I thought i would post a couple photo's of exactly how bad and rusty some RR items look when first digging them up and how nice they can look afterwards when cleaned up.Now I know some of you are are probably going to say well it's just a old journal box cover so what's the big deal.Your entitled to say so.Now if i would say i'm digging up some locomotive builders and number plates along RR rows out there i'm sure that would draw alot more interest and not as many would be typing on RPN during daylight hours.

From the other things i'm digging up that have fallen off trains it is somewhat possible although slim that a numberplate could have worked loose and fallen off a train 100 years ago and rolled into the ditch.I do know of one case nearby in 1969 where receding floodwaters revealed a brass numberplate off W&LE #2140 in the river bank that a 14 year old boy found while walking along the river later that summer and unfortunately it wasn't me.It's now in a local museum.That loco and train fell thru a flood weakened wood trestle nearby during a flood in March 1913 killing 3 crew members who drowned in the early morning hours before daylight.

Anyhow here's a rather plain early hinged journal box cover marked C-265.I dug this up along the side of a high embankment burried about 8 inches deep in the dirt and cinders.It looked so bad i wasn't even sure i wanted to bring it home as it was about the crustiest rust covered jbc. i had ever found.Most of you on here probably wouldn't haul something like this home either.One thing that was interesting about this one was when i took a small ball peen hammer to chip a glob of rust off a big layer popped off exposing some fairly clean smooth looking iron underneath.I could tell then that it would clean up well.Another fascinating thing was after getting some of the rust off the backside there was dried oil gobbed up with pcs. of dried grass stuck in it from when the jbc.took it's tumble over 100 years ago.There was also even traces of a oxide red color paint under the dried oil on the iron.

Another different thing was being a small early hinged jbc. it still had a upper hinged part with 3 holes.Most hinged jbcs. fell off because the hinge pin worked loose or the hinge itself would break loose on one or both sides.Even the hinge cleaned up and after soaking in oil it now works freely.So it's just a journal box cover, but for me it's preserving railroad history and learning about the past.When you read thru John H. Whites The American Railroad Freight Car book wich is a superb and excellant book filled with information,diagrams and pictures but yet there is very little information on the types of journal box covers used way back in railroads infancy up to 1900.There are only 2 pages on journal box lids with 2 diagram pictures of a Hewitt style lid and a bolt on style 1865 CPRR lid on page 486-487.

I've yet to see any RR marked journal box covers in a railroad museum at least none of the ones i've been to.The unique thing about old jbcs.is so many of them are RR marked or freight car mfg.co. marked with dates.Then there are the many variations as i have 8-10 different styles of LS&MS Ry. marked ones alone.I've also found a few of the very small plain brass journal bearings.The RR's even marked them.Some of you collect builders or number plates,i collect journal box covers and most don't cost me a thing unless i buy one on Ebay!

Here's a nicer and more of a rarity of a jbc.if you call it that due to the RR's short existance of only 2 years.This is a bolt on Buffalo & Erie jbc.The Buffalo & Erie RR was formed by the May 15th 1867 consolidation of the Buffalo & State Line Railroad and the Erie & Northeast Railroad.The Buffalo & Erie RR was then consolidated with the LS&MS Ry. in 1869.

I have found 3 identical ones like this over the years.Two of them were less than a 1/2 mile apart wich i dug up.One of the two was burried a good 8 inches or more deep and was in nice shape.The other was only about 2 inches deep but had probably been dug up back in the 1950's or 60's when the ditches were cleaned and then tossed up on higher ground and slightly covered wich is the one in this photo of before and after it has some deeper rust pitting but for being that old it cleaned up fairly well.The other one i didn't even find with my metal detector.I found it first about 12 years ago about 8 miles away on the same RR line where a farmer had plowed up and obliviated the RR row.It was laying right on top of the plowed farm field being exposed after a few heavy rains.It was in about the same condition as this one shown.

I'm not quite sure what the letter A means above the Buffalo & Erie.Some jbcs. have numbers like 2,3,4 or 6 on them.Is it a peticular journal size? I have no idea.I also found another somewhat longer version of a Buffalo & Erie bolt on jbc.It has B&E and the letter F below.Anyone have any clues to what the single numbers or individual letters might mean?

We have about a dozen journal box covers on display at the Sumpter Valley. All of them have been recovered from the main line and logging grades of the long abandoned narrow-gauge. I think journal lids are awesome, and there is a huge amount of variety.

Taylor

Another "rust" to relic. Hydraulic pressure gauge from the EBT's wheel press.

Hopefully this isn't too much of a hi-jack.

I think this would be a great thread to follow along with as I'm sure there are many examples of "visions."
Here are just a couple of mine:

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I hope this works! Never posed a picture before.
Bruce

Bruce, You'll need to have the picture hosted somewhere like Photobucket. Upload it to the site then copy and paste the IMG code.

Back in the early 1990's while metal detecting along a local abandoned LS&MS/NYC railroad grade i dug up what i thought was a hinged cast iron LS&MS journal box cover wich on the backside had a small pc. of metal attached by the hinge wich i presumed was from where it broke off the journal box.It is a fairly small cover if you compare it to one from the mid 1900's.

About 1 1/2 years ago i dug up another one just like it but it had a complete attached bolt on back frame for bolting onto to the jurnal box.The attached frame looks to be made of a thin steel and has a crack.I compared it to the other cast iron jbc.and both cast covers are identical.So apparently these hinged lids were made with bolt on back frames for mounting to the journal box as most of the early 1850's thru 80's jbcs.were bolt on style.The hinged styles i believe evolved after that to save time from having to unbolt the jbc.everytime it needed to be oiled or serviced.

So was this bolt on hinged LS&MS lid a conversion type that was made wich allowed RR's to replace the old bolt on lids with new ones that bolted and also hinged to save time when it came to service the journals? I have only found 3 other different examples of this type of bolt on hinged lid and they are a Kinzer & Jones Pittsburgh Pa.1876 patent lid.This past fall i dug up a 3rd one of these LS&MS lids but the whole back bolt on part was broke off.If you look at the attached photo's you can see why one would asume they were strictly a hinged lid if not for the attached bolt on back pc.

It's no wonder there are so many bolt on jbcs. scattered along old RR row's.I can't imagine how time consuming it would have been to have to unbolt 8 per car to oil them and if one was in a hurry they probably never tightened some or forgot a few bolts here or there causing the jbcs. to come loose and break off and guess where they landed,right in the ditch!

A friend and I do signal restorations. Below is a double head SA searchlight signal on an 8' mast we did that is now on display in the Railroad Museum of PA. It'll be on its way home soon as it was purchased from us. We also do PRR, B&O etc. I love it! The pic is of it set up temporarily at a CRHS function (which is why the wire isn't run down the mast)