Train wreck.

[gillious]

I know lots of people do ship wrecks but does anybody bother searching old train wrecks? I have a chance to do a little detecting on the sight of an old train wreck. Just curious if anyone else has done it.

 

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[Tpmetal]

I know lots of people do ship wrecks but dies anybody bother searching old train wrecks? I have a chance to do a little detecting on the sight of an old train wreck. Just curious if anyone else has done it.

I have researched one here in western ny, never got permission to go do it. I really should though because the same field has a history of producing tons of NA artifacts.

 

[gillious]

I have researched one here in western ny, never got permission to go do it. I really should though because the same field has a history of producing tons of NA artifacts.

How far west are you? I'm about 45 minutes east of Rochester.

 

[DCMatt]

I know lots of people do ship wrecks but dies anybody bother searching old train wrecks? I have a chance to do a little detecting on the sight of an old train wreck. Just curious if anyone else has done it.

I'm curious what you're hoping to find... Ships that sank years ago took down everything on board so today there's a chance to recover relics because it was often prohibitively difficult to get to them in the past.

Train wrecks were mostly cleaned up and everything hauled away except for maybe a few pieces of iron/steel.

Personally, I can't see spending much time at a site like that. You'll spend all your time digging unidentifiable bits of junk... Unless you're hoping to uncover information about the wreck, you'll be digging for the sake of digging.

 

[Riverbum]

I am a long way from you , but there's a railroad track, abandoned, that I use to search and find countless old items (Glass batteries boxes, INK WELLS (?) metal handles , old pennies,liberty nickles,Old Liquor Bottles,railroad gear pick axes......)that runs from El Paso, Tx west to points within Arizona & N.M.,and too close to MEXICO for comfort now. SO much to be found, mostly dated between 1885 to 1930's(?). Several area's along the tracks you can see where some accidents from Train Wrecks happened. Large Car Wheels upended and left where they fell or tipped over Flat-bed cars covered up in some sand leaving little exposed. Its fun to work these sites with a Metal Detector. I've found a lot of items ALONG the tracks, not in any one specific area on the tracks, so you'll need to do some walking swinging your Detector.

 

[gillious]

I'm curious what you're hoping to find... Ships that sank years ago took down everything on board so today there's a chance to recover relics because it was often prohibitively difficult to get to them in the past.

Train wrecks were mostly cleaned up and everything hauled away except for maybe a few pieces of iron/steel.

Personally, I can't see spending much time at a site like that. You'll spend all your time digging unidentifiable bits of junk... Unless you're hoping to uncover information about the wreck, you'll be digging for the sake of digging.

Mostly interested in finding pieces of the wreck for the historical society. If I'm really lucky maybe some loose change. 3 cars and the engine flipped on their side and the track has long since been abandoned.

 

[gillious]

The wreck I'm researching is from 1904. It was a local commuter train. I also plan on hitting a few spots on the original Erie canal .

I am a long way from you , but there's a railroad track, abandoned, that I use to search and find countless old items (Glass batteries boxes, INK WELLS (?) metal handles , old pennies,liberty nickles,Old Liquor Bottles,railroad gear pick axes......)that runs from El Paso, Tx west to points within Arizona & N.M.,and too close to MEXICO for comfort now. SO much to be found, mostly dated between 1885 to 1930's(?). Several area's along the tracks you can see where some accidents from Train Wrecks happened. Large Car Wheels upended and left where they fell or tipped over Flat-bed cars covered up in some sand leaving little exposed. Its fun to work these sites with a Metal Detector. I've found a lot of items ALONG the tracks, not in any one specific area on the tracks, so you'll need to do some walking swinging your Detector.

 

[ole miss rebel]

If ya see any old cross ties, there may be date nails in the end of them, kinda rare.

 

[gillious]

If ya see any old cross ties, there may be date nails in the end of them, kinda rare.

Thanks for the heads up on that. I had no idea.

 

[crashbandicoot]

Any site that YOU think would be interesting to detect is what matters. Old track right of ways were used for many different things through the years and frequented by all sorts of people.Who knows what,s there?That,s why we detect.To find out. You don,t know if you don,t go.

 

[chub]

Defunct railway lines are my favourite! There are 3 known wrecks on this stretch of line that I have hammered to death. The first wreck from the late 1800s was fairly well documented. There is no reception on site so I took alot of screenshots of the photographs to pinpoint the location. I did find the site. I was hoping for something exciting...however... the passengers were troops. They spent the night on the mountain. So as stated earlier everything was cleaned up and removed. One night also wasnt really enough to lose or drop goodies. I detected quite a distance away...but really just - broken glass, brass screws, steel screws, a big piece of machined steel from a sream engine (actually the block from the rod that connects the wheel), part of a window handle.
The other site very similar. Last site I havent located yet...
Chub

 

[crashbandicoot]

Defunct railway lines are my favourite! There are 3 known wrecks on this stretch of line that I have hammered to death. The first wreck from the late 1800s was fairly well documented. There is no reception on site so I took alot of screenshots of the photographs to pinpoint the location. I did find the site. I was hoping for something exciting...however... the passengers were troops. They spent the night on the mountain. So as stated earlier everything was cleaned up and removed. One night also wasnt really enough to lose or drop goodies. I detected quite a distance away...but really just - broken glass, brass screws, steel screws, a big piece of machined steel from a sream engine (actually the block from the rod that connects the wheel), part of a window handle.
The other site very similar. Last site I havent located yet...
Chub

But even if you didn,t make a lot of discoveries look at the history you learned! That,s worth something in itself!

