# Lost neighborhood? or what?



## Ashbringer (Nov 4, 2021)

Walking the tracks one day I saw backhoes digging out the sides of the the train tracks because of a fire in a huge old upholstery building.
Looking down I saw something sticking out of the ground I wasn't quite sure what it was picked it up and it just happened to be an intact bottle,  a small bottle. Looking closer I realized it was a small medicine bottle. walking further down the tracks I saw where the backhoe  had dug out the piles of dirt I found the first bottle in. There were many many more bottles and jars and pottery about 10 ft from the top of the hill that they were digging. A distinct layer.
Maybe the River company had purchased homes near where they wanted to take the tracks and paid the people to just leave everything in their homes and go.
China medicine bottles glass syringes boots. Mason jars lids makeup containers pieces of porcelain dolls the list goes on.
Does anybody have any ideas or have ever heard of anything like this your railroad tracks I'm in Western New York. And right down the tracks about an eighth of a mile there's a bridge that goes over the water and two signs one on each side of the tracks says 1920 on Plaques.
I have a few hundred complete bottles. Blue pinkish and clear.
I'm thinking 1930s about. Some older.


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## MaxiLou47 (Nov 4, 2021)

Wow! Though I don't know anything about the history to tell you that is an amazing haul! I can't imagine the excitement of discovering those, I'm jealous!


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## Ashbringer (Nov 4, 2021)

I was hooked from day 1.
Today I found 3 intact bottles after several days of rain.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	
















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## CanadianBottles (Nov 4, 2021)

Looks like you've got a good spot!  Railroad tracks were often used for dumping garbage back in the day, either formally or informally.  That's what you've found, it's a dump site rather than the site of houses that were bulldozed.  When you do encounter a neighbourhood which was demolished all at once there usually isn't much obvious visual record of it, at most filled-in foundations and occasional scattered items, but not a rich layer like that.  It's a surprisingly wide age range from around the 1900s to the 1980s, though I imagine that Pepsi bottle is unrelated to the others, which are a more typical age range of the first few decades of the 20th century.


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## East_Tn_Bottle_Guy (Nov 4, 2021)

Sadly it is not legal to walk railroads in tn. At least that's what I've found. Its so tempting because the railroad is on the 1890s sanborne map


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## Ashbringer (Nov 4, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> Looks like you've got a good spot! Railroad tracks were often used for dumping garbage back in the day, either formally or informally. That's what you've found, it's a dump site rather than the site of houses that were bulldozed. When you do encounter a neighbourhood which was demolished all at once there usually isn't much obvious visual record of it, at most filled-in foundations and occasional scattered items, but not a rich layer like that. It's a surprisingly wide age range from around the 1900s to the 1980s, though I imagine that Pepsi bottle is unrelated to the others, which are a more typical age range of the first few decades of the 20th century.


Correct the Pepsi bottle was a gift.
The area is now a light industrial road. Companies going back to 1880s. There are about 20 homes there now butting UpTo the hill leading to the tracks.
I'm finding glass bottles and what seems to be possably the inside dies for making some bottles.
Have more to catalogue then I'll have more answers. Thanks for an idea I never considered.

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## CanadianBottles (Nov 4, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Correct the Pepsi bottle was a gift.
> The area is now a light industrial road. Companies going back to 1880s. There are about 20 homes there now butting UpTo the hill leading to the tracks.
> I'm finding glass bottles and what seems to be possably the inside dies for making some bottles.
> Have more to catalogue then I'll have more answers. Thanks for an idea I never considered.
> ...


What do you mean by the inside dies for making bottles?  Like bottle molds?  I'd be very curious to see those, that's an incredibly rare find if that's what they are.


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## Ashbringer (Nov 5, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> What do you mean by the inside dies for making bottles? Like bottle molds? I'd be very curious to see those, that's an incredibly rare find if that's what they are.


Yes molds that was the word I was looking for at first I found them near where I found some bottles all the same size shape and I just grabbed them cuz I thought okay these these are weird they shouldn't be here.
Always a possibility they are something else but not 11 or 12 different ones some the same but they just look like the inside of some of these bottles. I will make a note when I get home from work in the morning to take some pictures of those molds.
Give me some of my research so far do you know that downtown Jamestown the guys who got a patent for an upgrade on mason jar lids I believe the ones with a little groove in the top to hold the metal wire he lived in Jamestown for a long time and had a business and I found some of those lids quite a few actually.
Thinking to myself it must have been a last bottle and jar manufacturer right here cuz it was many there was still so many some broken I'm home but all of them are cool and I collect all the pieces I can find when writing on them.

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## Ashbringer (Nov 5, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Yes molds that was the word I was looking for at first I found them near where I found some bottles all the same size shape and I just grabbed them cuz I thought okay these these are weird they shouldn't be here.
> Always a possibility they are something else but not 11 or 12 different ones some the same but they just look like the inside of some of these bottles. I will make a note when I get home from work in the morning to take some pictures of those molds.
> Give me some of my research so far do you know that downtown Jamestown the guys who got a patent for an upgrade on mason jar lids I believe the ones with a little groove in the top to hold the metal wire he lived in Jamestown for a long time and had a business and I found some of those lids quite a few actually.
> Thinking to myself it must have been a last bottle and jar manufacturer right here cuz it was many there was still so many some broken I'm home but all of them are cool and I collect all the pieces I can find when writing on them.
> ...


