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Forgotten tracks

LS9607

New Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2017
Messages
19
Location
Ga
I have found a set of forgotten RR tacks and I mean few humans go on them if any now days. The tracks are from the 1800s. There are records saying that troops used em too. To get to these I would have to cross a small swamp, hack my way through the overgrown brush, and there's always the normal things one finds at the marsh/ woods locations to deal with. Not sure if this is worth doing. Should I detect it?
 
I hate snakes....I've been looking at an old WWI site, but it's in the woods...I'll wait until winter. Easier to get to anyway when the brush is dead.
 
If you do go back, you might want to try to get six or eight feet of the old track. The old track is considerable smaller than modern tracks and they actually sell quite well.
 
Funny you say that. Someone went back there and took quite a lot of it already. To get back there with a machettie is at about 5' /10 min. But I'm going to try it once. I think during winter maybe idk yet.
 
I'd be all over it. See if you can research if there were any stops in that general area or spots where a camp may of been set up. If it was just a train going past with nothing else not sure you would find much beyond lead but you just never know. Not sure if that marsh ever dries up or gets low enough to cross without getting soaked of dealing with whatever lives there. That would be the bigger concern.
 

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Just be careful. Me and a old friend of mine went to rodmen dam to go fishing. We was crossing the lake (crystal clear too) he pointed down to the bottom of the lake. Their was a gator that was at least 15 feet long and 3 feet wide on the bottom swimming right under us. :shock: We was in a 12 foot long john boat.

Later that night, shined a light across the water and hundred's of red eyes every where. :wow:
 
LS, go during the winter season.

The vegetation shouldn't be as crazy and aren't some of those poisonous animals dormant?
 
If you do go back, you might want to try to get six or eight feet of the old track. The old track is considerable smaller than modern tracks and they actually sell quite well.

Around here selling or scraping track is illegal, unless you have "papers" for them. You could wind up in trouble.
 
Around here selling or scraping track is illegal, unless you have "papers" for them. You could wind up in trouble.

That's interesting. The track I am talking about is civil war era track, which is not used today. Unless someone has passed a particular law, I would think the law of abandonment would apply. But I am not a lawyer. My friend made them into bookends and sold everyone at his club. He gave me an end piece I had on my desk for years at work. Every new client would comment on it.
 
An overlooked idea about old tracks is where the steam engines might have stopped to take on water. Sometimes water tanks were needed to fill the boilers. Locations like these might net some goodies. Check old maps.

I just found this older online map site. Could be promising!

http://www.oldmapsonline.org/
 
Rail lines enjoy federal protection, due to their importance in moving heavy freight long distances. (Military strategic, ya know.)
Thus, possession of rail or other rail iron is a felony, unless you have paperwork indicating you got it in a legal manner. The stuff is an easy target by unscrupulous scrappers. That's why most scrap yards won't touch it.
Now, if you could find the legal owner of said property, and fashion up a document describing where and how you got the rail section(s), that the owner could sign, you'd be golden.
I have a 16" piece of worn-out modern rail that I'm fashioning into a hobby-sized anvil, and let me tell you, this is hard stuff. Drilling for my Hardy hole is a bear, and I had to farm it to a machine shop for the flat on the heel. The horn has been all grinder work, and a fair amount of hours at that.

Roger
 
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