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Insulator hunting and finds

A sample of some insulators we found just east of Columbia City, Indiana along the old mainline Pennsylvania Railroad. A lot of these insulators can still be readily found along this line. Last winter we brought home over 300 insulators in many different CD's and colors. This was a 10 pin 6 crossarm pole line back in the day.

I started picking this same line in 1972 with some of my other friends. There were some great finds like some yellow green, cornflower blue, and apple green Petticoat beehives; yellow green, green, and teal green CREB beehives; CD 151 H.G.CO. in dark cornflower blue; 16 true green Hemingray No 19's.; amber 109's; and many more to name. We used to do 3 day backpacking trips insulator hunting in 73 at the age of 14. The things you used to be able to do back in the good old days as kids and teenagers.

In 1997 they took the pole line down and I was the very first person to get all the rest of the good old stuff like CREB beehives, Petticoat beehives, and many more stuff. The railroad left the poles lay where they fell. In one week I walked 50 miles from Warsaw to Fort Wayne getting as many insulators as I could.

For my collection, I was able to get around 135 different insulators from just this line alone.
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5 comments

David Dahle said:

Nice group of 214s. Were they all Hemingray?
8 years ago

Matt Weldon said:

Thanks! Most were Whitall Tatum No 10's. Some of those 10's were also in light aqua but were all packed up from earlier finds that day. This line was loaded with CD 214's with sometimes 5-8 on a pole. All the clear ones here are Whitall Tatum No 10's except for the one in front 4th from the right.
8 years ago

SW Ohio Lines said:

I've never seen some of these insulators before, especially that H.G. Co. in front on the very left.
8 years ago

David Dahle replied to SW Ohio Lines:

That's a CD 151. The most sought-after ones come in a brilliant peacock blue like the one in Matt's avatar.
8 years ago

Matt Weldon replied to SW Ohio Lines:

The CD 151 was one of the very first insulator I unscrewed off a pin when the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad took their pole line down in 1971.
8 years ago