collectors would probably pass it by. It runs 80 pages and runs the gamut of fire hazards of the day ("Exhausted Battery Elements...")
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
A rail brace for 100 lb rail (has the P&R initials cast into it).
A pair of crow foot wrenches for applying sander hoses to the trucks of Alco FA's (given to me by my father in law).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
tree68A friend acquired and gave to me a 1926 New York Central Lines and Rutland Railroad "Fire Prevention and Protection Rules" book.
Does it have detailed discussion and perhaps diagrams/pictures of the specific oil-firing equipment installed on the locomotives?
I've been looking for technical material on the Adirondack oil firing setup for some time and found little hard information so far.
A book entitled "Instructions for the Running of Trains" issued by the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad in March of 1863. That road became the CNW. A paybook covering 1863-1867 for the same railroad.
I have, somewhere, a 'souvenir' plastic Penn Central logo panel that I removed from the last PJ&B dinky PC ran ... or, more precisely, the first complete run that Conrail made.
We had gotten on the train to go to the junction with a couple of cases of Korbel Brut ("the official champagne of the Transportation Program") and we had about 4 bottles left as we got back. As I got off the train, I noticed that one corner of the sign by that door was hanging off at the corner, and turned to the person I'd been talking to and said 'could I have this'? L. Stanley Crane replied "get that <expletive deleted> thing off my train" ... and so I did.
Wherever in storage it is now, it is right next to the cardboard poster I made up on the floor in my dorm room that celebrated the 'last PC dinky' -- you can see it in at least one of the contemporary newspaper pictures.
The most interesting piece of railroad memorabilia I do NOT have is the actual ticket stub for the ritzy special excursion train that was put on to take the cream of New York preservationism to Washington in order to lobby the Supreme Court to save Grand Central Station. Turns out I sort of, well, wound up not needing to show an actual ticket, not that I had one ... but that is a story for another day.
A cast iron (?) floor plate (premably at the door entrance) for a C&NW caboose -- it has "C&NW" cast into it.
A hand tooled or forged pry bar for opening journal boxes on solid bearing freight trucks, marked "C M & St. P" -- so MIlwaukee Road before the Pacific extension. The seller claimed 1890s.
Vintage rail passes, all in mint condition: Michigan Central Rail Road 1856; Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad 1858; Michigan Southern & Nothern RR / Galena & Chicago Union RR "Sleeping Cars" 1858 (those must have been among the earliest sleeping cars); Racine & Mississippi 1860. There are several others (C&NW, IC, Winona & St Peter) from 1870 but those are too "new" to be remarkable compared to the others. The passes belonged to a distant relative who had been an Illinois Central agent at, at least for a time, Freeport IL. Some of the passes are unrestricted; others are good only on certain routes.
A plaster 4-2-4T locomotive with opening for a bottle in the tender, marked Early Times Bourbon Whiskey. I think my dad got it at his favorite liquor store where it had been a sales display. Lord only knows he was a good enough customer.
Dave Nelson
I had, and gave to the local Historical Society for display in their museum, a 15 inch section of 60# rail with the NCRM II 1887 (North Chicago Rail Mill December 1887) embossing. At my request it was recovered adjacent to my boyhood home from the salvage of Santa Fe's AV District. It had first been installed on a main line and was then 'cascaded' for branch lines when the main line was relayed with heavier rail.
I have the link from an old link and pin coupler that I bought from a small antique dealer in Brunswick, MD. There is a CSX yard there that goes back to B&O days, so I'm fairly certain that this was where it was found. I don't know the date of manufacture or what road it may have been first used by and unforturnately, I don't know when the last link and pin couplers were outlawed. I feel it must have been in the early 1900's that they were last used. One sidelight, I don't think the seller was up on rail operations so she sold it to me for $2 saying she didn't know what it was.
A bag of personal stuff I found near a CNR track back in the 80s. I took it to a local university for examination and was told it was likely left there by a construction worker 130 years earlier.
RMEDoes it have detailed discussion and perhaps diagrams/pictures of the specific oil-firing equipment installed on the locomotives?
Nothing on the mechanical side - all fire prevention.
Several unusual (at least in my opinion):
1. A pipe wrench lettered "NYC".
2. Small bars of soap wrapped with "Pullman"
3. Quite a number of pencils, no erasers, labeled "Pullman"
4. A "Follow the Flag" Wabash mechanical pencil.
5. A complete month of Conrail/Indianapolis Division dispatch sheets...basically the lines from Cleveland to East St. Louis, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, and branches.
What might seem "odd" is often collectible to others. Any time I step into an antique store, I ask "got any railroad stuff?" That is how I purchased to wrench, soap, and pencils.
Ed
You bought Pullman soap? I have two or three pieces which I had saved when riding in Pullman accommodations. I have told my daughter that I am not going to use them (I also have several small bars from one hotel or another; I do not mind using them). Railroads may have obtained a supply of Pullman soap when they were given the responsibility of maintaining the sleeper service--though the Pullman Company still existed for a time after 12/31/68.
My last Pullman trip was begun the Monday after Thanksgiving of 1968; from Washington to Birmingham. When the conductors came into our bedroom, I handed my transportation to the RF&P conductor and told him that my mother had her transportation (a pass issued by the SCL; she could get it because my father worked for the ACL, in the Tampa shops). Then I gave our space ticket to the Pullman conductor. I think I still have the stub of that ticket.
I went into an antique store last year with the question "got any railroad stuff" and the owner brought out a big box of timetables, menus, Pullman pencils, Pullman soap, etc. Obviously the previous owner of the box had worked in railroad commissary service (lots of menus from late 1960s) plus stacks of ATSF individual passenger timetables (such as for Chief).
I purchased a box of soap and probably 50 pencils and a few timetables and menus for $10.
