Pear-head Rail

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

Philip,

I am sure that such iron artifacts are buried along every abandoned railroad corridor. I have found many of them with a metal detector. Here in Minnesota, the history of these corridors goes back to the 1860s. In the east, it would go back further. The standardized items of recent history such as spikes, rail, brake shoes, couplers, and journal box covers can be found in endless variety of shapes and designs originating before they were standardized. You never know what is going to pop out of the ground. Some of these old artifacts display some unusual features revealing how they were made.

I found a link and pin coupler pin with a shank that appears to have been rolled radially, and then one end was stood in a square mold and a cast iron head was poured around the shank. The massive square head has generous draft taper to the sides. The shank was forged square approaching the end that was headed with the casting. I can tell this because the square end of the shank shows through the top of the square cast head.

philip.marshall · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2015 2:56 am

Hi Ron,

Those coupler pins sound like great finds! It's fascinating to see how much variation there was in couplers in the 19th century, pre-AAR. Composite wrought iron-cast iron construction like that is something I've seen in some other early railroad hardware as well, for example on early handcar wheels that had cast iron hubs and tires but wrought iron spokes.

The difference is that the rights of way I'm thinking about, despite being some of the oldest in the US, are far from abandoned. (The Boston & Providence for example forms the northernmost 40 miles of the Northeast Corridor, the New York & Harlem is now Metro-North's Harlem Line, etc..) Exploring them with a metal detector and shovel in hand would be a quick way to get oneself arrested. :) This means their history will most likely remain buried for the foreseeable future.

Cheers,
-Philip Marshall

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2015 12:41 pm

philip.marshall wrote:

I've often wondered what might lie beneath various pre-1840 railroad rights of way
in the urban Northeast like the Camden & Amboy in NJ. Surely they must be filled with
antique rail sections, coupler links, and even bits of hardware from prehistoric rolling
stock, the detritus of almost 200 years of railroading. In most cases I think we'll never
have a chance to find out what's down there, unfortunately.

The middle of the C & A has been abandoned.

philip.marshall · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:32 pm

JimBoylan wrote:

The middle of the C & A has been abandoned.

Yes, you are correct. I had overlooked that fact. The northern half of the New York & Harlem (Wassaic-Chatham, NY) is abandoned as well.