A closer view of the insulators. As I talked to the new owner of the Junk Shop, she told me that I could have all of them free if I hauled them away. I explained that I would do it but I have to stop in Warrenton, OR. at the Home Depot on the way home and load my van with some 4x8 wood panels, but that I would get them soon. She said that they must be gone by October and gave me her number. Later when talking to my friend Lyle, he offered to drive over there and load them in his pickup until I could get back. After talking with him he said there were not 40 but 280! More were down in dirt and hidden by foliage. Lyle later brought them down to my place and we lined them up on the driveway ready for washing. Lyle took one of the 2 Thomas U-239 signals with the embossed letters for his trouble, I don't blame him, he worked hard and what's more, his last name is Thomas ;)

The insulators here have a lot of nice varied glaze colors ranging from almost black to orangey brown. There are 230 cable tops and 50 signals. Many top ties are duplicate types in the 3 inch size range such as Thomas U-629D, Locke U-629, Westy U-625, NoName U-610A and Locke U-784 HiTops. The signals are typical from U-239, U-257, U-284 Westy and U-293 and some later choco browns are in the mix. I kept about 12 for my own collection that had unusual features and the rest were washed, dried and boxed and are going to be used on a large demonstration power line here on the west coast. Where did they come from? I can only surmise that they were part of the old Willapa Electric Co. 4kV power system in Raymond and South Bend WA. and they were dumped at the Junk Shop after the P.U.D. there upgraded the power system sometime back. I hope I can find more deals like this..it was fun!