Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Hunting along Railroads

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Fooleeze

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2018
Messages
340
Location
Copley, OH
I was curious if anyone has ever hunted along old railroads. Looking at old historical maps, the one thing that is always there is the old railroads. Is there a chance that people dropped a lot of interesting old stuff when the railroad was being built? Or would I end up with way too many chunks of Iron? Anyone ever tried this?
 
I do it a lot. You're absolutely right, you're gonna find chunks of iron, coke, the occasional spike or part of the old road. If it's been uses more recently, you'll get normal trash.

I'm sure the builders dropped stuff, followed by the section crews, folks walkin the track, there's even some trackside walking trails around me, where the lumber dudes walked to water, and similar.

I haven't ever found anything of any value. But that aint stoppin me, I'll be back out there in the spring.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using Tapatalk
 
To just hunt along side "random railroad tracks", no. There has to have been something specific that went on there.

Eg.: a passenger loading platform. Or the park by the RR station (as those were often the location of yester-year parks). Etc....
 
I hunted along a railroad at an abandoned station (that is now a new station) and got several flatted pennies and not much else.
 
Bajanick said:
I hunted along a railroad at an abandoned station (that is now a new station) and got several flatted pennies and not much else.
Click to expand...

Me and several of my buddies did that as little kids. Sometimes you'd find them right next to where you put them on the track, other times further away. Sometimes not at all. That's why you're finding them now.

As kids, we used to play on the tracks all the time. I got pretty good with my balance, we would walk on a rail from our neighborhood to one of the business sections of town. Get a soda, buy and trade baseball cards. Always on the left side of the tracks, none of us ever had any accidents or problems except occasionally we'd get chased by a railroad dick. It was a different time.
 
Bajanick said:
... an abandoned station (that is now a new station) ....
Click to expand...

When I go to weigh the pros & cons of what sites to pursue, that has become one of my FOREMOST criteria. Eg.: "modern influence". That messes up the oldies potentials/ratios immensely .

Thus, for example: A stage stop which ceased all/any human influence after 1900, versus a stage stop which is currently someone's farm yard with chicken coops and pig-pens. Guess where your ratios and odds-of-oldies are better at ?
 
I have found alot of rr spikes & a Chinese coin, even a dated rr nail. Just depends on how old the site is & if it was more recently graded. Remember these rails were built in the 1800's so there is always a possibility for cool old stuff. Good luck.
 
Fooleeze said:
I was curious if anyone has ever hunted along old railroads. Looking at old historical maps, the one thing that is always there is the old railroads. Is there a chance that people dropped a lot of interesting old stuff when the railroad was being built? Or would I end up with way too many chunks of Iron? Anyone ever tried this?
Click to expand...

Look up railroads for your area on the Library of Congress site. LOC also shows old railroad maps with information on the owner companies and related history.

Often railroads that have come and gone are covered in books that provide a lot of information about depots, section houses, and particulars with photos about design and age of such facilities.

One such book is "Down the Iron Mt Line" that provides detailed information and photos on every depot along it's route through Missouri and Arkansas. Most were built in the 1800's. Facilities for section gangs were provided in combination with or near every depot.

These section houses are often shown in photos along with the old Depot information. Crews lived in these houses so items would be lost. I've found railroad buttons, coins, watches, switch keys, and other stuff at these section houses.

Railroads were a key component during the Civil War for transporting soldiers and equipment for both the Union and the Confederacy. Both sides liked to blow up bridges to stop movements so soldiers were typically posted at railroad bridges and a number of skirmishes occurred at these places. Bullets, buttons, and other Civil War fare can often be found at these sites.

But if you're just walking an old railroad bed? you'll come home with a bunch of spikes and iron. Old depots current and past and places where people gathered is where it's at.
 
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just be careful hunting R&R's still in use, there are laws that require you to keep a distance from them and you can be charged if you are caught on their property.

I'm too lazy to look it up, because I dont hunt them, but I would suggest you look into it if you hunt ones in use.
 
When I surf around via satellite to find an old town to hunt, I specifically look for the RR tracks and follow them to where they cross a creek or stream nearby...thats generally where the old Ford was, the easiest place to build a track and on a line that the wagons used to get from town to town......plus, the little stream has not left its bed since the trestle was put in, so the downstream side of the trestle became a swimming and fishing hole...full of glass an .22 slugs and all sorts of junk, but also coins and whatnot..a real historical catch basin of Humanity that has not changed since the trestle was built......

Every kid in town has jumped off that trestle on a dare, or had a rope swing in the hole or fished and whatnot...the old Hobos camped there, downstream from the trestle on the South facing side warmed by the Sun and protected from a flash flood...

Lots of that green glass boiler slag around these places when the train was watering up and the guy was pounding out the boiler slag....the Steward throwing out the passenger car trash over the embankment....Folks tossing an empty bottle into the stream and shooting at it....Murder weapons disposed of...Things people do....All this tells you the era and possibilities...so yeah...Trestles are useful landmarks and places where activity condensed along the RR's...

Just walking along an old RR track swinging coil has got to be a complete waste of time though..you gotta find the Human activity compression points and evaluate the age of the activity..
 
I'll weigh in on this since I work on the railroad. First and foremost stay away from currently used "live" tracks. There have been many trespassers killed in the most horrific way possible I'm talking human hamburger.

I personally have run over a few. One guy was sitting on the rail drinking a beer
.
"Rail fans" the guys with cameras usually keep their distance get their photo and are happy. Theres some who have been lucky they just got arrested after falling off a signal mast.

