Finding hunting spots ( railroads )

Ricki7 · Jan 21, 2015

Doing research for new hunting spots down old roads , looking for driveways and other indications of old home sites. I'm looking for places to hunt close to home , and finding mostly posted signs . Growing up I walked the rails to different hunting spots , along the way I'd see trash sites at dead end roads and sometimes foundations close by . Has anyone had luck hunting near railroads?
HH

Pappy Griff · Jan 21, 2015

I would think that would be an awesome place to hunt, especially if those tracks have been around for a long while! Of course, you're gonna run into old spikes, sections of rail, and the junk folks love to throw from windows of moving vehicles, but there may be treasures among all that rubble as well! Good luck, and HH!

Ricki7 · Jan 21, 2015

Tracks date back to 1800's and around the same time they had a trolly that went from Buffalo to Erie Pa. The railroad put the trolly out of business except for shorter routes to some local towns. A good read is The Angola Train Wreck of 1867 , has Lot of history . My home is on that creek about 1/2 mile up stream. The train carrying Lincoln 's body also passed through here.
HH

NectarDetector · Jan 21, 2015

Here its a crime to walk railroad tracks or take anything from the property. .. check your laws

oleman · Jan 21, 2015

NectarDetector said:
Here its a crime to walk railroad tracks or take anything from the property. .. check your laws

same here and police are enforcing that law

GLASSHOPPER1955 · Jan 21, 2015

NectarDetector said:
Here its a crime to walk railroad tracks or take anything from the property. .. check your laws

10-4 here in my area it's getting harder to find RR tracks that aren't posted "No Tresspassing" which is a shame because they can lead you to some obscure old areas. Sign of the times, I guess. :shrug:

Ricki7 · Jan 21, 2015

I'm sure that anything RR. Connected would be stealing . Using the tracks for travel may even be illegal , around here dirt bikes and 4 wheelers have use them and the old trolly road for as long as I can remember . The tracks are gone from the trolly and all the bridges ,they run the road and go up to the tracks to cross creeks and highways. I really don't think anyone would bother someone walking with a MD.
HH

AJT · Jan 21, 2015

oleman said:
same here and police are enforcing that law

It is the same here. The homeless and drug population has increased dramatically and a lot of those people hang out around the railroad tracks. So the police enforce the laws to keep the homeless and drugees off of the tracks so no one gets hurt by the trains moving up and down the tracks.

Tom_in_CA · Jan 21, 2015

Ricki7 said:
..... I really don't think anyone would bother someone walking with a MD....

What ? Using "actual reality" to assess a situation ? I agree. People walk along, and cross over RR tracks all the time. I'm betting the signs are there to usher someone on who's being a nuisance, setting up a camp trailer to live there, stealing or vandalizing things, etc.....

If someone can find a case of a pedestrian or md'r "roughed up" for simply walking along side or across RR tracks, then that simply has to be a major fluke. Just like ..... sure ..... you can occasionally find a newspaper story of someone roughed up by over-zealous cops for jaywalking.

Tom_in_CA · Jan 21, 2015

But I don't believe the md'ing potential is going to be good "just any old place" along RR tracks. It would have to be where people stopped and milled about. Ie.: passenger platform areas, for example. Also in the old days, there were some circus's that came and went via the rails to cities. And as such, they would set up right along the RR tracks, at whatever city park (or land adjacent to the station) that they came to.

Rebsix · Jan 21, 2015

I found an late 1800's early 1900's online map of my area and there was a RR siding marked in an area I drive by every day.

Google Earth gave me few, if any clues but an overlay of the map gave me a good spot to start. There were very few "non junk" targets until I got a solid signal that turned out to to be a pocket watch.

I still tell everyone that asks that it is my best find ever considering a pocket watch would define a RR stop.

hoser · Jan 21, 2015

Here where I'm at was a huge lumber/timber producing area and there are a lot of old rail beds no longer used that once went to large lumber camps. I have been looking at some of these as a potential place to hunt. Just gotta be careful as some are marked historical and off limits to hunting.

woodbutcher · Jan 21, 2015

I actually bought the detector I have for tracks,but I'll use it everywhere.I have old tracks long gone,and rubble where houses stood.found a few old coins but winter is here.I'm lookin to kill it in the spring.tracks been there since the 20s.good luck

medicchief · Jan 21, 2015

Find out who owns the posted lands near you (or who leases it). It is probably posted because of game hunting. That said, there is a good chance you could still detect on it, with permission and have your own private hunting grounds too.

Tom_in_CA · Jan 22, 2015

Rebsix said:
I found an late 1800's early 1900's online map of my area and there was a RR siding marked in an area I drive by every day.......

rebsix, some of those sidings and platforms might have strictly been for freight. Not passenger related. The "freight" ones wouldn't be much good to detect.

Ricki7 · Jan 22, 2015

I was also thinking about how they built the bridges and if they made camps during construction . I have seen list of standard places to hunt , parks , schools , ect. I would like to hear some more unique place you can think of ? Idea's tips very welcome.
HH

cky · Jan 22, 2015

In my area the RR pulled up the tracks and gave up the land but the adjoining land owners would have to deed the land back to themselves for it to be legally there's again. At my work I use a program called ArcMap I can overlay the old 1890 Sanborn maps on top of the newer maps showing me where things where. I think this can be done on Google maps also.

Payloadjim · Jan 22, 2015

Where I'm at in Az. Many of the old track were taken up. You can still see parts of them or follow roads where the track once were. These track went to many of the gold mining towns which are now Ghost towns. I MDed some of the areas, but not much was found. I was hoping to score some relics. Good luck on your venture.

007tallguy · Jan 22, 2015

around here the rails are gone too, turned into the rails to trails system. if you could find where the stations used to be, that would be one of the best areas to search! as for where the actual tracks were, you hit TONS of iron! :mad:

another thing to look for are areas where there may have been a right of way along side of the rail line, i've found coins, 1 small gold ring and all kinds of little odds and ends in these places. :yes:

Rebsix · Jan 22, 2015

Tom_in_CA said:
rebsix, some of those sidings and platforms might have strictly been for freight. Not passenger related. The "freight" ones wouldn't be much good to detect.

Yeah Tom, I knew that going in, but it depends on what a person would consider "good". This one was actually where they unloaded logs to ship across lake Michigan, there are a few of them in this area like that. This particular one isn't on private property though so I gave it a shot. I'm more than happy with the pocket watch which completely justified my taking the time to go there.

Most anything like this place is an "Historic Landmark" around here so it's impossible and illegal to detect them. There are plenty of these places that few have heard about though and those are the ones I like to go to and see what I can dig up.

Finding hunting spots ( railroads )

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