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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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
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...
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.
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.
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 .
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
mine would be this Southern Recipie box I own. It even has a few recipies in it.
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