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Downtowns with railroad tracks as the center

Started by index, July 13, 2021, 12:24:50 AM

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This is a very specific sort of arrangement I'm looking for. I've wanted to compile a list of towns that are like this so this forum post could help me. Think:

       
  • Ashland, VA
  • Mt Olive, NC
  • Waxhaw, NC
  • Calypso, NC
  • Lyons, GA
  • Tabor City, NC
  • Estill, SC
  • Salley, SC
  • Southern Pines, NC
but NOT something like La Grange, KY, or Tampa, FL with street running tracks, and not just any old town that has a railroad track running through the middle splitting it in half (St Pauls, NC or Star, NC to name two examples of what I'm not looking for with this) To describe it with a diagram, it's something like this:



I'm being so specific because I asked this question before somewhere else and got responses that were nothing what I was looking for, like a railroad track running behind downtown like in Boone, IA, Belmont, NC, or something like Rainier, OR.

Places like Faison, NC would almost qualify for the list I was looking for if the downtown was along the aforementioned parallel roads in the diagram. Places like Allendale, SC, Landrum, SC, Warsaw, NC, and Mt Holly, NC are kind of grey areas because they have a bit of both going on, like a mix between the bullet list and the arrangement in Faison, NC - a downtown that's on the parallel roads but not exclusively on it.

Feel free to post any situation like Allendale/Landrum/Mt Holly/Warsaw. There doesn't necessarily need to be buildings on both sides, there just has to be part, or all of the downtown situated on the parallel roads. (So something like the bottom half of the diagram works as well.)

This arrangement seems to be super common in NC, sporadic in SC and GA, and nearly nonexistent elsewhere. Supposedly they built the downtowns like this to show the importance of the railroads but I'm curious as to why it seems so geographically limited. I'm curious to know of any examples outside of NC, GA, and SC. If you're confused about anything I said or if something fits or not, post it anyway and I'll see if it fits.

Edit: To clarify it's also got to be like, the centerpiece of downtown, it can't be off to the side or anything
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US 89

I realize it's in Georgia, but Hapeville is sort of a perfect example.

Morgan, UT looks like the bottom half of that diagram if you consider Commercial Street to be your "downtown"  area. It certainly feels more like a historic downtown in that area around 125 North than at the actual city center on the other side of the river.

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#2
Quote from: US 89 on July 13, 2021, 01:15:33 AM
I realize it’s in Georgia, but Hapeville is sort of a perfect example.

Morgan, UT looks like the bottom half of that diagram if you consider Commercial Street to be your “downtown” area. It certainly feels more like a historic downtown in that area around 125 North than at the actual city center on the other side of the river.
Yeah, Hapeville is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Here's a list of them I just put together from what I and somebody else found so far: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1MZgVD1KDR0kaErvtecS8lyzhWJCkK1sS&usp=sharing
Morgan, UT could almost make it, it just lacks a real city street on the other side.

For my map, if there's no real downtown but there's parallel roads, I'll just count the densest area/road with the most driveways to homes as "downtown". In GA/SC/NC is okay, by the way.
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TheHighwayMan3561

self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

plain

A former "almost" example example is La Crosse, VA. Track long removed.
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Mapmikey

More examples:

Robersonvlle NC
Bethel NC
Tarboro NC (streets turned into a one-way pair)
St Matthews SC (interesting as the railroad is below street levels)
Lake City SC
Summerville SC
Blackville SC (RR removed)
Williston SC (RR removed)
Aiken SC (RR removed)

1995hoo

Enfield, NC. You see it from the Auto Train. We drove thru there in May bypassing a backup on I-95. Depressing place, the buildings along both sides of the tracks look abandoned.
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Max Rockatansky

Really it's not too uncommon for the plot you describe to be the original layout of any community started as a rail siding.  Usually most communities and cities manage to survive their siding origins tend to develop more on one side than the other.  Downtown Hanford, California comes to mind though with the former Southern Pacific tracks between 5th and 6th Streets.

