Brass Narrow Guage Railroad Baggage Checks, Bamboo Fly Rods

I used to do quite a bit of metal detecting with my old Fisher CZ 5. You may have read about one of my finds in the March 98 volume 32 of Western & Eastern Treasures magazine best finds edition. In about 1996 I found 23 Wiscasset and Quebec railroad baggage claim checks, and wrote about the find in that issue. I did my research in reverse on that one, having first found the checks and knowing what they were, but not really aware about much more. Many answers were found in an excellent book called “Big Dreams and Little Wheels” by Ruby Crosby Wiggins which documents the history of the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad. The little railroad never reached its potential, and baggage claim checks and other memorabilia is quite rare. I left New England and moved to central Missouri in 1994. I still have the checks in the zip lock bag that I put them in 10 years ago. There are 23 in all, and comprise two main types and two sub types. There are 5 square ones that say Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad Main Coast Nav Co on the front with a small star on each side of the claim number. There are 4 square ones that say Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad Main Coast Nav Co on the front with no stars. There are 10 round ones that just say Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad with a small star below the the claim number. There are two round ones that say Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad without the star. And there are 2 round ones that have a residue on the front (looks like burned plastic or something) that are not readable at this time. I found some silver dimes at the same location. Other than a light cleaning with water, they are all as they came out of the sand, and since some of them were found in a pile together, a reverse image of the check on top is visible on the back of a couple of checks, and some have rust spots due to proximity to probable nails. The Best of finds issue put the value of them as a group at around $2500, but that was over ten years ago. A few need to go to the Maine Narrow Gauge Museums, I might like to keep a few, but I certainly don't need to keep all of them.....I would sell some of them or perhaps trade for other New England checks for about $150 apiece or best offer.

If you have any information on the rods on this page, or are interested in any one of them, please send me an email at macivj@windstream.net or maciver.john@gmail.com

The picture below is of my "French River Model" 9' bamboo fly rod

The above picture is of my "French River Model" fly rod. There is not much information out there on this rod, but a rod forum feels that it could be a "Phantom Montigue" with this name. There are a number of them out there and the quality is uniformly good. The words "French River Model" are printed in very light yellow script at the bamboo base with no other information and no line weight called for. It is 9' long and in good condition,but I see that the varnish could be touched up in spots. I have used this rod, and it has nice action and would be a good working rod. It looks good and has the feel of a quality rod. The rod tips are the same size as the butt piece, and the middle piece is about 1/2" shorter than the butt piece, but it all looks original and it does not appear to have ever been repaired. Ferrules and fittings Bamboo, cork, windings and fittings are in good shape and it comes with a cloth bag and a steel case, both in good shape. All the ferrules are of good quality and fit together nicely. I have no idea as to its age. I bought this rod from the same lady in Rhode Island at the same time that I bought the Leonard, and it is a nice handling bamboo rod. I suspect the rod is in the $450 catagory, and pending further information I would sell it fo that. I am open to sugestions

Un-named bamboo rod butt

The picture below is of my "The Amherst" 8'6" #6 bamboo fly rod.

This rod belonged to my grandfather John Proctor. He was an avid fly fisherman and spent so much time at Mooshead Lake in Maine that they named the pronintory where he spent much of his time Proctor Point. The rod is in excellent shape, with all of the flamed bamboo pieces the same size, varnish and wrappings excellent, cork, fittings, bag and case all in excellent shape. This is a real nice handling rod, and although I will probably sell it, at the moment I am not sure of its value, but it appears to be in the $600 to $750 range. I do not do much fishing these days and the kids arn't interested, so..... Not sure what I am going to do with it at the moment, but I could probably be convinced to sell it.