Steam artifacts still around?

[Richard Glueck]

Somebody told me an I1sa smokebox front was recently uncovered in Altoona, having never been cut up. Can anyone confirm this? I have thought that locating the yards where steam locos met their end would be a great place to walk with a metal detector and shovel. Any good stories in this theme? Four-legged marks being found? Builders plates, etc?

[Hoosier Joe]

The PRR used to have yard in Decatur,In.There is a small steel tank about 2X3 feet still there.Its rivited construction and fittings make me wonder if it isn't the air tank from a small switcher.

[Drawhead]

I suppose finding some things is possible,but i would think the places where most steam loco's were cut up would probably not yield much more than some rusty old nut's,bolts,fitting's ect. as anything of value was most likely picked up and saved right when the actual scrapping was being done.I will say searching any old abandoned RR yard or line with a metal detector can be alot of fun.Although you will probably dig up a good 100 spikes,track bolts,nuts and tie plates for one good find! You never know what your going to find! I personally like hunting and metal detecting the older abandoned cinder right of ways that havn't had 75 years or more of ballast dumped along the row.You can find the very early bolt on journal box covers from the 1850's to 1870's and the older cast hinged lids that most have the RR names cast into them.Besides that you can find the old link & pin couplers and alot of other stuff.Most of this stuff is always burried about 6-8 inches along the row's where they fell off the trains or were discarded.Several years ago i found a nice old bolt on PRR front marked jbc. with Kinzer & Jones Pitts. Pa. marked on the backside.About 3 weeks ago i found a very nice heavy cast hinged jbc. with a large PRR across the front.I have found about 40 other RR marked jbc's over the past 20 years of hunting,but i havn't found any builders plates or number plates along a old row as of yet,you never know what might have fell off those trains!

[Richard Glueck]

These are exactly the kinds of cool things one could possibly find. I was thinking of gauges, valves, marker lights, and maybe a builders plate. Any place where steam was cut up would have to reveal something. All of it is a tangible connection to the best looking locomotives ever built.

[Drawhead]

I've found some marker light parts,some old discarded oil cans and a few lantern frame cages down in the ditches over the years but they were pretty darn rusty! I have also found some old oiler cups with hinged lids that must have fell or broke off engines as well as old threaded drain plugs,one was made of brass with numbers on it.You got to realize that anything being in the ground 50 plus years is not going to be in that great of shape.Alot depends on the amount of moisture in the ground where you find the stuff.I did find a nice marked J. Lightners 1848 patent, bolt on jbc. a month ago up higher on the bank that was in remarkable condition as it must have stayed high and dry all those years.It was still burried a good 6 inches though.Havn't found any builders plates or number plates yet! I guess one can always dream and hope of finding them! Good luck and happy hunting!

[Noel Weaver]

The Amtrak timetable effective as of April, 2004 has special instruction
40-T1 for various former PRR divisions regarding engine and special load
restrictions. It consists of six columns for various classes of engines and
three columns for "special loads". The three columns for "special loads"
are classic carryovers from the steam age: L, M and I.
To the best of my knowledge, these instructions have been in timetables
for former PRR territory in this area ever since the end of PRR steam in
the late 1950's. In some cases in years between 1968 and 1997, the
symbol J was also used.
These symbols were only used in former PRR territory in timetables that
showed lines of the NYC or whatever.
Tradition lives on.
Noel Weaver

[Schuylkill Valley]

A good spot to look maybe the Lorie Brothers in Coatsville, Pa. along the Ex. W&N branch of the Reading Company. They cut up alot!! of steam locomotives .

Leonard