The hook in the middle is probably a journal hook. Car inspectors used it to lift journal lids and check to make sure the waste wasn't caught in the bearing.
Good answers, but nobody else but you mentioned the angle bars and matching bolts, one of which is only a partial angle bar. These would have been bolted to the sides of the rails where two pieces of rail meet end to end. Some railroads called them joint bars instead of angle bars. All the other answers are right with the remains of the glad hand, spikes, date nails for ties, and the tool with the handle would have been used for both pulling bleed rods and lifting journal box covers, and keys.
Neat
The rod with a hook is used by car inspectors.
Can be used to activate the brake bleed, check "waste" in the journal box and be drug across the axle to detect defects (scoring, etc)
Howard (son of a car inspector)
keys
The longer keys look light enough to have been coach keys rather than switch keys.
David
Journal Hook
The hook in the middle is probably a journal hook. Car inspectors used it to lift journal lids and check to make sure the waste wasn't caught in the bearing.
Nick
Visit the Penn Lake Railway Blog at Model Railroad Hobbyist
Good Answers
Good answers, but nobody else but you mentioned the angle bars and matching bolts, one of which is only a partial angle bar. These would have been bolted to the sides of the rails where two pieces of rail meet end to end. Some railroads called them joint bars instead of angle bars. All the other answers are right with the remains of the glad hand, spikes, date nails for ties, and the tool with the handle would have been used for both pulling bleed rods and lifting journal box covers, and keys.
Point?
Does that partial piece look like a portion of the turnout points? Curiouser and curiouser.
Neil Erickson, Hawai’i
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