Up for grabs is one of these odd, line break strain assemblies found along the former Michigan Central Railroad or Canada Southern Railway here in S.W. Ontario. In speaking with other collectors over the years, these odd brackets seem to be somewhat unique to this particular line, where they were at one time found quite frequently on [id=56393001;poles with drop wires] running to signals or stations along the line. I recall seeing quite a few of these in use over the years, but didn't bother to pick many up and the entire line is gone now, much of it returned to farmer's fields, and every telegraph pole long removed. Note that the slanted side of the holes through the ends of the strains are oriented in the opposite direction compared to that of typical strains, so that the strain on each insulator would be outwards from the end. This always seemed like very poor design to me, as so much strain would be placed on only a thin, 3/4" bit of porcelain.

These are probably an Ohio brass product, and this piece has corroded embossing on the cast iron near the centre of the bracket, one part of which resembles a circle (O-B or circle K?). Some examples of these brackets have "US PATENT 1883109" embossed on the centre part of the bracket, with some possible variation in the number as no examples I've found so far have clear, preserved embossing. This example has a nice glazed-over chip on one side (shown) and four fairly uniform thin spots in the glaze on one side.

This example is in good condition overall, with only one chip on the inner edge of one of the strains, measuring roughly 5/8" square. The chip is shown. The bracket is in good shape apart from being somewhat rusty.

I'm asking $65 US plus shipping for this odd piece. I accept PayPal, or personal cheque from any member of ICON or any collector with whom I have dealt before. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for more photos, and look through my other items or unsold sales stock to combine shipping on items.