I should be able to add a few pieces to the collection from this lot. There aren't any super rare pieces but lots of common older glass, basically all 143's. It's a bit of a time capsule actually. The farm was right beside the old CP main that was abandoned in 1988 - the old Ontario and Quebec railway on the section between Havelock and Tweed. I'm guessing the previous owner of the farm had bought a section of poles or wrecked them out at his cost (not sure what the procedure was) - the poles and crossarms would have been used for fencing and the insulators were saved because you never knew if you might need them or could sell them later. Luckily farmers are a resourceful bunch and tend to hang on to things they might need in the future.
The insulators are very similar to what we found along the O & Q back in the early 2000's, just more of it as it wouldn't have been as picked over in 1988. No purples or greys, it seems any rare or scarce stuff was picked by collectors back before the line was wrecked out. I'm happy though, how often do you get to pick up 5 bushel baskets of 143's?
Interesting side note: My great great grandfather was one of the laborers that built the original line in 1883 - 1884 with a a pick and shovel (!) and he may have actually worked on this part of the line, it's possible some of the original glass from the original poles was reused and was in this lot, there's lots of stuff there that's the right age. Makes you think
Pretty cool.