Checked with them about a month ago...box was still there with most everything.
The oddest railroad memorabilia I've got, and I don't consider them all that odd, are some track bolts and spikes from the old Colorado Midland. My brother used to live in Divide CO and was walking the old CM right of way, found them and gave them to me. Interesting, they rusted just to a certain point but no farther.
I've got a collection of lanterns but don't consider them odd.
I have found a few link and pin coupling pins, but no links, at least not from car couplings. I have found two links apparently from the link and pin coupling of a locomotive to its tender. They are much heavier than car coupling links. One I estimate to be from an engine built circa 1900, and the other is much earlier. The one from 1900 is a heavy casting, and the earlier one is very primitive, forged wrought iron. Both were found in the same vicinity of a steep grade, and both are broken off portions of the whole link. I think of the excitement that these broken links might have caused to a fireman on the deck shoveling coal when a link let go.
diningcar I had, and gave to the local Historical Society for display in their museum, a 15 inch section of 60# rail with the NCRM II 1887 (North Chicago Rail Mill December 1887) embossing. At my request it was recovered adjacent to my boyhood home from the salvage of Santa Fe's AV District. It had first been installed on a main line and was then 'cascaded' for branch lines when the main line was relayed with heavier rail.
I too, had some items in a personal collection at home: a Santa Fe kerosene lantern (Clear globe) was out of the Santa Fe station at Erie,Ks ( AT&SF Line from Chanute,Ks to Joplin.Mo) this line was removed in the early 1970's. A couple of ICRR Conductor's Desk Lanterns, with wall mounts, out of an elderly IC 'side-door' pre-1950's Caboose. Now in the collection at Carona Depot and Museum @ http://www.kansastravel.org/caronamuseum.htm
I had enjoyed those items for a long time and, it was time that more could enjoy them as well. I would recommend that donation to area railroad museums that can display and care for the donated items be strongly considered.
Let me put in a few items:
1: Used up driver wheel brake shoe from the MCC 4039 a 0-6-0 (given to me by the MCC crew on their exit from Whippany NJ back in the 70's.) Use as a car stop in my garage; big, heavy and don't move.
2: Hand typed operations manual for the Lackawanna electrics (when they were new back in 1930 and thank you Mrs. O for giving it to me years ago)
3: Rail spike from the Rockaway Valley Railroad (given to me by an In-law who lived along the old ROW and found before it was converted to a paved walking trail in the late 70's.)
4: At my wedding, the Conductor who's train I communited to/from Rutgers and of course my wife wanted him at the reception. He presented us with a old brass plate "Passengers are not allowed to stand on the Platform" he restored for us (removed old paint and crud.) This plate use to be on the inside of a coach exit door on old time passenger cars. Thank you Steve P. its still special to us after 33 years!
Honorable Mention:
* Third Ave Railway (TAR) streetcar bell (Saved from the salvage yard in 1946 by a then 16 year old kid who used it for a lifetime before selling on eBay to a good home (a meant to be moment as I was the only bidder.) Continuing on with the tradition of 'wake up the neighborhood' on New Years eve.
* Steel bell from an Amtrak P-42 from eBay (purchased a clapper and activator to make it complete.) Didn't I mention about waking up the neighborhood?
* SP 4-2-0 steam tie clip given to me by an SP Manager during a private tour of the old Houston Union Station. He took it right off of his tie! Texens know how to make a kid happy!
I (actually my wife has) have the exact same Southern Railway recipie box as the original poster. And yes, it contains some of the original SR recipies. I think these date from the late 1960's or 1970's. They were either given away by Southern Railway as promotional items, or perhaps even sold by the railroad as souvenirs. May have been given to employees as a safety award, not sure? But anyway, it is a neat little item.
Piece of rail about 8 inches long dated 1881.
Someone goofed and cut off rail btwn date and rolling mill name and month and I found it on the scrap pile.
Nice door stop.
Thank You.
I have a bond from The Glens Falls RR Co dated 1869. I also have a coal stove scoop marked Erie Railway, which makes it from 1870 - 1888. I have many pre-1900 itms.
Among many truly odd things, I have a builder's plate from the German designed truck of an Australian-built diesel railcar belonging to Trans-Adelaide, the transit operator for the capital of the state of South Australia. I found it on the ballast while taking an illegal short cut across the tracks because someone had left the gates open (and the walk up the ramps to the road bridge was about ten times as long). The plate indicated that the trucks had been built by the Public Transport Commission of Victoria (the transit operator for Melbourne, the capital of the adjacent state of Victoria). I hadn't ever suspected that that had happened, and I'd written magazine articles on those railcars....
M636C
"Whats the oddest piece of railroad memoribillia you have?."
A very cherished handfull of "Waste" that I keep in a plastic bag. And, I have a story to go with it. It is strangely magical stuff! No way to date it, no way to prove it, you'll just have to take my word on it, When I die my kids will probably ask "what is this and why did he keep it?"
.
Jim, label it! and describe its use.
The day after the Pennsylvania Railroad's Euclid Avenue (Cleveland) Station collapsed in a heap (June, 1974) I took away a number of terra cotta decorative details; for the past 36 years they have made nice garden ornaments.
I also own the very last train ticket sold in the Cleveland Union Terminal. On the day of the EL's last commuter departure (Jan. 1977?) I went there to watch, only to discover that without a ticket no one was allowed downstairs onto the passenger platform. I asked the conductor, standing at the top of the stairs, for a ticket to E.55th Street, the first stop east. He sold it to me for fifty cents, maybe a dollar, since no one could recall what the fare was to that station!
This ticket is also the last non-Amtrak, non-tourist train ticket sold in Ohio. It's a Conrail ticket and properly punched.
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