Insulator hunting and finds

A sample of some insulators we found just east of Columbia City, Indiana along the old mainline Pennsylvania Railroad. A lot of these insulators can still be readily found along this line. Last winter we brought home over 300 insulators in many different CD's and colors. This was a 10 pin 6 crossarm pole line back in the day.

I started picking this same line in 1972 with some of my other friends. There were some great finds like some yellow green, cornflower blue, and apple green Petticoat beehives; yellow green, green, and teal green CREB beehives; CD 151 H.G.CO. in dark cornflower blue; 16 true green Hemingray No 19's.; amber 109's; and many more to name. We used to do 3 day backpacking trips insulator hunting in 73 at the age of 14. The things you used to be able to do back in the good old days as kids and teenagers.

In 1997 they took the pole line down and I was the very first person to get all the rest of the good old stuff like CREB beehives, Petticoat beehives, and many more stuff. The railroad left the poles lay where they fell. In one week I walked 50 miles from Warsaw to Fort Wayne getting as many insulators as I could.

For my collection, I was able to get around 135 different insulators from just this line alone.