Does anyone have any history/stories on the railroad dumping trash? I am a amateur archaeologist, so any information is well needed.
Not sure if this is what you are referring to, but I know of two spots, neither yielding anything these days. In the days of the L&N, dining car crews would toss cracked and chipped china out the door onto the embankment behind Montgomery, Alabama's Union Station leading down to the Alabama River. With a bit of looking around, slightly damaged L&N china could be found. Deep in the Lehigh River gorge near Glen Onoko, journal box covers from hopper cars from the 1880s (?) could be found along an abandoned section of the CNJ (then the Lehigh & Susquehanna). The covers were cast with the railroad's markings on them and were well preserved, oily and buried. I recall seeing a few in 1980 as found by friends. I kicked around there forty years ago, but wasn't able to locate any.
It was pretty common practice on most railroads to pitch broken china from the dining cars along the right of way. A few years ago we displayed a collection of broken china picked up by an individual and loaned to the Rosenberg Railroad Museum. He had pieces from many different railroads.
I have wanted to visit the Rosenberg Railroad Museum for years. Never got around to it. Too bad there isn't much left of the S.A.&A.P.R.R. ,if there was, a museum could be centered around it like the RRM centers around the Santa Fe which, coherently, was the biggest impact on Richmond &Rosenberg.
