cubejockey
New member
A historical website had photos of railroad switching yards near my place. So today I put my metal detector to work.
A great idea, but maybe not...
First of all, the area I planned out is now ruined by junkyards. Which made the hunt for a newb..well..a mess. Digging with a garden trowel near RR tracks isn't the best thing in the world. I found key on my first hit. Looked like for a Ford by the looks of it, but had no "Ford" stamping on it. So that was an inspiration. Maybe I'll find stuff passengers tossed off the trains or something!
My detector is a low budget two tone thingy, so sporatic signals was making it tough. But it was nonetheless interesting. I got a "lay of the land" since where I wanted to hunt is in a huge area.
I learned the hard way of metal detecting over buried tracks. I found, back to back, these heavy rectangular plates, made of steel or something. Maybe the were used to help fasten the track or something. I left them...maybe I'll go back and grab 'em later. I could use 'em in the backyard or something.
After 15 minutes I gave up, I couldn't get a solid hit. I took a hike towards an old train maintenance building. It was built for electric trains in the Twenties, and the area was noted for switching out electric engines for steam/vice versa.
After taking a moment to look over what I've seen in old photos and on "google earth", I headed back to my Jeep. It's sad to see stuff that was well planned out and operational 70 years ago, just turned into ruins and obscurity.
..and then I ran into the hobo.
I noticed his campsite along the tracks on my hike to the building. Hilariously, he was taking a leak as I was walking past. Of course, I kept walking pretending I did not see what I just did.
"Find anything good?"
"Nope" I said trying to get the hell outta there without sprinting to my car like the scared chicken that I was at the moment.
"Ya' know I wish I had one of them..I can tell ya' where there sumpthin' good."
Despite the the latex glove in on one of his hand (beats me...but don't shake that hand LOL) and the fact he hadn't had a good bath in a month. I figured he wasn't going to kill me. He mentioned a good spot about 3 miles down the tracks near a modern switchyard and intersecting a freeway overpass (gold, watches, etc.), and he probably was right. We wished each other the best of luck and went our separate ways.
A great idea, but maybe not...
First of all, the area I planned out is now ruined by junkyards. Which made the hunt for a newb..well..a mess. Digging with a garden trowel near RR tracks isn't the best thing in the world. I found key on my first hit. Looked like for a Ford by the looks of it, but had no "Ford" stamping on it. So that was an inspiration. Maybe I'll find stuff passengers tossed off the trains or something!
My detector is a low budget two tone thingy, so sporatic signals was making it tough. But it was nonetheless interesting. I got a "lay of the land" since where I wanted to hunt is in a huge area.
I learned the hard way of metal detecting over buried tracks. I found, back to back, these heavy rectangular plates, made of steel or something. Maybe the were used to help fasten the track or something. I left them...maybe I'll go back and grab 'em later. I could use 'em in the backyard or something.
After 15 minutes I gave up, I couldn't get a solid hit. I took a hike towards an old train maintenance building. It was built for electric trains in the Twenties, and the area was noted for switching out electric engines for steam/vice versa.
After taking a moment to look over what I've seen in old photos and on "google earth", I headed back to my Jeep. It's sad to see stuff that was well planned out and operational 70 years ago, just turned into ruins and obscurity.
..and then I ran into the hobo.
I noticed his campsite along the tracks on my hike to the building. Hilariously, he was taking a leak as I was walking past. Of course, I kept walking pretending I did not see what I just did.
"Find anything good?"
"Nope" I said trying to get the hell outta there without sprinting to my car like the scared chicken that I was at the moment.
"Ya' know I wish I had one of them..I can tell ya' where there sumpthin' good."
Despite the the latex glove in on one of his hand (beats me...but don't shake that hand LOL) and the fact he hadn't had a good bath in a month. I figured he wasn't going to kill me. He mentioned a good spot about 3 miles down the tracks near a modern switchyard and intersecting a freeway overpass (gold, watches, etc.), and he probably was right. We wished each other the best of luck and went our separate ways.