Rail Road Memerabilia / stuff

[eightyeightfan1]

Charlie, being from New England, and not far from Framingham, Massachusettes, I just had to find out about this railroad. Plus I like doing stuff like that.
Here's what I found(but maybe you knew this already)
The F&L was charted in 1870, and after opened, was leased to the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg in 1871. Probably a couple of months after your stock was issued. It ran as a branchline of the BC&F until 1882 when it was reorganized as the Lowell and Framingham Railroad. In 1886 it was incorparated into the Old Colony, a division of the New Haven.
The writer wrote that when the New Haven was absorbed into Conrail(Oops...I think he means Penn Central), the line was not used except for a small portion in Framingham. After PC went belly up, the line was transfered to Massachusettes, which contracted with Conrail to operate it. In the early 1980's, Bay Colony railroad operated it to sevice lumber yards in Acton, Mass. Service ended all together in the 1990's. Now its earmarked for a Rails to Trails project.
Just a little bit of history to go along with your stock.

Gee...I wonder if you couldn't take that to Massachusettes and claim ownership of the ROW? Well, at least one share of it.

[BR60103]

Those builders plates are really cool...!! Why did the IRS seize the coaches.?? Did the tour organizers owe them taxes or something..?

The owner (Alan Pegler) was a Brit, but apparently, according to the IRS, since the train was making money here, he was obligated to pay IRS taxes. He disagreed, and you know how that goes with the IRS.

I just bought a video that has Alan Pegler talking about the tour. Apparently, it was to be sponsored by Nelson Blount (of Steamtown) but he died in a plane crash while they were still making preparations. Pegler said that they should have cancelled the tour then. The tour was not financially successful.
One of my friends has a marker lamp that he was told came off the train while it was wintering in Ontario.

[e-paw]

All right it's a brake handle, good to know... Thanks guys

[TrainNut]

I posted these on the other site back in November of 2007 so my apology for the repeats but none-the-less...
Treasures... I've got three...
The first two, I'm sure aren't worth anything of significance -
First is a Y2k wooden, 4 tone, Amtrak whistle.


The second is a Coast Starlight, Barlow, gold keyholder.


They were give to me by some friends who happened to be on the Amtrak Coast Starlight the night of the new millennium. They were told by a conductor that these two items were only being handed out on this one particular train to commemorate the event. If that story is true, these are some pretty rare items. Yep, I said, IF. I would be willing to bet these two items are actually a dime a dozen but the story is fun to tell and they mean a lot to me.

My third item was given to me by my father in law with strict instructions never to get rid of it. It's a book titled "The Curse of Tramp Life" written by a famous tramp better known as A-no. 1. It's #3 of the 13th edition with a copyright of 1912. It's pretty frail. Again, due to its condition, it can't be worth much of anything except to somebody like me.

Front cover...


Portrait...


First page...


Back cover...


I've also got a couple of blacksmithing projects my dad made for me...
a knife made from a spike...


and a n ice pick/hammer also made from a spike...


And of course, I've got the usual collection of odds and ends I've picked up along the way...


I used to have a fairly modern brakemans lantern I got from a friend but that has since disappeared somwhere.

[BR60103]

This is my prize piece: The nameboard from Flower Station. Flower Station was on the Kick and Push (Kingston and Pembroke) north of the main CPR line in Lanark County. Named for the Flower family of New York who had invested in it. My father said that he had students from Flower Station but never got there himself. Friends of ours had a cottage near there and found the sign in an antique shop.