abandoned railway bed

[joemyakka]

Last summer, I was hiking and discovered an old abandoned railway bed running for several miles through the woods in the Blue Ridge mountains of Western North Carolina. The ties and rails are all gone. A few ties are lying off to the side. There are the remains of an old tressle that crossed over a fast=flowing creek (wooden posts still protruding from the stream bed). I didn't have a metal detector at the time but I did find one large plate used to connect the track to the tie. I plan on going back again this coming summer with the new metal detector that I just purchased (Fisher CZ=3D). Since metal detecting is new to me, I need some tips on what to look for, where to look in relation to the track bed, and what I might expect to find.

Thanks,

Joe in Florida

 

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[nutso]

Look up the history of the railroad in that area. Unless there was a staion or some remnants of buildings nearby, I would expect to find only junk but it's worth a shot.

 

[sherpa t]

One thing you might find is a date nail from the tie's, These are round head apx. three inches long and have the last two digits of the year formed on the head. If your into railroad stuff they are sorta cool to fiddle with.
It's also possable that the cinders / coal clinkers will act up. Last month I was in an area that had a steam locomotive and came across an ash dump ( which was wet from rain ) it gave a lot of chatter, ( all metal ) which ,if your looking for Iron relic's could put you in a spot with your discrimnation. Haven't alot of experience around cinders like that so I'm not sure if it's real common for them to act like "hot rocks".