Old rail station

[TriCdigger]

I've been asked by a local historical society to do some detecting on the grounds of a long abandoned station. All that remains is the old freight building but I do know where the office and passenger building were. The original rails are long gone but there are still 2 active rails that run through the property and the rail company has donated the property to the society and know i'll be detecting there. Any tips on searching that type of area?

 

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[danloop]

EarthExplorer

In my area, their aerial maps go back to 1949. All free. You can download the maps.

 

[wkrp43]

as a railroad employee, be prepared for LOTS of trash, and lots of mixed signals. welcome to tnet

 

[Lanny in AB]

The bonus, besides the wide variety of trash, will be the chance at some coins near the office and the passenger building. Some very cool finds have taken place at old rail stations.

You will encounter splinters or shavings of iron and steel as well, so you'll need lots of patience. A small pick with a super-magnet on the end will save you a lot of grief and clear the ground of conflicting signals so that the sweet ones can get through.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[TriCdigger]

Thankfully the head honcho of the historical society has a boy in my Scout troop and we have set it up for the troop to help with the restoration and landscaping. Think it might be worth screening some of the dirt we move during the restoration? He wants to get the whole area as close to what it was like back in the day. I've also looked under the freight house with a flashlight and am debating going under there with a detector too. I may have to take a rock pick to dig with since allot of it is well packed fine gravel around the area of the office and passenger depot. We have maps and photos that go back to 1900.

 

[Hillbilly Joe]

Keep an eye out for old nails with dates, very collectible!

 

[RobRieman]

That hard packed gravel may be coke that was burned in the steam engines. I've hunted a few and it will drive you crazy. Use a shooter coil and go slow. Lower the sensitivity and try different filters if your machine has them until you can get it to settle down a bit. Good luck!

 

[cudamark]

If they're going to have a museum there and the idea is to find items for it, I'd dig everything that make a decent sound....especially deep targets. If you can, get those scouts to rake up the area and remove any surface metals before you start to hunt. If they're going to move dirt around, hunt it at different stages of grading if you can. The only reason I see to sift dirt is to find pottery, china, or Indian artifacts. If there is a history of that in the area, it might be worthwhile, otherwise, your detector should be all you need.

 

[TriCdigger]

It was a big native american area too.. many artifacts were found when they put the new bridge in up against where the passenger station was. We were talking about it tonight while the scout meeting was going on in the other room and tomorrow I'm going under the freight house with rakes and see what's under there. Ground is still pretty frozen elsewhere. I have 1 month to search a small patch of trees beside the building where a small stream goes thru then under the tracks because PENNDOT is coming to excavate that and make a trail down to the river under the tracks.

 

[73dguard]

Check the Historical society for info and maps on the RR depot. Also look for old foundations which might be the buildings you are looking for. In my town the depot or passenger house was at the intersections of two streets and would have also been a trolley stop if your location had those in the early 20th cent. (so look for areas where several tracks junction). I had a hard time with the foundations in my town because there's rebar in the concrete. and surface junk, and coke, coal slag, just a hot signal area. Ground balance as best as you can and then take your time. A lot of patience is going to be required with that site.

 

[TriCdigger]

Rail station before closure

The tracks actually split about where the little wooded section is now and one section headed south which is part of the rails to trails and a section on the north country trail, and the other continued west. The passenger depot sat about where the current bridge abutment is. I've found a couple bag seals near the freight building but haven't been able to bust up the ice enough to get to anything else YET. My little F2 is amazingly quiet there but the ACE350 not so much. We are working on me getting access to a better machine. I'm surviving on SSI so my choice of machines is very limited. They wont let anyone else there until after all the renovations because they had to jump through a bunch of hoops with CSX and PENNDOT just to get an OK for me to be there anytime I want. 40.888232,-80.337232

 

[cudamark]

Maybe you can get permission to have the scouts sift the excavated dirt when they start the trail project. If you can get a local college archie professor to oversee the dig and get the scouts their appropriate merit badges. Should be a win-win all the way around.

 

[TriCdigger]

lol Already on that. It's also going to be a service project and one of our scouts is working up some plans for his Eagle project there too.