Now as far as defunct railroad with the tracks removed. Most are still railroad owned believe it or not. Still private property. The rest are county owned with an agreement with the railroad to get it back if they need to run that line ever again.

County owned go for it.

As far as finds you'll get spikes, tie plates, bolts, nuts, coal, wire, and junk.

Research here is key. Many books, websites, old maps, and word of mouth to find where the stations and yard offices were. Where was the ticket office. Was there a waiting area. The old park across the street ect. That's where you put your coil.

Old county atlases are great for this. In the 1800s counties were proud to have the railroad so they surveyed and mapped them very very well. Maprika works excellent for this!

If you want to scrap any rr material forget it the scrap yards wont take rr scrap they treat it as stolen property. That's the law. Unless you have permission in writing from the railroad.

Many old tracks have become jogging paths with parks along the way. Public owned and great spots for clad and the like.

Research and listen to the music in the dirt.
 
Good post history hippy,

Personally I only hunt bygone sections, no tracks and a difficult to identify bed on private property that saw it's last engine around the turn of the century. It's a 10-20 mile section that had 2 depots and has kept me busy enough and produced some decent finds.

I have no desire to become human pate, good information!!
 
Beach Bum said:
... there are laws that require you to keep a distance from them and you can be charged if you are caught on their property....
Click to expand...


This subject has come up on threads in the past, when "hunting along RR tracks" was discussed. Someone will chime in that they are private property. While this is technically true, yet .... it amazes me that as kids, who among us didn't wander the RR tracks. Or put a penny on the tracks for a train to crush.

So let's have a show of hands here: "Who has been charged with legal action , for ... gasp ... being near RR tracks ?"

If there ever was someone "charged" for such an egregious thing, it would be someone being obstinate, can't take a warning, or is in some way being a giant bullseye for attention. Otherwise .... let's be real : Since when hasn't common man not walked along RR tracks ? Why is md'ing so evil that it's somehow different then ?
 
I ride the rails every single day. See people charged all the time. As part of our rules both with the rr and federal law I have to report trespassers. Sorry Tom in CA I agree with you 99.9% of the time I'm 100% right on this one.
 
I’ve detected some dirt roads close to RR tracks. Like fire or maintenance roads along the tracks, but a decent distance from them.

I have also ridden my mountain bike along the rails for good distances. Have been waved to/at Union Pacific maintenance workers driving their rail-enabled pickups a few times. Honked at by an Amtrak once.

There’s a spot where there used to be a trestle, they filled it in with dirt, but there used to be what looks like some type of building in old pictures that I’ve tried to locate (on mountain bike outings). Can’t see any remnants but have half a mind to take my detector and test some areas. Probably 20-30 feet from the tracks though.

I have also detected under where the NCNG used to have a bridge/trestle that is usually under water, but yearly isn’t. Found a cool narrow gauge RR spike. Misc sheared off bolt/nuts, odd aluminum tags etc.

Once I rode my mountain bike over a RR bridge that goes over the freeway. Once is enough :lol:

Now days I think too, the RR has to be more cautious about crazies - suicide folks and even terrorists, sadly.

I think common sense helps in this arena.
 
HistoryHippy said:
I ride the rails every single day. See people charged all the time. As part of our rules both with the rr and federal law I have to report trespassers. Sorry Tom in CA I agree with you 99.9% of the time I'm 100% right on this one.
Click to expand...

wow. Then things must be different in SW Ohio. Because where I'm at... people walk along and across tracks all the time. In fact, there's an entire homeless people's tent city that springs up near tracks in our city. About 1x pr year, the city (or RR ?) comes along and shoos them all way, cleans it up, etc... Then within a week, the tent city, with their shopping carts and junk, pops up again.
 
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Wow, this is some great information. Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it. I'm going to look into the history of the railroads in my area, see if there are any nearby that had stations / depots / etc. Great info. Thanks all!
 
Just saying be cautious around live tracks. Old defunct rr is fine.
I just trying to keep people out of harm's way either physically or legally.
At 50 mpg takes 1 mile to stop.
Have at old spots I want to see what you find.
Old insulators can be worth money. I have them onthe windowsill and they reflect light really well.
 
YEARS ago there was a rr bridge crossing the mo river. 20-30 people from a small town and car pools would cross it m-f walking to work and back. The bridge and the town no longer exist. You got me thinking, I may have to go check it out.
 
Tom_in_CA said:
This subject has come up on threads in the past, when "hunting along RR tracks" was discussed. Someone will chime in that they are private property. While this is technically true, yet .... it amazes me that as kids, who among us didn't wander the RR tracks. Or put a penny on the tracks for a train to crush.

So let's have a show of hands here: "Who has been charged with legal action , for ... gasp ... being near RR tracks ?"

If there ever was someone "charged" for such an egregious thing, it would be someone being obstinate, can't take a warning, or is in some way being a giant bullseye for attention. Otherwise .... let's be real : Since when hasn't common man not walked along RR tracks ? Why is md'ing so evil that it's somehow different then ?
Click to expand...

Let the engineer of the train see you MD'ing. He has to call it in, and the R&R investigators have to respond. Liability of today is much different than in the 70's when I was a kid, but even back then we had to dodge the guys in the truck that responded to us putting coins on the tracks. One thing is certain, they do not give warnings....they cant. Coins just aren't worth it to me. At least find out what your laws are near you regarding this.
 
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