Cast iron cradle used by Allegheny Portage Railroad to fasten rail to stone sleepers. Hollidaysburg neighbor, mechanical engineer and historian, Ronald Fye i the 1950's had access to an Army mine detector. He undertook many hikes along riht of way between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown to find remnants for the Blair County Historical Society. His widow gave the sleeper to me knowing my interest.
A 1963 note from artist and industrial designer Otto Kuhler thanking me for postcards sent to him of the Horseshoe Curve. I had acquired copy of his "Thunder on the Horseshoe Curve" being sold by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the NRHS as a fundraiser. The note is signed in india ink in his distinctive way.
I have a photocopy of a handwritten letter from James J. Hill (the Empire Builder) written to my grandfather's brother, James M. Gruber, congratulating him on his new position as general manager of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy lines east of the Missouri River. The letter is dated January 7, 1904 but is actually from January 7, 1905. As is the case with many of us, James J. Hill was still writing the former year's date the first few days of the new year. At that time Hill was living in New York City in an apartment building called the Bolkenhayn at 763 Fifth Avenue. In October, 1912, James M. Gruber was elected vice president of the Great Northern Railway.
I don't have anything, but I do recall a visit to the Strasburg RR in what, 1967? where a friend and I climbed on top of a Nickel Plate Road Berkshire that was in a long line of dead locomotives and we opened up the sand dome. He had a small paper bag and filled it with sand from the dome. We were both 12 years old and he had that on his desk at home right through high school which we graduated from in 1973. He may still have it. George Pernicone, if anyone feels like prosecuting him.
By the way Fireflite, Exner was the man, next to Elwood Engel, of course!
I have one of those gizmos that holds down the lever you use to throw a switch and lock it in place.
I also have a group of three fiberglass double-sided route name and number signs from Septa. They say for example: R1 West Trenton, R5 Bryn Athyn, R7 Glenside, and have different color backgrounds and are different on each side. They would have been slid into a holder on the of the MU cars. One thing I find interesting about them is while Septa still uses R#'s to designate its regional rail routes, all the numbers have changed. (R1 is now the airport, West Trenton is the R3).
I think my most unusal itme is a letter from the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad, indicating that the bearer is an engineer who is qualifing on a new divsion. At the bottom is a fill-in-the-blank section where the supervising engineer wrote in his name, route, engine number, and that the new guy "ran OK". I really like that artifact. I paid all of about three dollars for it in a Pennsylvania antique store.
Lord Atmo I have some paint chips off of CNW 4160. Found them on the ground and walkways of the unit. Museum volunteers said I was actually doing them a favor by taking them.
I have some paint chips off of CNW 4160. Found them on the ground and walkways of the unit. Museum volunteers said I was actually doing them a favor by taking them.
A very small engineer's cap with a Santa Fe logo and the words "Junior Engineer", along with a small red bandana. Both got pretty worn before I grew out of them, so they're probably not worth much to anyone but me. It was a souvenir item available for purchase onboard the San Francisco Chief. Best part of the story is the conductor gave it to me after my mom ignored my pleas to buy it.
A broken pin and link from the original UPRR transcon railroad, 1860's vintage I would guess. Also hand forged RR spikes from the original UPRR grade. Given to me by a rancher from his property. They were picked up by scrappers in the early 40's and bounced off the truck where he found them on an old dirt 2 track.
I have a Illinois Central operational handbook that was my Grandfathers from 1963
The title says "oddest", so with that I'm going with some ashes I collected from the N&W 611 after excursion serivce in 2015.
TG3 LOOK ! LISTEN ! LIVE ! Remember the 3.
- A full size drumhead rendering on posterboard from Western Sandblasting (the company which produced a number of railroad drumheads) for Santa Fe's Golden Gate. This is the first version of the drumhead, the one with a Santa Fe logo "sunburst". The major difference between the rendering I have versus the eventual design is that the latter features the Santa Fe logo on an angle, while the version I have shows the logo with an up-and-down cross. I need to get this framed one of these days.
- An ad and newspaper clips scrapbook, which I purchased from the RI Chicago auction in 1980. The book was produced by RI's passenger department in Omaha, and covers the years 1938-1946, skipping most of the war years. The scrapbook is actually a RI ledger book, with written entries made in the 1920's.