It's an interesting story I had access to this very old furniture upholstery building that have been abandoned for 20-25 years and falling apart Forest caving in still most of the furniture in there it was crazy some girls two little girls 11 and 12 walked in one day decided to play with fire. tragedy
After spending a year going in and out of this building with the owner and it burned down and I decided to walk by a couple times to see the damage one day when I was walking by I see a dump truck backing down the tracks and about 25 piles of rubble and Rock didn't know what was going on realized they were dredging and as I was walking by them sticking out and I knew they were old right away.
I said no I'm hooked trying to put together a picture of this area back in the day and Lucille Ball is there where these bottles came from what they were for even the syringe the needle a couple signs for pouch of chewing tobacco.

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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Nov 5, 2021)

East_Tn_Bottle_Guy said:


> Sadly it is not legal to walk railroads in tn. At least that's what I've found. Its so tempting because the railroad is on the 1890s sanborne map


No legal in NJ either. I can go upstate. There is a dirt road that people use to access the Hudson River. It runs between the north and south bound lines. Very odd, you can drive for miles. My friends property is right along the tracks.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Ashbringer (Nov 5, 2021)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> No legal in NJ either. I can go upstate. There is a dirt road that people use to access the Hudson River. It runs between the north and south bound lines. Very odd, you can drive for miles. My friends property is right along the tracks.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.


It is also not legal in NY. I've been questioned 1 time as I was digging out a nice whole mr Boston bottle. The officer loved the reason I was out there at night. Told me to go home.

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## CanadianBottles (Nov 5, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Yes molds that was the word I was looking for at first I found them near where I found some bottles all the same size shape and I just grabbed them cuz I thought okay these these are weird they shouldn't be here.
> Always a possibility they are something else but not 11 or 12 different ones some the same but they just look like the inside of some of these bottles. I will make a note when I get home from work in the morning to take some pictures of those molds.
> Give me some of my research so far do you know that downtown Jamestown the guys who got a patent for an upgrade on mason jar lids I believe the ones with a little groove in the top to hold the metal wire he lived in Jamestown for a long time and had a business and I found some of those lids quite a few actually.
> Thinking to myself it must have been a last bottle and jar manufacturer right here cuz it was many there was still so many some broken I'm home but all of them are cool and I collect all the pieces I can find when writing on them.
> ...


Can you post a picture?  I'm having a hard time imagining what you're describing, a mold should be an imprint of the outside of the bottle, not the inside.  There was no mold for the inside, they'd never be able to get it out.  I've never seen anything shaped like the inside of a bottle, if that's what you found I guess it could be something contained in the bottles which solidified and then was left behind when the bottles broke.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Nov 5, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> It is also not legal in NY. I've been questioned 1 time as I was digging out a nice whole mr Boston bottle. The officer loved the reason I was out there at night. Told me to go home.
> 
> Sent from my LM-K500 using Tapatalk


I never said digging was okay. I said the service road is used by everyone in the area. I've walked the tracks and found insulators. Goodnight officer. Lol!
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Ashbringer (Nov 6, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> Can you post a picture? I'm having a hard time imagining what you're describing, a mold should be an imprint of the outside of the bottle, not the inside. There was no mold for the inside, they'd never be able to get it out. I've never seen anything shaped like the inside of a bottle, if that's what you found I guess it could be something contained in the bottles which solidified and then was left behind when the bottles broke.


Again I'll be more discriptive. What I assume are molds work for bottles shaped anything but long cylinder like maybe the necks of bottles. I posted pics.
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





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## Ashbringer (Nov 6, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Again I'll be more discriptive. What I assume are molds work for bottles shaped anything but long cylinder like maybe the necks of bottles. I posted pics.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I didn't find these in the bottles though. Near them, within 6 ft. And other areas but all within 6 ft of the battles.

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## Ashbringer (Nov 6, 2021)

Yesterday's find. After work still checking out what the rain revealed. 
Mason jar lids,Menley and James jar and tiny bottle.
Interesting facts the Mason jar lid that has the raised top which is for a wire to sit in and not come off the jar when it's stored, the man who invented that and has the patent for it had a shop in the 1890s here in Jamestown right where the police station sits today it's crazy. A little piece of History.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	













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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Nov 6, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Again I'll be more discriptive. What I assume are molds work for bottles shaped anything but long cylinder like maybe the necks of bottles. I posted pics.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Battery cores.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Ashbringer (Nov 6, 2021)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Battery cores.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.


Never saw one b4. Thank you for that

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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Nov 6, 2021)

Ashbringer said:


> Never saw one b4. Thank you for that
> 
> Sent from my LM-K500 using Tapatalk


A mess aren't they, make my hand black but easy to wash off. The bigger ones on the right side of your hand were used to power the old style telephones.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Ashbringer (Nov 7, 2021)

I took my two youngest kids fishing near the railroad tracks of course I have to falls and of course we went and look for bottles. My son and I were standing on the hill digging and came across but I thought was a whole bottle and he was correct it was the 13th one of its kind that I found complete and it is a clear one on here another alcohol bottle.
Will be the first time that we actually started digging into the dark layer that I know holds most of the whole bottle. I'll post more pictures but we found a lot of pieces of pottery and a soup bowl that wasn't complete but we put it together after we got all the pieces gathered we were able to complete it. Amazing colors.
It also found it an old sign ceramic on metal for chewing tobacco in a pouch interesting thing for finding and I don't think we will exhaust the site and for a very long time.
I'm new to this hobby but I'm definitely hooked.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	










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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Nov 8, 2021)

Warranted flask looks amethyst. Everything else looks newer.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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