Sluggo's Insulator Collecting - Insulator Hunting / Photo Trips 2001

Insulator Hunting / Photo Trips 2001

Almost all of the trips described below took place within a half hour's drive from either my office or home. There is still a fair amount of glass in the air around Sudbury, but most of it is relatively new and very common stuff. Many of the local rail lines have had all traces of poles, wires, and insulators removed completely.

I am always looking up whenever I drive, and have spotted a few hints of coloured glass still in the air around the city.

Trip #1 - Sudbury

Sudbury/near my office - taking pictures of insulators in service within a 10 minute drive of my office. Mostly common clear/straw Dominion CD154/155 and CD128s. Some newer plastic insulators as well. On a large transmission line nearby I found strings of up to 14 large aqua suspension disks mixed in with some porcelain disks the same size. Nothing to be seen on the ground though. Another area nearby yielded a variety of rubber, plastic and common glass in use as well as numerous spools and transposition brackets with CD1049s, and CD128s and others on them.

Trip #2 - North Bay

About an hour and a half from home, I went specifically to take pictures of a line I looked at last summer. Long stretch of poles with 4 or 5 crossbars full of clear/straw Dominion-42 CD154/155s, plenty of CD128s, a scattering of CD129s, and numerous transposition bracket sets of CD1049s or CD128s. There are only about 6 wires still stung on these poles and further along the line, the excess crossbars have been removed. There were a few Continental R4 rubber pieces as well. Nothing found on this excursion, just pictures.

Visits to several antique shops in the area yielded a nice CD122 WT, a CD191 Hemi-50 top, a CD101 Brookfield, and a few different CD102 ponies all for very little money. Carol McDougald has since supplied me with a matching bottom for the Hemi-50 half.

Trip #3 - Hanmer

I went back to a section of line I walked last year with the tools and intent to retrieve a set of the white transpostion pieces I remembered seeing there. I found them and liberated the complete bracket off the pole top. The bracket is the same style as the ones used for the CD1049s (but made of aluminum I think rather than steel) but the insulators are white in colur and appear to be made of some kind of cast fiberglass reinforced resin. The skirt section is very thin (less than 1/8" thick) and the bottom shows modern injection molding marks. There is no embossing or markings of any kind on them. The insulators sparkle with tiny glass fibers throughout. Handling them leaves one with itchy hands with tiny glass fibers embedded in the skin. Has anyone else seen these or know anything about them. They are the same size as a CD1049, but a slightly different shape. Plucked a couple of CD128s while I was up there.

There is a set of these on almost every second pole, but onle two poles in two miles had the spike steps on them, so I could get up to them. One of those two, the top crossbar is too high up from the lower one to be reachable as well, so that left only one set retrievable for now. Got some nice pics, clear sunny skies, with a freight train rolling past the pole I'm shooting pics of.

Trip #4 - Worthington

I went out to retrieve a steel transposition bracket for CD128s that I'd left behind last year for lack of tools. Not much else to see here, except some chipped CD155 Dominions. Nice day for a drive and a walk in the outdoors.

Trip #5 - Sudbury / Coniston

I went out to take pics of a pole I remembered seeing while driving one day. Found the pole right next to the railway crossing on the road. This pole has glass, porcelain, rubber and plastic insulators on it, all still in service. Talk about four generations of insulators on one pole.

Four generations of insulators on one pole!

Further along the same line (I think) I came across a half dozen poles that had insulators in dark green or aqua on them. They are just about the ONLY non-clear/straw glass I have found on poles in probably more than 30 miles of track walking and scouting. I was so excited. There were CD145s, CD164s with SDP, and a couple of CD152s. This is the first time I have ever seen a CD145 or a CD164 on a pole anywhere. The downside is that most of them are still in service, within view of a major highway overpass, next to a 3 track railway mainline, 100 yards from a railway maintenace shed, and between 2 streets of houses. I may attempt a late night excursion here with the Snag-a-Lator as there was a CD164, a CD152 and a few CD145s not in use on these poles. Further along the same line will bear further exploration later.

I did snag a taken down 8' crossbar from the same area with a Continental R4 rubber pony and a bunch of clear/straw CD155 Dominion-42's on it. The result of this is that I now have a box full of standard wooden pins.

Trip #6 - Lively / Walden

The first test run for the newly completed Snag-a-Lator pole. The target was a CD155 Dominion-42 in straw. Removal and retreival went well, with a soft landing in the grass below. Looks good so far.

Trip #7 Sudbury / McVitty Dam

The second test run for the Snag-a-Lator pole. The target this time was a CD152 Brookfield in dark aqua. Removal was a little tricky as the piece was mounted on a drop bracket under the crossarm, tucked into the triangle of the angle brace. There were foot long wire ends protruding from each side of the insulator. The removal was finally accomplished followed by the dismount. I had placed my pack over the large rock in the landing zone and the piece landed with a "tink" in the gravel. Upon subsequent examination, I discovered a nice fresh flat flake off the outside of the skirt. I think I need to recruit a catcher for the next excursion.

I took a few pictures of a cluster of porcelain pieces where the wires altered direction to run under another line and up a hill.

Trip #8 - Chelmsford/Dowling/Onaping/Levack/Windy Lake

Another nice day for a drive (close to 150 kilomtres or 95 miles when completed). Only came home with a few fragments of glass and half of a porcelain C.P.R. beehive. Found a CD145 NE beehive in straw still in use. Spotted a few aqua pieces on the way home, but it's sometimes tough to tell CD numbers at 90 KPH (55 MPH).

Trip #9 - North Bay

I wasn't really hunting insulators this trip, but I did make a stop in the antique flea market. I picked up two light aqua CD 102 vertical bar over <> ponies, two light aqua vertical bar ponies and a clear CD 128 Pyrex with partially threaded skirt, all for $12.00 CDN. After cleaning the ponies I discovered that two of them came from exactly the same mold. The diamond is misshapen and crooked and the flaws in it are identical on both pieces. Then I noticed that the pinhole on one seemed to go really close to the top of the dome. Further measurement revealed that one pony has about 1/2" of dome glass, while the other has only 1/8" of glass above the pinhole. I also can't match these up to an embossing in the price guide as these are (F-skirt) [vertical bar] / <> (R-skirt) [vertical bar]. The closest I can find lists a <> blot-out on the back, and neither of these shows any trace of a blot-out on the rear skirt.

While driving back from the restaurant after supper, I spotted sunlight glinting off glass in the air. A quick detour down a side street revealed a multi-crossarm double pole still loaded with glass, mostly out of service. There was one dark aqua piece nestled in with all the common clear stuff. I was too far away for a positive ID, but maybe when I get the photos back I'll be able to tell. The next pole along the line was covered with an assortment of transposition brackets with CD 1049s and CD 128s on them.