As a major portion of my railroadiana collection consists of Official Guides, I have some odds and ends relating to that publication:
- A September 1874 issue - it lacks covers but otherwise the paper is in good condition. Besides its age, this particular issue is unique because the first page has a signiture of the editor, W.F. Allen, and appearantly this was used as a foundation in producing the next issue, based on numerous handwritten markings and proofreading notations.
- Two renewal postcards for Official Guide, one from 1909 and another from 1939.
- A recept from the National Railway Publication Co, covering a year subscritpion for the Official Guide for the year 1890, made out to a ticket agent who resided at the Union Depot in Kansas City, Mo.
- A quartet of passes (from 1884, 1906, 1907, and 1909), allowing the holder free use of the National Railway Publication Co's meeting rooms in New York. Most likely, the meeting rooms were considered "neutral territory" as far as railroads were concerned, as the Official Guide was started by an industry group, the National Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents.
- Two pairs of Official Guide binders, all of them in blue with gold lettering, and were produced for the separate passenger and freight editions of the Guide in the late 1970's. Unstead of railroad markings, the binders were marked with the Official Guide logos. I don't know whether or not the publisher produced these binders, and who actually used them.
- Finally, I have a glass dome paperweight which contains a reduced-size cover of the Official Guide with a "Published Monthly" phrase instead of an actual date.
Myron Bilas
A November 1990's Issue of Trains Magazine, has a timeline of events from 1940-1990.
A hobo that followed me home and weeded my garden in exchange for staying in my guest room for two days.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
An old timetable from 1894 for Frisco locals. Mom had it from her family and passed it on to me. We turned in a copy of it to our Union Station when it was renovated and reopened for the museum they opened along with our memories of waiting there for trains. I also have my grandpa's coal oil lantern which is special to me, since he died long before I was born.
Although I have an eclectic assortment of metal, wood, paper, etc. artifacts collected over more years than i care to admit, I suspect my most unusual item is a pair of bookends with short sections of rail that, because of where the rail was found, almost certainly originated with the Manassas Gap Railroad. A now-deceased friend made several pairs of them.
This was the line that "Stonewall" Jackson used in the first large-scale movement of troops from Front Royal to Manassas, Virginia, during the first Battle of Manassas (Bull Run to Yankees) during the War for Southern Independence. It is now the NS "B" line and still active. By the way, the recent excursion pulled by N&W 611 over this line was quite enjoyable, even though there were no open-window cars. Sigh.
Larry Lee (CGSGENMAN)
The oddest railroadania I have:1). 20' long stainless steel name board from a New Haven parlor.
2). Pair of valve rocker arms from an Alco S-4 539T.
3). US&S searchlight signal (without the relay, unfortunately).
4). Diesel fuel tank cap (w/ chain).
5). Rotary space saver telephone from a New Haven tower (and it works!).
Paul A. Cutler III
I just thought of something else, although it may be a bit of a stretch.
It's my commission as a Marine First Lieutenant from 1977 signed by then navy secretary W. Graham Claytor. Not being a railfan at the time aside from being "Mr. Secretary" I had no idea who Graham Claytor was or his railroading background, much less his connection with the Southern and Norfolk-Southern steam programs. I sure know now!
Even though I wasn't a railfan I always loved steam engines. I really treasure that commission signed by one of my (now) heroes.
OvermodHey, I could replace the one my wife broke! Trade you a Naval Special Warfare Systems holiday glass for it?
PM me. We can deal.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
zugmann I did find a Conrail Quality information systems drinking glass at the local Goodwill.
Hey, I could replace the one my wife broke! Trade you a Naval Special Warfare Systems holiday glass for it?
zugmann oltmannd I used to have some Conrail boxers. That may have been the most unusual.. There has to be a joke in there somewhere, but I can't think of one to do it justice. I did fine a Conrail Quality information systems drinking glass at the local goodwill.
oltmannd I used to have some Conrail boxers. That may have been the most unusual..
There has to be a joke in there somewhere, but I can't think of one to do it justice. I did fine a Conrail Quality information systems drinking glass at the local goodwill.
