Out Insualtor Hunting The Next Few Days

Have fun! My grandfather collected insulators for years. I wish I knew where his collection went when he passed. He almost broke his neck more than once climbing old poles to get them

Hope you get some good ones! I often spot them on old telegraph poles when traveling by train, and wish I could stop and unscrew a few! The only ones I've got are a couple of ceramic ones from the Hershey Electric Railway in Cuba!

Wishing you all the best.
I enjoy searching for them in the Spring, along with the elusive Morel Mushroom.

Hmmm...on my way home from work I pass by an old electrical line that runs parallel to the railroad tracks. There must be at least 10 or 15 insulators still up there.

I can reach them with a ladder as the poles are the short variety that tend to be near train tracks.

I wonder if it's legal for me to just take them?

Thanks for all the kind notes.

It was a BLAST!

First: no pole climbing involved - no live wires involved, any current on this line is loooong gone. These are simply an abandoned form of beautiful, old, utilitarian trash left to the elements.

The first thing we did was stop at New River Gorge for "Bridge Day." Google or Bing for more info - absolutely amazing to watch people jumping off/using a diving board to dive/using a large catapult to hurl themselves over the edge of the bridge and wait until the last second to open their parachutes:



Also very unnerving to watch. But an amazing experience.

We then spent a day in the woods where an old line had once been used. The insulators we got were made in 1924 by an automated process. Hence 10 different molds were used on the one machine. So each insulator made has the number of the mold it came from (troubleshooting aid for repairing the molds). My goal was to try to find a full set of them. I fell short by only 2 pieces! I am only missing the number 2 and 4 from a set including the numbers 1-9 (also there is a no number) mold.

Here is a pic of the front and back of one cleaned up:





No, the colors of these are not too flashy, but still beautiful in a sunlit window. I like these b/c the embossing style is so professional looking and I like the looks of the logo. Preserving the history of these is also something I like and I am not aware of to many complete mold sets in captivity - unfortunately the majority of these are now smashed in landfills since the lines were ripped out for safety reasons.

Value? around 15-20.00 each is all they normally go for b/c almost every one made was this same shade of aqua. So a lot of people only want one of them. There are some blue aquas that bring in more.

So this trip was not one for flashy colors, but one of historic interest and a cool looking piece as most of this style made by other companies (CD 145) do not have the sharp drip points along the bottom of the skirt.

And here are are a few of my recent acquisitions from a backyard swap meet:





And the red amber one is even more stunning in real life I have wanted one for a long time but these are hard to find - these typically are root beer amber.

Back to the book work!

One of the biggest insulator shows in the country is coming up in Springfield, OH in a few weeks. Looking forward to it and hoping to at least have the book done to take orders!

The only ones I recall my Grandfather having were ceramic ones. I may look around next time I am up that way.

I have several glass ones that have been sitting around the house for years and I have no idea where they came from. Never knew some of them are valuable, though. Don't get me into another hobby!