After several years of toying with the idea of joining a group in serious search of threadless insulators, my chance finally came with an invite from my friend Ray Klingensmith. Dates were agreed upon, air transportation arranged, equipment all obtained and packed and the wait as the big day looms near. For weeks beforehand, my thoughts are filled with dreams of plum colored CD 726's, cobalt CD 730's and Amber CD 742's and the like,

DAY 1: Up at 5:30a.m. to be greeted by a light rain and dark clouds. Is this an omen? With my backpack, sleeping bag, satchel and modified pitch fork with painted "blaze-orange" handle I enter the airport to various stares. I assume it's because of the fork and not me. In Ray's Crown Jewels of the Wire article years ago, he mentioned how easy it is to misplace your equipment in tall grass or dense bush, and it helps to color it somewhat. For sure mine is visible from 3,000 feet. 

Typically, the plane is 20 minutes late leaving and 45 minutes late landing in Toronto but my partner patiently awaits my arrival. With equipment stowed in the back of his truck, we hit a grocery store to load up on food staples (Ritz crackers, wheat crackers, cheese, fruit, canned corn, apple sauce, juice and shreddies?) Where is the roast beef, potatoes, asparagus and ice cream? 

Within 2 hours we hit our first line just outside a small village. This now deserted country lane was once the rail bed for a small railway leading to the town of Beaverton in the 1860's. Rubber boots are the order of the day as the area is full of bull rushes and quite wet. Several of the old pole stumps can be seen, with forks in hand its...poke, poke, poke....poke, poke.

Thousands of times. ..poke, poke. Broken pieces of Dominion 42s and G.N.W. TEL. CO.s are regularly found. Finally after several hours Ray located 1/2 of a CD 742 in aqua. Poke..... Dominion.....42   Poke....G.N.W.... Poke.....CD 742. Several hours later I recover my very first threadless pieces of a CD 742. It is a fun find for me and we continue to poke and dig. Even though I am recovering mostly broken and common threaded insulators, it is reassuring that I am finding glass. 

By 7:00 p.m. we call it a day and set up camp for the night. While I am organizing my tent, a van pulls up with a fellow out digging up cedars for his yard. Now l am about 1,000 miles from home and this guy looks awfully familiar to me. Maybe I worked too hard today and I am hallucinating. Turns out he lived a few blocks from me several years ago! After a bit of food it's to sleep. I get into my bag and tent. But not for long. By midnight, high winds and rain had caused numerous leaks in the tent seams and so with wet equipment and person, I was forced to flee to higher ground. It wasn't any better as the rain continued to be driven in. It was a very long, damp night awaiting dawn.

DAY 2: By 6:00 a.m. we are on the road with my wet equipment just tossed in the back of the truck. We drive north searching for the continuation of this same line and finally locate it well disguised as another country lane. Several more promising and long ago abandoned lines are spotted in the area. Coupled with experience and extensive knowledge of early railway lines, my partner has a talent to be able to spot topographical differences which would remain unseen to most people, including myself. 

Before I commence digging, I hang much of my equipment from tree branches in the partly sunny and breezy morning. A few old pole stumps are located and poking and digging begins. After several hours of working an area and finding only broken G.N.W. TEL's and Dominion 42's, it's time to move on. Fortunately, all my gear seems quite dry as we are ready to leave. 

Our next stop is a continuation of the same line but much more promising as it is more remote from interference over the many decades since abandonment. We park on a scenic rise overlooking a part of the historic Trent Canal system. The land owner is most pleasant and readily gives us permission to work on his land, and work we do. A mere 1/4 mile walk along the rail bed and we are in alternating swamp, bog, and cedar bush. It is beautiful country made even more pleasant by the rising temperatures and absence of any bugs.

Soon we locate some strands of very old telegraph wire and a few tempting pieces of glass. Digging is the order of the day on dry ground here, and I soon locate a small piece of medium sun-colored amethyst glass. Is this part of the mystical plum CD 726 finds which were located nearby some years ago? Before long my partner recovers a larger sun-colored amethyst piece to reveal a once very pretty....G.N.W. TEL. Oh well, my adrenaline needed a boost about now anyway.. All that afternoon it was much the same with pieces of Dominion 42's, G.N.W. TEL.'s and other CD 143's located. 

By 7:00p.m. we called it a day and returned to camp. Another mystery meal was consumed with vigor and I eagerly entered my tent to catch up on lost sleep. Temperatures are dropping rapidly and the wind is picking up. "Oh, please, oh, please, no more rain tonight."

All I know for sure when in darkness I wake up, is that it is down-right cold out and it isn't raining. It was sleet. On goes my wool cap and scarf as I slowly return to sleep.

