Metal detectors?

[Jock Ellis]

Going to the beach on the coast of Georgia a few weeks ago and watching many people with metal detectors walking over the same area made me wonder if any members have walked the ROW with such an instrument and, if so, what were some of the oddest RR artifacts found?

[James Patten]

Oh yes, people have walked the ROW with metal detectors.  Usually they find spikes, with the occasional broken joint bar.

One day while building track someone on the crew found a bent link (as in the link from link-and-pin couplers).  It was embedded in a stump.

The most unusual thing found were flatcar parts and coupler.  These were in the Sheepscot River next to where the ROW was.

[Jock Ellis]

What did they do with these goodies?

[James Patten]

Spikes are usually taken home with the finders.  They're pretty much useless to us now.  The link is somewhere in our collection.  And the flatcar parts are upstairs in the engine house, waiting for a good place to display them.

[Mike Fox]

Somewhere, I don't remember if it came home with us or if is on display at Sheepscot, there is a pair of joint bars I found with one bolt and a very short piece of rail between them. It was found on the outside of the curve where Albees crossing is now. We surmised it was a repair joint. When the rails were replaced with better ones (nothing new you know), the joint bar was cast aside, missed by the scrappers.

There has also been whole rails found. One was located by where the siding was at the Top of the Mountain. Less than 10 feet from the track, missed by the scrappers, or left intentionally?