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Highways built parallel to railroads

Started by OldDominion75, February 03, 2023, 01:50:27 AM

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OldDominion75

In my neck of the woods, there are several highway corridors that mirror old railroad routes, some of which don't even exist anymore. From what historical maps I can attain, these highways don't appear to have a stage road or turnpike predecessor. I find it fascinating how towns and cities emerged from the railroads.

NC 186, a small portion of VA 35 through Boykins, and General Thomas Hwy (CR 671) were built over the old Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. The CSX freight trains still run to this day. The town of Seaboard was established as a railroad company town.

US 158 from Henderson to NC 903 in Halifax County was built over the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad (abandoned in the mid 80s). Many of the communities along the route like Manson and Macon were founded as train depots. There's not too many vestiges of the old railroad left here. Up until a handful of years ago, a driveway off 158 in Summit still had a railroad crossing signal standing.

The railroads leaving southward from Petersburg were supplanted twice - first by U.S. highways, then by Interstate highways. US 1 and later I-85 were built over the SAL railroad line from Petersburg to Henderson. US 301 and later I-95 were built over the Petersburg and Roanoke Railroad to Weldon. Alberta, McKenney, Jarratt, Stony Creek and Carson were all train depots.



amroad17

Don't forget US 460 practically running alongside the Norfolk Southern (formerly Norfolk & Western) tracks from Windsor up to Petersburg.  It was General Mahone and his wife that named the towns between Suffolk and Petersburg.

Many highways in the Midwest and the West were built next to railroads.  Many of these railroads are still in operation.  Nothing like seeing a 150 car train alongside I-40 in New Mexico or Arizona.
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kirbykart

NY 242 from Ellicottville to Franklinville is a fairly interesting one, partly for this crossing: https://goo.gl/maps/2jCcLvPYFch7bjHb6

CtrlAltDel

Well, much of US-66, and its successor I-55, parallel a railroad, I don't know which one, in Illinois.
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

SEWIGuy

Highways built parallel to railroads are usually an original highway routing. The right of way next to the tracks were usually easier to follow and cheaper to acquire back in the day.

Max Rockatansky

CA 99 in the Central Valley is mostly right next to the Union Pacific.  In fact, there is not an infrequent number of wrecks that end up on the railroad grade given it is so close in places.

Hot Rod Hootenanny

I-80 & US 30 parallels the Union Pacific line (and the Platt River) in Central Nebraska.
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FrCorySticha

Quote from: SEWIGuy on February 03, 2023, 09:06:21 AM
Highways built parallel to railroads are usually an original highway routing. The right of way next to the tracks were usually easier to follow and cheaper to acquire back in the day.

And a lot of the original right of way, at least in Montana, was local wagon roads used by farmers, ranchers, etc. to get their goods to the railroad depots. That's why some original highway routings would bounce back and forth across the railroad.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: FrCorySticha on February 03, 2023, 12:50:25 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on February 03, 2023, 09:06:21 AM
Highways built parallel to railroads are usually an original highway routing. The right of way next to the tracks were usually easier to follow and cheaper to acquire back in the day.

And a lot of the original right of way, at least in Montana, was local wagon roads used by farmers, ranchers, etc. to get their goods to the railroad depots. That's why some original highway routings would bounce back and forth across the railroad.

With CA 99 in the Central Valley a lot of the initial alignments which were part of US 99 were built as frontage roads of the Southern Pacific during the 1870s.  The rail frontages in the Central Valley quickly became more popular than the existing 1850s era Stockton-Los Angeles Road in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Bitmapped

US 50 between Athens, OH and Guysville, OH was rebuilt as an improved 2-lane road around 1960. Most of the road was constructed next to the tracks for the B&O Parkersburg Subdivision, which was subsequently abandoned in the 1980s. In the 1990s, ODOT came back and used most of the ROW for a dualized set of eastbound lanes.

TheHighwayMan3561

US 10 in Minnesota pretty much from Anoka to Moorhead has a railroad within view, with the exception of the not-original bypasses of cities like Little Falls.
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CtrlAltDel

Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

epzik8

Parts of US 40 northeast of Baltimore run next to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and a CSX freight line
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____________________________

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Rick Powell

Old US66 parallels the old Chicago & Alton route (Now Canadian National north of Joliet and Union Pacific south of Joliet) thru most of the state of Illinois. The original US 66 alignments hug the railroad alignment the most, with the newer re-routes moving farther and farther away.

GaryV

Why are people seeming to make this out to be some kind of surprising coincidence?

