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Does someone have an unembossed Montreal they can show next to a "normal" unembossed 143?

I've aquired an unembossed 143, MOLD, with a wire goove similar in size and position to those on my CanPac slugs and Montreals.

This comes from a retired linesman who worked for Bell and took it down himself in the early 70's.

Thanks,

Chris

Pic attached... and there is a "button" inside the dome.

I don't have a pic for you, but IMO that is not an umembossed Montreal. It looks possibly more like one of the threaded threadless molds. Lots of 143 collectors on this site probably know more than me, but like I said I am pretty confident it isn't a Montreal mold.

The dome profile on an unembossed Montreal is completely different - see pic below of embossed Montreals. The dome rounds over quickly at the top and is basically close to flat on the top, not as nicely sloping as the one you posted. There's a bunch of oddball unembossed 143's that aren't really documented anywhere.

It looks like the 'Thin Skirt' unembossed 143 - is the skirt glass fairly thin compared to a normal 143?

Thanks for the input guys, it's definitely one of the thin skirted variants.

I bought this one on Ebay because the seller lived about a mile away, and I could just pick it up. Turns out the guy is a retired Bell linesman who spent a good chunk of his early career wrecking out open wire lines.

I quizzed him on a few things, and he was quick to mention that he was expected to take out 20 poles per day and not leave ANY copper behind, including tie wires. Once the poles were pulled out, the glass was dumped in the hole and covered in dirt. He also tells me that the larger Bell poles were flared at the base below grade. They referred to them as "Bell Butts". They were a real pain to yank out of the ground.

For you history buffs (like me) the last open wire he remembers being up in the east end of Ottawa came off of Cyrville Road in 1975.

The guy's got a bunch more buried in his garage, and he's going to contact me when he digs them out. Forgot to mention he also had a vertical bar (both skirts) 102 in Royal Purple handy that I grabbed for $10.

Chris

Great finds, hopefully you'll get a few more insulators from him. Those retired linemen are a wealth of information.

I've got maybe 3 or 4 of those unembossed thin skirts. There's also a Canadian Pacific Ry embossed version that's not too common either.

you should ask this lineman where he did this wrecking and which sides of the tracks the line ws on. Pole holes full of glass could be easy to pace out once you find the first one...

That's what I'm hoping... 2 more weeks should see most of the snow in the bush gone!

Hey, all!

Indeed, Chris is right - that is one of the "thin skirt" unembossed CD-143s. I think Mark Lauckner has them listed in his book as the "1-B" mould style. They seem to come in mostly pastel shades of blue, light green and primarily aqua shades. I have a couple of them around but they are not common. The unembossed Montreal looks like exactly what it sounds like. It's a little more hefty and thick-glassed in the skirt, and has those characteristic rounded wire ridges and a fairly shallow wire groove.