Here Boy!
A contractor cutting down BNSF poles pauses at a fence to someone’s backyard. The railroad goes through a rock cut here, and these people have claimed their backyard all the way to the edge. The pole line cut right through the yard. These guys had to remove two poles from the yard, and there was a “Beware of Dog” sign on the fence. After no canine type response, the chainsaw dude went into the yard and worked his magic. A couple minutes later these poles were on the ground, and I swooped in to remove the glass.
A friend and I followed this pair of contractors a lot in the 2000s. They got the contract to remove the pole lines, then sold the poles to locals, if the particular railroad allowed for that. BNSF did not want any of the material, so these guys sold poles, and often found farmers who would allow them to dump the crossarms and metal on their land.
As for the insulators, the guy by the fence told me some time well before this “the more of these G@# damn things you take, the less I have to fuck with.” So we took several thousand over the course of a few years, including this dreary December day nearly 19 years ago. More pics from this day will be posted eventually.
Also of note here is an example of Frisco’s pole numbering. The three horizontal bands represent three tens and the vertical is a five. This was mile 75 pole 35. A half hour later when the 76 mile post pole was cut, the homemade, hand painted 76 mile sign was also liberated. We got as many of these signs as possible as well.
12/20/2005
Bourbon, MO
Here Boy!
A contractor cutting down BNSF poles pauses at a fence to someone’s backyard. The railroad goes through a rock cut here, and these people have claimed their backyard all the way to the edge. The pole line cut right through the yard. These guys had to remove two poles from the yard, and there was a “Beware of Dog” sign on the fence. After no canine type response, the chainsaw dude went into the yard and worked his magic. A couple minutes later these poles were on the ground, and I swooped in to remove the glass.
A friend and I followed this pair of contractors a lot in the 2000s. They got the contract to remove the pole lines, then sold the poles to locals, if the particular railroad allowed for that. BNSF did not want any of the material, so these guys sold poles, and often found farmers who would allow them to dump the crossarms and metal on their land.
As for the insulators, the guy by the fence told me some time well before this “the more of these G@# damn things you take, the less I have to fuck with.” So we took several thousand over the course of a few years, including this dreary December day nearly 19 years ago. More pics from this day will be posted eventually.
Also of note here is an example of Frisco’s pole numbering. The three horizontal bands represent three tens and the vertical is a five. This was mile 75 pole 35. A half hour later when the 76 mile post pole was cut, the homemade, hand painted 76 mile sign was also liberated. We got as many of these signs as possible as well.
12/20/2005
Bourbon, MO