Reading another post where someone mentioned that they once found a whole bail of cotton on the tracks got me thinking. I grew up across the street from a mainline in Cleveland. As kids, we were always walking the tracks to get here and there. Lots of friends homes backed up to the tracks. Seems we were always finding things that "fell off" the trains. Some of these were 2 cases of gin. 12 cases of champaign. (mostly broken) Two cases of toilet paper. (the industrial wood pulp kind. OUCH!) Those little purple iron ore pellets that made great sling shot ammo. One neighbor found two huge tractor tires in his yard one mourning. He returned them to the Goodyear dealer who actually gave him a free set of tires for his car for his honesty.
Anybody else ever find anything of interest on the tracks?
Hi!
My Father grew up trackside in a small house (see my Avatar) in Anna Illinois - right across the IC racetrack. There was a wreck sometime in the '30s, and a small barrel of powdered eggs "fell" into their yard. Well, being hard times, the eggs were kept and lasted for some time. My Dad said to this day (in the '80s), he could not stand the sight/smell/taste of powdered eggs - and went hungry more than once during WWII tank training at Fort Knox.
He told the story a lot more colorful than I can here, but you get the point.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Imagine what you'd find along a right of way serving passenger trains before holding tanks were used.
Mark
markpierceImagine what you'd find along a right of way serving passenger trains before holding tanks were used. Mark
Maybe this is a reason to allow a little deviation from the prototype...
This one's a bit before my time, but the Altoona Historical Society vouched for it.
In 1925, there was a wreck in Altoona. One smashed box car was loaded with porcelain bathroom fixtures. Within days, homes all over the neighborhood were upgraded with brand new sinks, tubs and commodes...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My experience is similar to the original poster's. As a youngster we lived down the street from a C & NW overpass where the trains would be slowing down as they headed into town. One fine summers day a buddy and I were hanging out down by the tracks when low and behold we came across a few unopened cans of Colt 45. Being inquistive young fellows...12 or 13...we cracked open a couple. Blghhhhhhh. I suppose it being 80 degrees or so that day had something to do with the truly horrible taste. To this day...45 years later...I still don't like the taste of beer. Thank goodness it wasn't rum we found!
Mainetrains
'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear' Modeling the Hard Knox Valley Railroad in HO scale http://photos.hardknoxvalley.com/
mainetrains ... we came across a few unopened cans of Colt 45. Being inquistive young fellows...12 or 13...we cracked open a couple. Blghhhhhhh. .. I still don't like the taste of beer.
... we came across a few unopened cans of Colt 45. Being inquistive young fellows...12 or 13...we cracked open a couple. Blghhhhhhh. .. I still don't like the taste of beer.
That wasn't beer, son.
markpierce Imagine what you'd find along a right of way serving passenger trains before holding tanks were used. Mark
Is that why the ballast is darker between the rails?
Back in 1955 NYO&W had a famous derailment in Hamilton NY.Chocolate bars from the Nestle plant spilled out on the tracks.
Dansapo, Did you read the post immediately befor yours? Reminds me of an old radio news show that had a bit about wild dogs running in a tobacco field - the next commercial started with "Have your cigarettes tasted different lately?"
there was so much railroad stuff in altoona buildings that when a train went by, all the houses would lean toward the track.
grizlump
My grand parents lived across the road from the CGW during the depression years. My Grandfather work MOW for the CGW. In the morning, the 7 kids would walk the tracks before school and pick up the loose lumps of coal for the home heating furnace.
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
jrbernier -We had 11 coal cars derail and dump their loads. The RR just bull dozed the coal off to the side and left it. Half the people in the neighborhood where looking into converting their furnaces to coal.I went back about 25 years later and there's STILL a big ol mound of coal sitting there!
I remember a train wreck around 1960 near Pittsburgh that left TV’s all over the place. The newspaper said they got all TVs back but a lot of my friends had a new TV in their living room.
The IC that passed through the little town we lived in had allot of traffic when I was a kid. We use to walk the tracks down to a local pond all the time. I still have some of the old junk that was laying around the tracks to. An old lattern, and a coal shovel with ATSF logo stamped into the steel part of the shovel. Nothing of real value though. My dad told me of a slow train that came through town when he was a kid. Seems they had hogs running around town early one morning due to a stock car that had a door that was not latched.
When we ---my 2 sisters and I---were kids our parents bought a little white house on a street that connected with a footbridge over the doubletrack CN main in Woodstock ON. Well, anyway dad came in with a couple of boxes with---radio tubes he found on the side of the tracks off of Ingersoll Rd.---and none broke. A couple of weeks later a TV shows up---also found same place----hhhmmmmnnn
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
When the company who operated a glass sand mine in the area bought the shortline that served it the RR was in pretty much disrepair. Every time the train stopped there would be little piles of sand that leaked out of the hoppers. We use to wonder how much was left in the cars when they got to their destination. It wasn't long until the sand mine made repairs and got new cars. For those of you who live in MA you may have heard of the Unimin Corp.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
I have found a lot of cool stuff along the tracks, but the best had to have been a step box from a Ringling Bros circus train. It was in really good shape with one leg bent a little, but it sits level.
dansapo Back in 1955 NYO&W had a famous derailment in Hamilton NY.Chocolate bars from the Nestle plant spilled out on the tracks.http://media.www.maroon-news.com/media/storage/paper742/news/2004/10/15/ArtsFeatures/The-Chocolate.Wreck.A.Crash.That.Made.National.History-754943.shtml
http://media.www.maroon-news.com/media/storage/paper742/news/2004/10/15/ArtsFeatures/The-Chocolate.Wreck.A.Crash.That.Made.National.History-754943.shtml
That's hilarious, especially considering that no one was hurt!
EDIT: only thing I've ever found on the tracks is a spike and some other thing for the rail.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
I was at the scene of an incident at Nobody switch where the Weary Erie put 3 car loads of twenty fifth anniversary corvettes into the Delaware River.
For some odd reason they put a guard on them until they got them out. I've often wondered if the eventual owners were ever told.
I used to land a helicopter in a ball field behind that Nestle's plant in Fulton, NY. I don't know how those people in Fulton stand it. The whole town smells like chocolate. At least the event in Hamilton was temporary, but I bet the students at Colgate had a severe case of the munchies.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Yeah it was nice going past the factory during the summertime.