catch22


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Quote from: 1995hoo on July 13, 2021, 07:37:00 AM
Enfield, NC. You see it from the Auto Train. We drove thru there in May bypassing a backup on I-95. Depressing place, the buildings along both sides of the tracks look abandoned.
Unfortunately a lot of Eastern North Carolina is like that, especially along the I-95 corridor. IIRC, Rocky Mount's downtown used to be dilapidated and run down but they've done a pretty good restoration project, same with Goldsboro. Despite that, the kind of decay we have here isn't nearly as bad as some downtown areas in the Mississippi Delta/Arkansas. Shells of buildings, smashed and boarded-up windows, empty lots, etc.
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#10
Quote from: catch22 on July 13, 2021, 08:03:27 AM
Fort Collins, CO

https://goo.gl/maps/8omxf88uoPyFHEU7A
Not quite what I had in mind, it's off to the side as opposed to the downtown being built around it. If it was on the area's main street (or main street pair, considering what we're talking about here), it would've counted. On my map that'd get a black pin. Still useful nonetheless since I'm documenting those on my own.
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hotdogPi

Reading, MA at the location of the train station
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Dirt Roads

Morehead City, North Carolina.  The North Carolina Rail Road splits into the middle of US-70 near the community college and runs down the middle of Arundel Avenue all the way to the Port of North Carolina (now Port of Morehead City).  That's almost 3-1/4 miles.

Dirt Roads

Quote from: 1995hoo on July 13, 2021, 07:37:00 AM
Enfield, NC. You see it from the Auto Train. We drove thru there in May bypassing a backup on I-95. Depressing place, the buildings along both sides of the tracks look abandoned.

I worked on a large railroad project north of Enfield back in the mid-1980s.  It always felt like downtown was on one side of the tracks, kind of like next door to here in Mebane.  But from the perspective of someone riding the train, I understand that perspective.  So from that perspective, Mebane NC also fits the bill.  So does Thomasville NC, except that the railroad corridor used to be much wider and is now occupied by some parking lots between the two Main Streets.

jp the roadgeek

Meriden and Wallingford, CT are both good examples.  Meriden is undergoing a downtown revitalization project with the train station as the centerpiece.
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NWI_Irish96

This would describe a lot of the inner Chicago suburbs that are on Metra lines.

A few I can think of:
Berwyn
Riverside
Brookfield
Lagrange
Des Plaines
Mt. Prospect

I'm sure there are more.
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hobsini2

Quote from: cabiness42 on July 13, 2021, 09:16:42 AM
This would describe a lot of the inner Chicago suburbs that are on Metra lines.

A few I can think of:
Berwyn
Riverside
Brookfield
Lagrange
Des Plaines
Mt. Prospect

I'm sure there are more.
Downers Grove, Westmont, Wheaton are a few more I know.
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CoreySamson

Several Texas ones that may or may not fit the criteria:

Buda
Wallis
Louise
Raymondville

Boling-Iago almost works, but the tracks have been removed.
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Henry

Renton, WA is another one, with a single-track setup running right through.
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Dirt Roads

There's several in West Virginia.  Here's a few that I am familiar with:

Hurricane, West Virginia
East Bank, West Virginia
Montgomery, West Virginia

I was just discussing the one in Hurricane on another thread.  Putnam Avenue on the north side of the C&O Railway was part of downtown when I was growing up, but after the grade crossing next to the station was closed in the early 1970s, the north side became more residential than business.  At one time, Teays Valley Hardware opened a second branch on Putnam Avenue (early 1980s, as I recall) but it didn't last long.  This is an unusual situation since the railroad east of the old Hurricane Station starts into a cut and both sections of downtown were overlooking the depressed railroad.

Montgomery was unique in the fact that the south side of the C&O Railway was once occupied by West Virginia Institute of Technology (WV Tech, later WVU Tech), which relocated to Beckley between 2015 and 2017.  There's two distinct sections of "railroad tracks down the center".  The west end of town has Second Avenue (WV-61) on the south side and Third Avenue on the north side.  As you traverse the bend in the river, Third Avenue slides into Fourth Avenue, which runs along the north side through the east end of town.  Back in my days, most of the traffic coming across the Montgomery Bridge (Earl Vickers Bridge, unsigned WV-6) dumped onto Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue, which were then much busier than Second Avenue (WV-61).