When people wanted to move from one place to another, tracks were blazed through the wilderness. If there was enough traffic, roads were put in. When people wanted to move goods, railroads went in* - often following or near to the pathways and roads that were already there, because they were linking up the same centers of population. This is especially true when the freeways came to be, because much of the country was fully settled before they were built. Granted, in some places the railroad came first. For example, there was a railroad linking eastern and western Canada across the north shore of Lake Superior long before the road was built. And as railroads were built across the Plains, communities often sprung up near the railroad and roads to the community came along as well.

* - The UK, perhaps more than any other country, has an extensive system of canals that pre-dated the railroads. There you will find both rail lines and highways paralleling the path of the canals - because of the need for people and goods to move from one place to the other.

MoiraPrime

Quote from: GaryV on February 03, 2023, 04:12:24 PM
Why are people seeming to make this out to be some kind of surprising coincidence?

I think it's a trend on these forums that people like to use observations they see in road networks, even obvious ones, and use them as a start for discussion. Don't overthink it too much.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: MoiraPrime on February 03, 2023, 05:22:54 PM
Quote from: GaryV on February 03, 2023, 04:12:24 PM
Why are people seeming to make this out to be some kind of surprising coincidence?

I think it's a trend on these forums that people like to use observations they see in road networks, even obvious ones, and use them as a start for discussion. Don't overthink it too much.

It is rarer when a modern highway is constructed where no mode of transportation existed prior. 

MATraveler128

I-95 in South Florida between West Palm Beach and Boca Raton
Decommission 128 south of Peabody!

Lowest untraveled number: 56

CovalenceSTU

In Oregon, much of Highway 30 (most of I-84, from Portland to north of Tide Creek, and again from Clatskanie to Wauna) parallels active railroads, while Highway 101 from Wheeler to Bay City parallels the former Port of Tillamook Railway.

interstatefan990

From its northern starting point until it reaches Hawthorne, the Saw Mill River Parkway in NY is roughly parallel to the Metro North Railroad's Harlem Line. In fact, if you take the MNR along this route (goes into NYC), you'll see cars out the window not too far away, going down the Saw Mill side-by-side to the train. Sometimes the speeds even match up!
Multi-lane roundabouts are an abomination to mankind.

OldDominion75

Quote from: MoiraPrime on February 03, 2023, 05:22:54 PM
Quote from: GaryV on February 03, 2023, 04:12:24 PM
Why are people seeming to make this out to be some kind of surprising coincidence?

I think it's a trend on these forums that people like to use observations they see in road networks, even obvious ones, and use them as a start for discussion. Don't overthink it too much.

To clarify the purpose of this thread so I may meet your high standards of what constitutes appropriate road enthusiast discussion, this thread is for the discussion of highways born from the railroad and the cities/towns that owe their existence to the railroad. It may seem obvious to westerners where the infrastructure is largely rooted in the railroads. On the east coast, however, the lands had been settled for several generations before the coming of the railroad. Some highways, like the Historic Albemarle Trail in North Carolina, date back to colonial times. The I-85 route from Petersburg to NC was built over an old Native trading path. Then there's I-40 between I-95 and Faison, a segment of a major interstate, built in the 1980s and not following any preexisting route. Different highways have different histories.

pderocco

The railroads were "highway" before roads ever were, but they weren't the first. Rivers were. You see lots of railroads that follow rivers, because rivers often cut canyons that have easy grades. Then road highways (e.g., US routes) are built along railroads. Then interstates are build over or fairly near to those routes. See: Columbia River Gorge.

Roadgeekteen

An opposite to this is that many new light rail networks are built along highways.
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fillup420

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on February 05, 2023, 01:18:09 AM
An opposite to this is that many new light rail networks are built along highways.

Even when i was a small child, i wondered why light rail or regional passenger service rail lines were not built in the medians/next to freeways. The grading is good, high traffic volumes, etc.

I have even come up with ways of transporting cars via rail along interstate corridors. I just feel like there is so much more potential for interstate/freeway ROWs.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: fillup420 on February 05, 2023, 10:06:54 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on February 05, 2023, 01:18:09 AM
An opposite to this is that many new light rail networks are built along highways.

Even when i was a small child, i wondered why light rail or regional passenger service rail lines were not built in the medians/next to freeways. The grading is good, high traffic volumes, etc.

I have even come up with ways of transporting cars via rail along interstate corridors. I just feel like there is so much more potential for interstate/freeway ROWs.

I wondered that when I first saw the alternatives for the HSR versus what they ultimately selected I the Central Valley.



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