 

[gillious]

This was a run that was to and from the local beach. Mostly tourists on the trip.

 

[tamrock]

Back in the 80s I found a site of a train wreck that looked like two ore cars jumped the track and landed on the banks of the Arkansas River. There was an assay in Fairplay Colorado that I took some samples to. It was mostly lead and zinc and it did show 8otz of silver per ton and a small amount of gold. The rocks were absolutely heavy to the size. I guesstimated it be a wreck that happened around WW1, based on the style of couplings the cars had. I noticed it by the deep red rust stain it left on all the mostly light color river rocks. It's still there to be found I'm sure. I thought maybe it was coming from the mines in Leadville and heading to a smelter on the front range to process the lead and zinc for the war efforts. Also I've had this same idea before and found there is of fair amount of records you can find online that lists train wreck locations and dates.

 

[chub]

Its true...half the fun of research and detecting is actually locating the site....over a century later! I love the desolate location. I have also found many relics and very interesting camp sites from the "Navvys" that built the railroad. It took me a long time to understand what camps were made by who....I had a light bulb moment one day while detecting. Beautifully constructed cooking sites with rings of rocks, bottle dumps, clay pipes etc. As opposed to the fortifications next to passes and bridges.

 

[DCMatt]

I am a long way from you , but there's a railroad track, abandoned, that I use to search and find countless old items (Glass batteries boxes, INK WELLS (?) metal handles , old pennies,liberty nickles,Old Liquor Bottles,railroad gear pick axes......)that runs from El Paso, Tx west to points within Arizona & N.M.,and too close to MEXICO for comfort now. SO much to be found, mostly dated between 1885 to 1930's(?). Several area's along the tracks you can see where some accidents from Train Wrecks happened. Large Car Wheels upended and left where they fell or tipped over Flat-bed cars covered up in some sand leaving little exposed. Its fun to work these sites with a Metal Detector. I've found a lot of items ALONG the tracks, not in any one specific area on the tracks, so you'll need to do some walking swinging your Detector.

Is that the El Paso & Southwestern Rwy? They linked to copper mines in Mexico around the turn of the 20th C. Electricity was the new technology then and copper was in great demand.

 

[pepperj]

I'm curious what you're hoping to find... Ships that sank years ago took down everything on board so today there's a chance to recover relics because it was often prohibitively difficult to get to them in the past.

Train wrecks were mostly cleaned up and everything hauled away except for maybe a few pieces of iron/steel.

Personally, I can't see spending much time at a site like that. You'll spend all your time digging unidentifiable bits of junk... Unless you're hoping to uncover information about the wreck, you'll be digging for the sake of digging.

There was a train derailment in the mountains of BC. There was two box cars of whiskey the went to the bottom of the lake, where it sits today.
The railroad bed kept sinking, unstable so they moved the line to the other side of the lake.
The Trans-Canada HWY runs along the old today.

Location, history, recovery

Back in the 70's there was another derailment, the crews were summoned to break all the booze bottles.
Smash, smash, smash, toss splash, toss splash, smash, smash when they were looking.
Current between the lakes carried most of the tosses away to this day.

 

[Louie D]

There was a train derailment in the mountains of BC. There was two box cars of whiskey the went to the bottom of the lake, where it sits today.
The railroad bed kept sinking, unstable so they moved the line to the other side of the lake.
The Trans-Canada HWY runs along the old today.

Location, history, recovery

Back in the 70's there was another derailment, the crews were summoned to break all the booze bottles.
Smash, smash, smash, toss splash, toss splash, smash, smash when they were looking.
Current between the lakes carried most of the tosses away to this day.

Don't you just hate alcohol abuse?

 

[pepperj]

Don't you just hate alcohol abuse?

It was a crime in our minds at that time.
If we catch any of you with liquor on your breath-YOUR FIRED!
Splash-fish jumping
Splash another one
Man I want to go fishing bad.

 

[Riverbum]

Is that the El Paso & Southwestern Rwy? They linked to copper mines in Mexico around the turn of the 20th C. Electricity was the new technology then and copper was in great demand.

DC Matt,
I do not know if that railroad connects to anywhere south into Mexico, I never saw a spur rail running that direction from these tracks. They do run to the copper mines in the Bisbee area, Arizona, and spur off to Santa Rita Mines northwards towards Silver City, N. M.