I’m looking at that brake shoe, and it appears the braking pad part ends at the central divit. That being the case, I beleive this to be a brake shoe from a car, not from a locomotive. Now, I’m an engineer, not a maintainer, so I may have this backwards, but its what I was told when talking with an engine house guy when I questioned a crack in an engine brake shoe during an inspection.
As for my collection, I have a lantern I captured off eBay for the Arcade & Attica Railroad, which in addition to being the first railroad I new of, was also the first railroad I worked for. I have a 1902 report for the stockholders’ annual meeting of the Buffalo, Attica & Arcade, which preceeded the A&A.
Last year for Xmas, my father in law got me a piece of rail from a narrow-gauge mining line in the Scranton area.
My most treasured artifacts are the pictures from my archeological explorations. I’ve explored my home area in New York, here in PA as well as the Altoona area. Coming home from Harrisburg about a month ago, I noticed… something… in the woods just east of CP-Antis. It appeared to be a small wooden bridge over a colvert, about 30 yards north of the current mainline. After tying up at Altoona Yard, I headed out to check it out before the sun set. Got into the woods, was so engrossed in this bridge I had noticed from the mainline, it took several minutes before I noticed the even bigger find: a cut-stone viaduct, same basic design as Rockville bridge (though obviously smaller). Here was hidden a piece of history that no one had noticed. I have no idea if anyone besides the 4-wheelers going though the area had known about for well over fifty years.
RJ Corman owns a section of railroad running to a local tipple. However, this used to be a PRR mine branch that extended deep into the area to serve many mine shafts and tipples. The line was cut back a couple decades ago, but the remaining grade is still visible. A little exploration with Google’s Satellite maps revealed that the rails remain in place for at least a couple miles beyond the tipple. In fact, satelite imagery from a couple years ago indicates that either a bridge disintegrated under teh line, or a washout left the track hanging in mid air… Okay, spent the last several minutes trying to find this location. Apparently my memory is worse than I realized. the bridge still appears to be in place: Google View of specified bridge
Google maps, especially with satellite imagery can be an awesome tool for archeological discoveries. If you know what to look for, you can even identify rail lines abandoned long ago.
Or make sure that the plow is 3"-6" from the top of the rail? 
