The other day a package with an insulator in it arrived at our house. There's nothing so unusual about this, because we have packages arrive quite often around here, except that this little package contained a fake U. P. R. R. threadless pony. We had received a letter a few days preceding the package, so we were forewarned what the package contained, and were asked to please ALERT the collectors to the fake U.P.R.R. threadless pony. This is how it looks to us:

This insulator was made from an aqua threaded pony (possibly an old Brookfield) by either sandblasting or by placing in some type of strong acid. This removed any embossing. Then some type of substance was used to cover and form the letters U.P.R.R. 3/4 inches high and protect this printing from the sandblasting or acid that the insulator was put through again. This caused the printing of U. P. R. R. to be slightly raised. The outside of this insulator is very dull and rough. Almost sandpapered feeling. The glass is also much thinner than your old Brookfield pony, due to this processing method. How the threads were removed I couldn't say, but if you feel inside, you can still feel where they were. Very definitely! Everyone to whom I have shown this insulator agrees that it is a fake, so PLEASE, for heaven's sake, be careful. Don't get taken in by these clever people who are forever thinking up ways to pick your pocket or do you out of your best traders. Let's all join forces and put this type of people out of business. We don't need fake insulators in our hobby!

In the picture we show the fake U. P. R. R. to the left of an authentic Brookfield pony.

You can see that the U. P. R. R. pony is somewhat smaller in size - from whatever methods were used. They are both the same color aqua.

Dora Harned