Posted 4 years ago
crewnail
(69 items)
This is a shovel I bought at an estate sale, originally just seen it as an old well made shovel. When I started researching it as I do on most of my finds I realized it was stamped T&P. Turns out it was from the Texas and Pacific railway. When I contacted the museum in Marshall Texas they seemed super excited and offered me $100 for it. It now resides in the museum, this last summer I went to the museum and visited it.
VERY COOL how your "old well made shovel" turned out to be a legit museum piece -- the next time I'm in Marshall I'll need to try to make a point to visit that museum!
I definitely remember seeing the TRUE TEMPER name in hardware stores/displays in my younger years, but I wasn't aware of the Company's long history...?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_True_Temper
It's not extremely old, mid 1940's from what I could find out. Found it here in Dumas, Texas where I live, no telling how it ended up where it was discovered. I did ask the woman who sold it if the family had any ties to the railroad and she said they didn't. One thing I thought was pretty cool is how someone added file marks to keep track of something, possibly trips made. If these old things could only tell their story.