When Hobbies Collide...

Nice AMC Pacer, Nells250!

Fantastic minis!

Earle42 your insulator collection always amazes me.

@tng - thank you. I am just thankful when I started back into insulators in the 90s that ebay was new and I was able to be one of the first insulator sellers there. It used to be East coast insulators were rare in the West (and vice versa). So I was able to go to shows here in the East and resell to collectors out West who could not get enough of it.

I haven't got a penny into the insulators collection b/c of that (2 more cases not shown).

And...eBay was a lot better place back then. A quarter to list anything, a small percentage of the final price taken by ebay, allowed to contact second and third highest bidders and offer them a duplicate item, and the US post office charged nowhere near what they do now (even adjusting for inflation). I also made a lot of home improvements and travelled b/c of ebay back then .

Good days!
...except it kept me from getting back into coins until much later than I would have gotten back into them otherwise!
But dealing in the insulator hobby has helped me get some coins I wanted so its all good

Mini Insulator is indeed glass. I don't know much about it other than I saw it on ebay years ago and NEEDED it!

;-)

I couldn't resist contributing to this thread, as, although I don't really collect insulators and have no glass ones (yet!), I have a handful of ceramic ones that I've picked up on holidays in New Zealand, Cuba, France and Zimbabwe! But a real British railroad insulator has always eluded me, until today. I've walked along quite a few disused railroads in England, but the only insulators I've found have been broken fragments - or still firmly attached to inaccessible telegraph poles!

Last week I went to a lunch and meeting with some fellow tour guides. I decided to go by train as I wanted a drink at lunchtime. The first part of my journey took me along a secondary line that passes through some very remote countryside. At one point the train stopped at a tiny halt that can only accommodate a single coach - any passengers are advised to travel in the front coach for that station. Looking out of the window, I spotted a complete insulator lying in woodland just beyond the platform.

Today I drove there in my car to see of I could reclaim the insulator. I got very dirty as the ground was so muddy! But I found the insulator I'd spotted, and also found a bit of telegraph pole with two pothead type insulators on it.

The insulator I spotted from the train on the left, one of the 'potheads' on the right:

The telegraph pole remnant with the other pothead:

The original insulator I spotted has "Made In England" stamped on it, but I couldn't see any letters identifying the railroad company. The pothead that I've unscrewed and cleaned is dated 1956. I don't know what the potheads were used for or why they were placed there at that date - maybe one of our insulator experts can help!

A brief history of that railroad line -
1851 Opened by the South-Eastern Railway Company (SER)
1899 SER merges with another local company to form the South East & Chatham Railway (SECR)
1923 All railways in SE England merge to form the Southern Railway (SR)
1947 Railways nationalized to form British Railways (BR)
1963 Line proposed for closure
1971 Line proposed again for closure
1979 Line rationalised - signaling simplified, etc

I suspect that the pole line was dismantled in 1979. This line was listed in the infamous 'Beeching Report' as a candidate for closure. Locals protested against this and there was a stay of execution. After a second attempt to close the line was rejected, BR decided to cut costs by removing unnecessary trackwork, closing signal boxes and converting stations to unmanned halfs (although the tiny halt near where I found the insulators has always been unmanned).

Very cool finds! I believe the one on the left is what is called a Cordeaux style. The pothead is really neat. I have a friend over there who has gotten me several UK insulators with a black bakelite pothead being one of them.

Potheads were used at the terminaton of a line. The wire was connected inside when dropping down to a transformer or underground cable. And I would like to have one of the clear glass ones used in Italy!

As with my coins, I really enjoy having as much history as I can with my insulators.

Bullers made the famous, to collectors, red ceramic insulators. If I am not mistaken, the red ones were typically used as an identifier. So, in other words, a special line would be strung on only red Bullers all the way down the pole line.

I do not have individual pictures of the few British pieces I have, but I had to have at least one of each color of the cordeaux styles. Here they are where I display them.



Below is the red Bullers. It's probably my favorite porcelain insulator. These were very pricey at one time. Ten plus years ago when I tried to get one on this side of the pond, I got onto ebay UK and was surprised to see recently sold ones going for about £7 instead of the typical £250!

I emailed my good friend who lives over there and he told me there had recently been a glut on the market so the prices were way down. I think he said a line had been taken down that had a lot of them on it.

He was coming over for an insulator show soon and said he could bring me one for $10.00! I should have got a couple of them just b/c I like them so much. They are back up in price now.

I got a chance to return the favor. I got another red Bullers, but a double groove at a local show. I sent him a picture and he said it was an extremely rare version b/c it was the same diameter and size as the typical single groove in red. The doubles are normally larger.


On the left is the one he brought me from the UK that I still have.

He said the double groove was incredibly rare and I likely would never see another one. What could I say? I told him it belonged in his collection then!

He said he was going to fly over to the next US show close to me to get it! He asked me what I wanted. I asked him if he minded getting on ebay.UK and buying something I had seen there and bring it with him.

What did I want for such a rare insulator?
Remember the British TV series, The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan? The series was filmed in Portmeirion, Wales ("The Village" in the series). Portmeirion's owner (also founder and creator) had a daughter who designed and sold pottery at the Village store in Portmeirion. A very deep cobalt blue coffee set/pattern was being sold at the Village store at the time of the filming. So now I have one...BIN for only $30.00 (which was steal as just one plate I have seen go for this!). Pic does not do it justice!