My 15th aniversary "gift" from Conrail was a set of glass beer mugs with the Conrail logo in them.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
A cam gear tooth from CR 1625, a GP15-1. A long story I wrote about in my blog, if you want the details. The Conrail golf ball is pretty neat, too, actually. I used to have some Conrail boxers. That may have been the most unusual..
When The Rock went bust several of us got permission to enter the El Reno yard to photograph the engines stored there. While there I found a burn pit that had a lot of manuals, packs of unopened forms, all sorts of flimsies, and two hard hats. Needless to say, they are in my collection.
Yesterday, I was in one of our local antique stores. One guy, whom I know and just retired last year from the railroad, had some folders with various bits of paperwork. One folder contained, among other items, 6 train orders from the South Austrailian Railways. You don't often see things like that in the middle of Iowa.
Now, it ranks in my oddest (meaning something rarely seen or available) items category. Other things would be a rivet from the original Kate Shelley High Bridge (they were selling them a few years ago when the bridge had some work done), a recording from the RI's dispatcher's phone, and a RI block signal.
Jeff
A 3-4 foot long section of rail from the now gone Minnesota Zephyr tourist line. I think the date stamp is 1905. I asked a crew member removing the track if I could buy a section with a reciept to show its not stolen and he said no. I told him how much of a rail fan I was. One day I came out to my truck and this short piece was next to it,,, so in the bed of my truck it went. If I leave Stillwater I will donate it to the local museum. The ROW which has since been turned into a trail is next to the apt I live in. The trail gets a LOT of use. It was the 1st line going into Stillwater built to the north end of town in late 1870. Then the last mile was laid in the spring of 1871.
A spike from the Allegheny Portage Railroad (1832 - 1854). My family is from Portage PA and came across it while exploring in the woods many years ago.
I have an odd (for railfans) collecting interest which is associated with railfan collecting because I spent my entire career working in the railroad supply business doing rail control systems computer programming. Back in 1974 I installed a hump yard system for the then new BNRR in Minneapolis and then about 20 years later replaced it with a new system. Well as a computer programmer back in the early 80's as they had almost disappeared overnight on new computers, I started collecting the swith and lamp diagnostic consoles or "front panels" from old computers. As I was working in the rail industry a number of them in my collection came out of railroad environments. That original Minneapolis system, for Northtown Yard, had a redundant pair of process control computers designed by GE, the GE-PAC (process automation computer) 4010. I now have the panels from both of these machines. Late in 2104 I put together a small display for one of the montly meetings of our local railroad museum (RGVRRM) celebrating the 40th anniversary of this yard. Here's a photo of that display and a photo I took back in fall 74 in the computer room.
Firelock76 BaltACD Not odd, but totally unique - a 'badge' worn by one of my ancestors that participated in the parade that celebrated the 'Laying of the First Stone' of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, July 4, 1828. This-is-incredible! A "silent witness" to the birth of "The Mother Road." Treasure it Mr. Balt, as I'm sure you do. It's like a battlefield pick-up from Gettysburg, except it represents something con-structive instead of de-structive.
BaltACD Not odd, but totally unique - a 'badge' worn by one of my ancestors that participated in the parade that celebrated the 'Laying of the First Stone' of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, July 4, 1828.
Not odd, but totally unique - a 'badge' worn by one of my ancestors that participated in the parade that celebrated the 'Laying of the First Stone' of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, July 4, 1828.
This-is-incredible! A "silent witness" to the birth of "The Mother Road."
Treasure it Mr. Balt, as I'm sure you do. It's like a battlefield pick-up from Gettysburg, except it represents something con-structive instead of de-structive.
My Grandfather even spelled out the lineage of family from the individual that wore the badge up to himself, I have yet to update it beyond my Grandfather, as both he and my father have passed.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I also have a three foot length of rail that is broken on both ends' not cut. It has a strange ware pattern, like a rolled over edge on both the gauge and field side of the rail.
it has the marking of carnegie 1898 et 11.
I have:
A tie plate and spike from the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee, picked up when the line was dismantled at the Edison Court station in Waukegan, IL
A 9 inch section of streetcar rail excavated from a street in downtown Pittsburgh
A NYC kerosene switch stand lamp removed from the Cincinnati yards in the 1960s
A commemorative binder presented to a retiring B&O traffic department executive in 1957, with photos, letters, business cards and reminiscences of fellow B&O execs and railroad customers.
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