I realize this is not a glass telegraph insulator, but I believe it falls somewhat well into the category of "go-with", being closely railway-related, and I've had a lot of interest expressed by insulator collectors in it. What you're looking at is a piece of one of North America's earliest forms of iron railroad rail. This stuff is known as "U-rail", and is the first generation of rail used along most of Canada's earlier rail lines dating from the early to late 1850s. Most of this stuff was gone by the 1870s, as a major design flaw - the presence of an open cavity on the underside - caused the stuff to break when water entered the cavity and froze during cold winters.

There is a similar variety of contemporaneously-used American rail known commonly as "confederate U-rail".

This piece was rescued from an area where some excavation was being undertaken next to the old line Grand Trunk Line between Sarnia and St. Mary's, Ontario, near Forest, Ontario, and a single 8' piece of this type of rail was turned up. The line was constructed in 1858, so this rail would be from that year. I came upon the piece over a half mile from the closest road, and my Dad and I carried it that distance through farmer's fields to get it home! I had a friend with a machine shop cut it into 6" lengths like this one, and then cleaned the rust off, polished the ends of each piece, dried the stuff, and applied coating of polyurethane varnish. The varnish would come off with a soak in a $5 can of simple acetone if you decided you didn't want it on there.

The rail is 6" long, 3 1/4" tall, 4/ 1/2" wide, and it weighs close to 10 lbs. This piece has a chip out of one side about 1" wide and 1/2" deep, and a bit of mushrooming on top. This also tells a bit of a story about the roughness this stuff went through in the early days of Canadian railroad construction and maintenance. It would make a great paperweight or defense against burglars and is a unique and fascinating piece of history. Rare is another word that describes it well - I've never seen any of it for sale except the bit that I have, and I've been watching for a few years. Most railroad museums in my area don't even have a piece!

I'm asking $150.00 U.S. SHIPPING INCLUDED for the piece. Shipping will be quite pricy, so I'll take care of that. 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. All the best!