PHANTOM OF THE WIRES DIGS UP MAINE

Last June, my wife and I were out driving around up in Maine. We really like taking trips up there and finding new things to see. It also acts as a scouting trip for me. New places to phantomize.

As we were driving I kept checking out the poles that ran along the Maine Central Railroad tracks. Always in search of more goodies for my collection. After a few miles I noticed two steel towers coming up that passed over the tracks. One tower was in a newly fenced in area, and the other closer to the tracks. These towers were loaded with M-2130 porcelain insulators. The only problem was, they were still LIVE! Trying to keep our Camaro on the road, and keeping my adrenaline under control, I told my wife I'd have to come back next weekend. 

The building on the property was an old structure, but very well built. Over the front of the building carved in granite read "Central Maine Power Co." The building was still being used. Over on the side where the new fenced-in area was, looked to be the place where an old substation once stood. The only thing in there was a large transformer, with an old high voltage line coming into it. On the other end of the fenced-in area were a couple of new steel towers lying down and a long maintenance building. I told my wife, this might be a good place to do some digging. 

Those next five weekdays seemed like ten. Finally, Friday night came! I packed all my equipment into my old Chevette "PHANTOM MOBILE". I double checked to make sure I had everything needed for a trip like this one. Three o'clock I was up and ready to roll. I like getting up early to go digging. It's peaceful outside and traffic is very light or none at all. I had a hundred plus miles to drive and the earlier you get there the more time you have to dig. After inhaling a good breakfast, I was on the road at four o'clock. It's nice to have the highway to yourself. After getting off I-95, I reached my final destination. Insulator land or so I hoped it would turn out to be. 

Pulling into a dirt parking lot at six o'clock, I was ready to explore every inch of this place that did look promising. It was so quiet and eerie just standing there admiring those two steel towers. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of it. The zoom lens really made identifying easier.

I then walked along the outside of the new fence, and followed it to the back property line. As I got closer to the big transformer humming the sound of death. I noticed the power company was still using the old Hewlett suspension insulators on the line coming into the transformer. Looking around I saw a few broken multi-type insulators and Hewletts on the ground. There were some more multi's attached to platforms and also sitting on the ground. That was all there was to indicate an old substation once stood inside this fence. I then moved to the back of this old building, and looked up the walls to be sure there were not any attached to the walls. 

Scratching my head, I turned and noticed the Kennebec River was flowing silently by down a large embankment. Thinking out loud, this could be where C.M.P.CO. dumped their junk of the day. I started down holding on to small trees, and bushes. I didn't want to set any speed records for falling down and rolling to the bottom of this hill.

When I reached the river, I couldn't believe all the broken multis everywhere! I didn't know which place to look first. After a few minutes of looking around, I went back to my car and brought back my backpack and a big clam rake. Now I was ready to become a human rototiller. I started digging around, and piling the good insulators up to be packed for home. A lot of old porcelain and some glass too.

What a tease to go over to a nice 3 piece Victor multipart and pulling it out of the mud, finding that the third piece was broken off. I found four CD 294's, all were pretty beat up. It was too bad I don't have any in my collection. I dug up CD 162 Brookfields, N.E.G.M.; CD 297 Locke, CD 289 Locke, CD 288 Locke with one ridge and also a CD 287 No Name, No. 15. There were a lot of porcelain everywhere. Multis and small uniparts littered the riverbank. A lot of Ohio Brass, Victors, Thomas, Westinghouse, and No Names to be found. I unearthed strain insulators from Fedco, G. P. Co., Thomas, Westinghouse, and No Names. 

It was neat to dig up two line fuses. The first one was a Westinghouse in unglazed white porcelain. It had a small chip but otherwise it was mint. The second line fuse was a G. E. CO. in unglazed white porcelain. This was really neat, I usually find them in chocolate brown. On the base of the fuse body was embossed "PAT JUNE 5 1894" and across the other part of the base was embossed "30 AMP 2500 VOLTS". The only bad part is I could not find the fuse pull out or the bottom piece. The Westinghouse was found with it's bottom.

There were insulators hiding everywhere. Just when you thought you were done your eyes would catch sight of another hiding in the brush. I figured this whole embankment along the river to be 6 to 7 hundred feet long. Things were just dumped there for fill. There were bricks, cable, old bottles and cans, the regular old dump stuff. Boy! you have to watch picking up the broken ones. OUCH! I donated my share of blood for that day. This dig really proved to be a rewarding trip. I dug up the following M- and U- numbers. U-15, 26, 52, 73A, 709, 745 Victors, 705, 291, 612A, 613, M2661, 3215, 2223 Thomas, 2130 Thomas, 3150, 3156, 3060 Ohio Brass, 3070. Also, I located a few 10" Hewletts. There were a lot of multiparts that were damaged. There was one place out back were I dug a couple hundred three-piece units, just about every one was broken in one place or another. That is aggravating!

I've been back twice since my first trip, and every time I find something that wasn't there the last time. The waves wash sand away revealing more goodies for me to take home. My last trip back was July 20th. I picked the hottest day to go digging. 95 degrees and humid! You think a bucket with holes leaks, you should have seen me sweat. I will return in the fall when it cools down. There is a lot of good stuff out still to be dug. I'm looking into renting a backhoe, this would make things a lot easier. It doesn't hurt to dream a little.