US 89

Looking elsewhere in Georgia: College Park, Buford, Flowery Branch, Norcross, Acworth, Villa Rica, and Douglasville (and almost certainly more) all seem like pretty good examples that aren't on your map. Decatur is similar though their core historic downtown area is a few blocks north of the tracks.

Something I've noticed in my few years living in Georgia but never really given much thought to until now: Georgia has a ton of railroads. Almost every town of note has one and I wouldn't be surprised if every single county had a rail line. That is most definitely not the case in the western US.

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#22
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on July 13, 2021, 09:13:17 AM
Meriden and Wallingford, CT are both good examples.  Meriden is undergoing a downtown revitalization project with the train station as the centerpiece.
Even though the buildings aren't facing the track (they're centered on Colony Street) I guess that kind of works with the railroad station as the nexus of downtown.
Quote from: cabiness42 on July 13, 2021, 09:16:42 AM
This would describe a lot of the inner Chicago suburbs that are on Metra lines.

A few I can think of:
Berwyn
Riverside
Brookfield
Lagrange
Des Plaines
Mt. Prospect

I'm sure there are more.
All these are good for the list. Cool to see so many of these in one location outside of the South.
Quote from: CoreySamson on July 13, 2021, 10:26:28 AM
Several Texas ones that may or may not fit the criteria:

Buda
Wallis
Louise
Raymondville

Boling-Iago almost works, but the tracks have been removed.
All of those are actually good (Including the last one, really I'm looking for the layout) (sans Raymondville, downtown is centered on Hidalgo Ave rather than 7th and 6th facing the tracks).
Quote from: Henry on July 13, 2021, 10:40:27 AM
Renton, WA is another one, with a single-track setup running right through.
This one looks more like a street runner - if Houser Way S was physically separated from the tracks, it could be included though.
Quote from: Dirt Roads on July 13, 2021, 10:52:17 AM
There's several in West Virginia.  Here's a few that I am familiar with:

Hurricane, West Virginia
East Bank, West Virginia
Montgomery, West Virginia

All of these work, so they're on the list I have in the aforementioned link now.
Quote from: US 89 on July 13, 2021, 11:07:45 AM
Looking elsewhere in Georgia: College Park, Buford, Flowery Branch, Norcross, Acworth, Villa Rica, and Douglasville (and almost certainly more) all seem like pretty good examples that aren't on your map. Decatur is similar though their core historic downtown area is a few blocks north of the tracks.

Something I've noticed in my few years living in Georgia but never really given much thought to until now: Georgia has a ton of railroads. Almost every town of note has one and I wouldn't be surprised if every single county had a rail line. That is most definitely not the case in the western US.

All added. That alone partially explains why there's so many of these towns in GA, SC, and NC, but I have to wonder why it isn't absolutely everywhere in any other places. Much like those places, a lot of the towns in this country grew up around railroads but they weren't laid out like that at all. If I had to take a stab in the dark I'd imagine it might've been some sort of law related to how towns were laid out. A similar situation related to how the growth of towns was regulated led to there being tons of square/circular city limits in the south, particularly those three states as well. Might be a good discussion to fork off into the urban planning board.
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kphoger

Quote from: hobsini2 on July 13, 2021, 10:00:59 AM

Quote from: cabiness42 on July 13, 2021, 09:16:42 AM
This would describe a lot of the inner Chicago suburbs that are on Metra lines.

A few I can think of:
Berwyn
Riverside
Brookfield
Lagrange
Des Plaines
Mt. Prospect

I'm sure there are more.

Downers Grove, Westmont, Wheaton are a few more I know.

Yep, and those aren't the only ones either.
Besides Wheaton, I also immediately thought of Elmhurst, for example.
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