Advice on detecting around railroad tracks

[BruceB]

This weekend i may go down to my grandfathers property in Virginia and do some detecting near some railroad tracks that were used during the civil war.

I was just wondering if anyone had done some detecting by railroad tracks before and any advice.

Thanks

[007tallguy]

yep, watch out for trains!

if you could find the area where people embarked/disembarked and maybe where they camped out or ate lunch, those are your high traffic areas and probably some of the better spots to swing your coil.
you'll probably get a lot of iron signals, but hey, some of those older spikes and date nails can be worth the effort.
good luck,

Pete

[Silversmith45]

If the tracks are still in use, you might get arrested. Since 911 they are kind of touchy about people being near them.

[Mick56]

All the tracks I have seen in WI have "No Trespassing, Federal Offense". A few years ago in my town, a guy was picking up the spikes and plates for scrap, and had a bunch in his car trunk. He was arrested for theft and trespassing.

[BruceB]

I believe these tracks are no longer in use but I will keep my eyes open for no trespassing signs.

I'm just excited to know that troops used these tracks and hoping to find some relics

[awhatley]

hey bruceb my son and i jus hunted one this past weekend it was a blast, it was taken up in 1964 be prepared to find tons of railroad spikes, spike plates and all kinds of iron objects but it was a blast. we only hunted for about 3 hours and mite have covered 75 feet of it. we r going back this weekend. good luck and HH

[scash]

look for old homesites near the tracks, can lead to some great huntin

[OZARKS]

Originally Posted by Silversmith45

If the tracks are still in use, you might get arrested. Since 911 they are kind of touchy about people being near them.

Yep, you go on tracks here you got to jail for tresspassing!

[xxnshcxx]

Yup, lots of iron. I have quite the collection of spikes. Don't concentrate on the actual railroad beds, seach the sides. Most trains of those days had no windows. I would search the banks of any water the train passed over or in it if it is shallow enough. Someone may have thrown a penny out for good luck.

[Daysailer]

Active tracks...... Always stay completely clear of the Right of Way.
If in doubt, assume its still in use.


As one who has been through RR safety certification because my job occasionally requires that I work near thier Right of Way, I can say that they take safety very very seriously and have no sense of humor for trespassing.

Even when not in the Right of Way, when I work near, I have to have a railroad ceritified flagger with me at all times. Recently worked one site and that track was one train a day , 5 days a week. Still required $$$ flagger, even on the days no train scheduled. Flagger gets updates from the dispatch system when last minute schedules change.

Head phone use is also prohibited when I work there.
Cant hear a train coming ....

[Joves]

I would walk the tracks to see if there are any remains of maintenance shacks, also look for old debris piles anywhere near the tracks. When you found some old bottles then you are near an area where people were camping and working.
And I used to walk all over the tracks and cross them when In Az, all the Santa Fe guys would do is wave at me. I guess this whole getting arrested is an eastern thing.Or a city deal.

[TwistedTig3r]

For a few years I worked for a village as the maintenance man. This village had a railroad running straight thru the center. One day the railroad came thru and replaced the tracks, ties and spikes. They left a heck of a mess. I was given the task to clean it up. Seeing that I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of doing this all by my lonesome the mayor approached me and said I should haul in all the spikes for scrap. "That should make it worth your while" he said. So after I cleaned I cleaned it all up I called the scrap yard. They told me they wouldn't take them. Seems it's not a good idea since they don't want people to steal them off the tracks. They also told to just "discard" them because the railroad would press charges on me for having them.

[awhatley]

i agree with xxnshcxx my son and i found that the "track bed" as i will call it is very difficult to dig in because of the rocks. i look on both sides of the track and i noticed on one side i could see what mite have been the service road much better digging and way more finds alot of spills that we found but jus iron

[jprice90]

i was always skeptical because of the false readings from maybe the tracks itself, but now that i think of it, there are the sides

if you have a nice sized shovel, you shouldnt have the much of a problem, just got to play around to loosen the rocks, i might try it sometime, i dont have tracks around here, i'll have to travel a bit

let us know what you find!

[HDSDcouple]

well I can tell you from fact don't mess around the BNSF railroads. My other hobby is railfaning and The BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) likes to really get on people for being on their property. they even try to get people arrested for taking pictures of their trains from private (not theirs) properties and road ways. One of their railroad cops tried to physically take my camera from me on a public roadway. I have been doing photography for many years and never ran into bigger pain in the butts then them. Be careful. my best advice is this. Don't do it near town, and if caught play dumb. real dumb.

Good luck and be care careful.

[Joves]

Originally Posted by HDSDcouple

well I can tell you from fact don't mess around the BNSF railroads. My other hobby is railfaning and The BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) likes to really get on people for being on their property. they even try to get people arrested for taking pictures of their trains from private (not theirs) properties and road ways. One of their railroad cops tried to physically take my camera from me on a public roadway. I have been doing photography for many years and never ran into bigger pain in the butts then them. Be careful. my best advice is this. Don't do it near town, and if caught play dumb. real dumb.

Good luck and be care careful.

Must be a local thing then. Because in N.Az I have never been bothered once by any BNSF worker in 12 years, like I said they waved at me. Had a couple even talk to me because I was photographing an old ghost town next to the tracks. The only time I had any problem with them was when I was pumping concrete in a bridge that went over the tracks. When we were pumping the slab we had to stop and swing our booms away from the tracks till the train passed by.

[jprice90]

lol, wow, he cant take your camera, thats nuts

[ELCruisr]

You might be surprised what railroad police have the authority to do. The right of way in most places is 200' each side and they are the authority on rail land. Other PD's will back them as well. Never really heard of one with a sense of humor on the job either. If it's an active track don't trespass!

One chap I knew of got a free ride to the county lockup for launching a small boat on a right of way.