My First Insulator Hunt (1)

By Connor Stoehr; posted April 20, 2020

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Recently I have been doing quite a bit of hunting along the former Atglen and Susquehanna Branch of the PRR, so I figured I'd share the story from this line that got me interested in collecting suspensions. Back in 2010, Amtrak was planning a project to replace the 1938 catenary poles with a modern monopole transmission line. A teacher I had senior year who was interested in the railroad, and knew of my hobby let me know that the project was underway in early 2011. That Saturday, my dad and I made a trip down to the site. One circuit was already removed and new poles were being set. Insulators were laying all over the ground for miles. I noticed that some of the bells had a keystone marking in the cap, which made me think they were marked for the railroad. I wanted to start taking strings, knowing they would be thrown away, but my dad would not let me. To him it was stealing and thought we might get caught. This started a screaming match between the two of us that really did not solve anything. On our way back to the car empty handed, I picked up a pair of Klein lineman pliers laying on the ground. Just by chance, we noticed a crane operator from the line crew who happened to be working that day, and my dad went up to talk to him. I followed, still carrying the pliers, and asked the operator if they were his. Turns out they were, and he was glad I found them. We were told that son of a ******s stealing the copper aren't asking, take whatever you want! So I took whatever I wanted. Here are pictures I took on my second trip down on 3-11-11.

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