Recently, I called an antique shop located about an hour's drive from my home near Pittsburgh, P A. I had gotten some CD 162 Stars in a nice yellow-green for $1.00 apiece a while back, and the proprietor had said to call periodically to see if he had gotten in any new pieces. When I talked to him this time, he said he had just got four boxes of insulators. Anxious to root out any goodies that might be in these boxes, I told him I would be out the following weekend. 

Saturday dawned a beautiful crisp, clear day. I called my thirteen-year old nephew, Dan, (a budding collector), and asked if he'd be interested in going along for the ride. He said he would like to go, and that I should take my camera, as there is some nice scenery on the country roads en route to the antique shop. About ten minutes away from the shop we crossed some railroad tracks, and I noticed some blue and clear insulators on multi-arm poles that paralleled the rural road in spots. I saw the amazingly clean shiny insulators on this trip, because the leaves hadn't completely come out yet. Since we had a camera along, I suggested that we get some photos of this old, but apparently lightly-used rail line. Dan spotted a parking lot close to the tracks, and we were off and running! 

The first thing we noticed was that some of the wires had been removed, and that there were CD 145 B's, Hemingray 40's, and Whitall Tatum CD 155 DP1 's. Some of the cross-arms were in a state of disrepair, and after taking a couple of photos, we decided to walk for awhile in the hope that maybe some insulators had become dislodged in the wire removal. A few poles up the line, we spotted a pole with CD162 Brookfields on the arms with no wires on them. Both Dan and I became excited, because we had just been talking about wanting to find a line that had Brookfields on it, and here it was! 

We continued to walk the tracks, just finding shards of glass from broken insulators. Finally we came to a pole that bordered a clearing, that had the remaining wires coiled up on the arms, and a milk-swirled CD 151 W. Brookfield, laying on the ground. Another Brookfield! We decided to check out about three more poles before we went back to the car, and on to the antique shop. At the third pole, Dan said that we should head back, but with not too much urging, he agreed we ought to check out just one more pole around the next curve. As we rounded the bend, we saw that several poles had been cut down alongside a park with shelters and two large ball fields. The first thing we noticed was that the glass jewels were still on the cross-arms! 

Racing from pole to pole, we gathered up all the emerald green B's, dome embossed, dated Brookfield beehives and W. Brookfield CD 151 's, leaving behind clear Whitall Tatum CD 155's, mint clear and blue Hemi 42's and 40's (tons of them at home already). One of the Brookfield CD 145's had a thick snotty snake swirling down from the dome, all the way to the bottom of the inner skirt. A real find for me, being the junk in insulators guy that I am! Loading up pockets, camera bag and fingers with insulators, we headed back to the car with our first cache of glass. Moving the car closer to where the downed poles were, seemed like a good idea. Also needed was a screwdriver to dig the dirt from underneath the insulators that became buried when the poles hit the ground. What amazed both Dan and me was that these insulators were still on the crossarms that were five feet from the manicured grass of the outfield; not only that, but these poles had been down for quite some time! Must not be many insulator collectors in these parts! 

After a section of track where the poles were still up, we came to a stretch that bordered a lumber yard, and once again, more cut down poles. We decided on just three more poles, because we were getting too close to the business. I decided to check just one more pole on the spur line going to the lumber yard. That one and the next were loaded with CD 162 Brookfields 36's, filled with snow and slag. Glad I decided to check out that one last pole! 

Now it was back to the car and load the insulators as carefully as possible, no easy task in a Z-28 Camaro with no boxes. After packing, we decided to get lunch, and to press on to the antique shop. With much anticipation, we went through all the boxes of insulators, only to find the same things we left behind on the tracks. After leaving the shop, we stopped to get a few great shots of barns and valleys from a high ridge road.

On the return trip, we decided to check out the poles on the other side of the lumber yard. There were several more poles cut down. The first one, by the entrance to the yard, was picked clean. Not discouraged, we proceeded to the next one and Bingo, chuck full of the same type insulators we found before! We went to the point where the poles were back up in the air, satisfied that we had gotten all there was to get, at least for the time being. Perhaps in the future, we'll go back and check out where the tracks go further down the line.

Multi-arm pole that paralleled the rural road had
beautiful blue and clear insulators still intact.

Dave Watkins, Pittsburgh, PA, and his nephew Dan.