Metal Detecting Abandoned Rail Lines

[GrizLeeBear]

Do any of you MD along abandoned rail lines? I've done one and I found long stretches of nothing and then small patches of junk and artifacts. I have also hiked without the MD and still found some visible items. Any ideas or comments?

 

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[G.A.P.metal]

I look along torn up RR track older ones for flats spots for old hobo jungles camping spots find some too!
Gary

 

[bill from lachine]

Griz,

One thing you'd have to watch out for would be the hot rocks or burnt clinker from the steam engine days....
if you can figure out where the stations were once located that would be your best bet....lots of money changed hands
at those stations back in the day....did 35 years in the railway industry btw.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[GrizLeeBear]

Thank you! If nothing else, they make for a wonderful walk in the great outdoors.

 

[norbyx]

I tried detecting an abandoned rail station once ... There was so much iron junk around that it was nearly impossible to detect...

 

[Frankn]

The iron along RR's is most of the finds. You have to change your sight picture in your head. Here's a few things I have found along abandon RR beds. Frank

A spike mounted on black walnut
A break shoe from a narrow guage.
I assume this is a piece of clutch plate judging from the circular grooves.

 

[GrizLeeBear]

I agree about the large iron pieces and spikes. I was hoping to find areas that looked like rest stops or water towers where people might have gotten out and stretched a bit. What was the spacing of such places?

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I tried detecting an abandoned rail station once ... There was so much iron junk around that it was nearly impossible to detect...

I like those high-iron spots. The DFX does a great job of kicking out the iron.
Jim

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Griz,

One thing you'd have to watch out for would be the hot rocks or burnt clinker from the steam engine days....
if you can figure out where the stations were once located that would be your best bet....lots of money changed hands
at those stations back in the day....did 35 years in the railway industry btw.
Regards + HH
Bill

Good post...exactly what I do. Look for the re-watering, re-fueling, and maintenance stations. They are the most likely places to have old coins, etc. They are usually indicated by black cinders, or spilled coal along the tracks. Once you find the cinders, you need to do a walk-around looking for old foundations, etc. You should look as far as 1/4 mile from the tracks. Here's a pic of a spot. Look for the old foundation near center-right. Note cinders along the tracks.
Jimhttp://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=739142&d=1360537004&thumb=1&stc=1

 

[Twinkletoes]

Walking along abandon tracks can yield some interesting finds. Did you ever put a coin on the track and wait for the train to run it over? I did and most of the time we couldn't find the coins after the train went by. They are probably still there.

 

[GrizLeeBear]

Good post...exactly what I do. Look for the re-watering, re-fueling, and maintenance stations. They are the most likely places to have old coins, etc. They are usually indicated by black cinders, or spilled coal along the tracks. Once you find the cinders, you need to do a walk-around looking for old foundations, etc. You should look as far as 1/4 mile from the tracks. Here's a pic of a spot. Look for the old foundation near center-right. Note cinders along the tracks.
Jimhttp://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=739142&d=1360537004&thumb=1&stc=1

Really great post. Thanks. I had not considered Google Earth for exploring the tracks. Your photo shows the tracks still in place. Most of the places I have walked the tracks are gone.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Really great post. Thanks. I had not considered Google Earth for exploring the tracks. Your photo shows the tracks still in place. Most of the places I have walked the tracks are gone.

Yeah...these tracks go out to the Idaho National Lab, and nowhere else. They used to run clear to Mackay, Idaho, where the mines were, but they were abandoned, and torn up years ago. There are very few trains using them anymore. The site in the pic is actually off-limits, as it's on the INL....(grin) But, it's great example of what to look for using Google Earth.
Jim

 

[Twinkletoes]

In New England, to keep the steam locomotives running water was stationed every 8 miles. They would put up a water tower and someone would live near by to maintain it. Many of these water stops turned into towns and still exist today. Patrons from the train would occasionally disembark at one of these stops to stretch their legs and to get fresh air. Their lost items can still be found. I found a beautiful 1848 large cent at one such stop. H Digs

 

[GrizLeeBear]

A very interesting comment. Thanks. Every 8 miles would not have worked out here in the west. You have to travel in a place like Montana to really appreciate size and distance here. I never really thought about where the water to fill those tanks came from. Maybe a water train would travel the tracks filling them. But, how would they pump it up? Something else to research. We went diesel-electric so long ago I doubt many remember such things.

 

[l2hunt]

looking to hunt around some torn up tracks come springtime, should be fun!!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Just be careful, because the line is abandon doesn't mean it isn't owned and or private property... A lot of tel-com copper and fiber optics run along side rail roads including abandon lines. The people who leased the rail road right of way still have a legal right to report people there digging, unless it was sold to the city or county it is still owned privately.... I know I use to work for a tel com company that did leased thousands of miles of rail road right away and lots of it was abandoned sections, but still private property...

 

[Tnmountains]

I have laid track and torn out track going backwards and pulling ties and rail as I went. If you are out west many lines were built by the Irish and Chinese. They had camps and would work forward so many miles then leap frog the camp. Most of the steam engines had stops with water towers and also places to exchange mail. Google earth will be your best friend. There are also maps of many of the old rail lines and spurs/ I have hunted old road beds and got bottles as well plus the glass insulators from the telegraph lines. I was looking at some cool bridge spikes I found last night from a bridge the Union built during the civil war. Here is a picture of that site. Good luck!

 

[GrizLeeBear]

Excellent picture and input. Thank you. I have to assume that old bridge is long gone now. Here is an idea to ponder. If I know where there is a modern bridge, is it likely there was an older wooden bridge there first? When you pull track "going backwards", do you keep all the spikes too? I know I find some along the way. Do they have any value?

 

[Tnmountains]

Well lets see.We even pulled the ballast sometimes. But yes on the spikes the rail road scrapped them but am sure we missed hundreds. Some are cast, some are better steel. Not any value really. I have a very nice knife hammered out of a spike though by a black smith. Old abandoned lines sometimes revert back to the land owner so to speak if they change routes. We have one old abandoned track around a mountain and people built houses on it .The rail road ended up going around the other side. The bridge in the picture was washed out after the war in a flood. That was the largest engineering feat completed during the civil war. The giant lime stone pillars against the mountain are still there on each side. I have 5 or 6 old civil war bridge sites I hunt. We were known as the rail center of the south here in Chattanooga.. (choo- choo)

 

[Twinkletoes]

Here's what a coin looks like after it is run over by the train.


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