DAY 3: Up at 7:00 a.m. to a cloudy, windy and very cold morning. Boy, does the truck's heater ever feel good. A steady drizzle and gusty winds continue as we search out the railway line further east. Soon we are into our rain garb and walking into a bog to try our luck. We don't have any as we find heavy frost still in the ground. Searching for another area we find a great looking line with just grass cover along the old pole line. Most poles are readily located and we find one, often, two, sometimes three and twice four pole stumps at each pole spacing. 

Dig... poke... dig... poke...finding lots of Dominion 42's, GNW TEL's, Dwights, and Hemingrays. The temperature continues to drop and winds are very strong. By late morning the sleet and drizzle is now snow and visibility decreased greatly. Ray is soaked and finally goes back to change. His energy and seeming indifference to the elements is amazing. Soon I follow and add another pair of socks. Over the next few hours, the weather has become brutal as we continue to work in a freak May blizzard. My partner finds a mint blue MONTREAL TELEGRAPH CO. CD 143 on the surface. This real pretty find boosts our spirits and we really dig into the ground. I don't remember how many square yards of earth we ripped up this day, but is was a bunch. But by 6:00 p.m. all feeling has long ago left my hands and the cold and wet has entered my bones. Driving to the City of Peterborough, are two very tired and disheveled guys looking for a good Italian dinner. No tent for this kid tonight as l gladly share the truck. After the last two nights, it feels like a Holiday Inn.

DAY 4: Awake at 6:00a.m., we inhale breakfast and head back to this promising line and area. Our enthusiasm is high as the weather allows the metal detector to he utilized for the first time. At one old pole location we find a unbelievable 12 tie wires and a half dozen square nails. But despite extensive digging, no glass is found. The ground hogs must figure we are really nuts with all the upturned earth. 

At 5:00p.m. after a hard day's work and no glass to show for it, we require another morale boost. An hour's drive and a "golden arches" is located. I grab a quick shave so as to not scare the 25 billion customers. After last night's good sleep, I am a fixture at night in the truck. A small local park is tonight's pit stop.

DAY 5: Now about here we start to get real lazy and it was about 8:00 a.m. before we get up. This new section of line looks real good to us and permission to enter private land is given by several land owners. We pack our gear and enter mature cedar bush with some trees over 100 years old. All trees are widely spaced and walking is easy. Excellent for ground searching. The overhead canopy of green is thick enough that there is virtually no ground cover of any kind. The surface is made of a thick, soft mat of cedar leaves. Sun beams penetrate the shadowed area like spotlights. Today is the best weather that we have experienced and it is a real treat. 

After a short walk of 1/2 mile we locate a classic pole location at the edge of a wide creek bed. The detector reveals two tie wires and two large square spikes, but again after extensive digging and poking not a shard of glass is found. Ray feels that the large spikes are from a side block but I am skeptical due to their size. 

Further down the line, the process is repeated but no wires, spikes or glass is found. Why one day we locate a significant quantity of material at a pole position and the next nothing is a mystery that only the line dismantlers can answer. The prize for the day is an early railcar coupler pin. 

As the day draws to a close, we seek and receive permission to enter a nearby but new area then head for another hot meal at a small country restaurant.

DAY 6: Cloud and wind greet us in the morning again. Breakfast just about finishes my food supply and I can't say that I am sad to see the last of it. Following the rail bed forces us to cross a horse corral well covered with land mines or whatever those "lumps" are. 

Dig... poke... dig... poke... as we work our way down the line. Two more large squared spikes are found in the area. While passing near a cattle farm, a somewhat disgruntled farmer advises me that we have spooked a few of his cows. "Will you talk to them on your way by?" I try not to pause but "What will I say to them" I can just about hear him thinking "Oh, Gad, a real dumb city fella." "Just say 'Here, Bossy ... Here, Bossy, so they know you mean them no harm and they will come home." Before long my bilingual partner has them on a trot back to the barn.

This part of the line is tough to work as it changes from swamp, bog, decar bush, and heavy thickets every few hundred feet. Again at an expected pole spacing, two more spikes are located. Better lift this fallen and rotted split cedar rail fence section out of the way and take a closer look..... Eureka!" It isn't a fence section but the remains of a very old pole with sidepin attached by two large squared spikes. At last the proof needed that we have been searching in the right spots. Another very extensive dig reveals no glass. Over the next several hours our work continues but to no avail. 

By now all my enthusiasm has got up and gone as I am very anxious to get home to family. By 3:00 p.m. we call it quits and start the walk back. Old eagle-eye Ray find an 1850 upper Canada half-penny on the ground right along this 1850 era rail bed. A quick wash in a nearby creek and its on to Toronto. At 11:00 pm., I was some happy guy to walk through the door of my home.

My little adventure is now over. It was real tough some days especially due to the weather. But such a sense of history working beside the early 1850-1860 rail and telegraph lines. The thrill (for me) of even finding pieces of a CD 742 or some threadless wire and ties is hard to beat. I realize more than ever the potential for finding still hidden threadless insulators is tremendous, if you are willing to do a bit of research and spend some time and effort. Southern Ontario --- I will return!