I figured since there are tons of these around, might as well see what we can dig up.
For example in NJ you have the NX Draw, abandoned since the 80s and possibly the 70s with no tracks leading upto it
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2716%2F4489030177_792d585241.jpg&hash=96bd66383cc63e720d38d1a7489f15c2da373a38)
Or you have this abandoned rail line in wildwood Nj (there is another one north of NJ147 too)
Bing used for birds eye view purposes. Do not hurt me for that one
http://binged.it/tOB0CD (http://binged.it/tOB0CD)
Or this abandoned jersey central rail line over NJ72
http://binged.it/roLFtW (http://binged.it/roLFtW)
Quote from: SteveG1988 on November 16, 2011, 09:38:34 PM
Bing used for birds eye view purposes. Do not hurt me for that one
Huh?
Quote from: NE2 on November 16, 2011, 11:40:49 PM
Quote from: SteveG1988 on November 16, 2011, 09:38:34 PM
Bing used for birds eye view purposes. Do not hurt me for that one
Huh?
Some people do not like bing at all...and complain about links to their mapping software. the don't hurt me was a joke.
Fuck the complainers.
There is an abandoned railroad ROW west of Mansfield, AR
http://binged.it/stiVoD
And a nice bridge near Hartford
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2793%2F4495775324_729ab30c4e_z_d.jpg&hash=c539084a29ecc89df869e31f4e776c7982156d4c)
My town has two. One has been gone much longer than I've been alive. Part of it has been a park as long as I can remember. The other one used to run behind my neighborhood but was abandoned in the 80s. I vaguely remember a bridge over it being torn up and replaced with solid roadway when I was really young. VA 144 still has a bridge over the ROW just west of the I-95 exit. I'll get pics of both this weekend.
There are abandoned railroads, then there are abandoned railroads.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-snc6%2F217251_1772544151165_1166104707_31638153_3565828_n.jpg&hash=7e0c9ebcc4d2c7722bd150adb8391b03bfce4ac3)
This pile of stones was to have been a bridge support for a railroad over Alum Creek, next to Kilbourne Ohio. The supports for this bridge were constructed in 1850. Alas, the crossing beams were never built as the railroad company (in this case the Springfield-Mt. Vernon-Pittsburg[h]) ran out of funding and stopped construction as is.
Here's the former railroad yard at the ferry terminal in Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. You can see the outline where the RR tracks have been paved over.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zm_5kbujQNs/TsYll5GjRWI/AAAAAAAAIK4/MXSGivrHUxI/s800/DSC00343.JPG)
All cargo is now handled by truck but until 1988 when the railroad was abandoned, it arrived in freight cars brought over from Nova Scotia on railroad ferries. (Here you can see the RR track embedded in the ferry ramp) The track in Newfoundland was narrow-gauge (3'-6" vs: 4'-8 1/2" ) so when the standard gauge cars arrived, they would be jacked-up, the wheel-sets replaced with narrow-gauge ones and off they would go across the island.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-46n0MKHkWTk/TsYlmElcuGI/AAAAAAAAIK0/URlC7Ad8Kyo/s640/84-08Scan10076.JPG)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--jWlIDR2kjg/TsYllkfS-bI/AAAAAAAAIKw/hKHp5-TAWrU/s640/84-08Scan10073.JPG)
You can see the abandoned Grand Rapids Railroad as you travel US-31 in Michigan, especially in Petoskey, where they keep the old railroad crossings downtown. If I hadn't read a historical placard saying that the railroad was abandoned I would've said it was still running, the tracks are still in a good shape.
There's the Hojack Swing Bridge. It's either a beautiful historic bridge or an ugly monstrosity and a navigational hazard depending on who you ask.
http://rocwiki.org/Hojack_Swing_Bridge
I posted this one before I believe, but this is a piece of abandoned railroad at its junction with an old alignment of US 41/M28 east of Covington, MI.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi113.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn208%2Ftriplemultiplex%2FUS%252053%2520Oct%252005%2FUP%252007%2FUP043.jpg%3Ft%3D1275691107&hash=254ae3c64c226ef60404e07856d81ace5f75a195)
Northern Wisconsin is crisscrossed with abandoned railroads built during the great lumber boom. I know of many places where one needs 4 wheel drive to travel an old spur into the woods that saw its last train a century ago. And I know of others that are barely walkable due to the growth of vegetation.
Literally thousands of miles of abandoned railroad live on in Wisconsin as Rail-Trails. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure we invented that in this state.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on November 18, 2011, 06:46:14 PM
Literally thousands of miles of abandoned railroad live on in Wisconsin as Rail-Trails. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure we invented that in this state.
Maine had a (privately owned by the Niben Club) rail trail in 1902 :) http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=oron02sw.jpg&state=ME http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=bang02se.jpg&state=ME
This was the first railroad in Maine, built by the Bangor and Piscataquis Canal and Railroad Company in 1836 and abandoned in 1870 in favor of a new line along the Penobscot River.
Even here in Chicagoland, the railroad capital of the US, we have some abandoned railroads. Most of ours have become trails: Joliet Junction Trail, Great Western Trail, Illinois Prairie Path, and more.
Then you have the railroad lines that haven't been formally abandoned, but are out of use and so are used to store rail cars. I can think of several of these in Colorado, including the Royal Gorge route up the Arkansas River through the mountains that has not been used west of Royal Gorge for 15 years. About a year ago, driving up U.S. 50 we had to endure the visual assault of a steady line of stored rail cars across the river from the highway. I'm a little surprised UPRR was allowed to do this, since this limited the mobility of bighorn sheep that inhabit the canyon and the mountains on either side (the canyon is named Bighorn Sheep).
Every summer we go to South Fork, which is on U.S. 160 at the eastern base of Wolf Creek Pass. At one time, the town of Creede, about 25 miles up CO-149 from South Fork, had a major mine, and there was a Denver and Rio Grande Western standard-gauge rail line leading into it from South Fork. When the mine closed in the late 1980s, the rail line fell into disuse. It continued to be used up to South Fork from the east until a lumber mill there closed down. (This is one of those tracks with lines of stored cars on it, between South Fork and Del Norte to the east). While staying there this summer, at an RV park near the Rio Grande bridge and the railroad crossing over CO-149, I had a chance to ask about activities I had observed over the past five years or so. Between South Fork and Creede, the old railroad crosses the highway several times. The crossings had been paved over, but a few years back I noticed they had been restored. My conversation with the guy at a small station that has been moved there indicated that this is an activity of a historic railroad restoration association that has incorporated itself as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.
This association has been slowly restoring the track north from South Fork and offers rides in small self-propelled rail maintenance cars. The tracks would not currently support a full-weight train. Eventually, they want to have the track rebuilt to Creede and be able to offer trips using cars drawn by full-size locomotives. Sitting on the track by this station is a turn of the 20th century-vintage Pullman car. Creede has a nationally renowned repertory theater that operates during the summer, one reason we go there, and this would be one possible draw to attract riders from South Fork.
I wish them luck, but it looks like the cost of restoring this track will be significant.
In New Jersey you have lots of abandoned railroads.
NJ 36 has the defunct CNJ Keansburg Branch along its route near the Earle Navy Base.
The old PRR Spring Lake Branch is a trail from Allaire to around NJ 34.
The defunct Rahway Valley Railroad from Aldene to Summit.
The Lehigh Valley RR has an abandoned tunnel near Pattenburg, NJ.
Florida has some in Polk City, Haines City, and in Winter Garden along FL 438.
A couple of railfans set up a KML file containing actual and historical Québec province railroads.
http://quebecrailwaymap.webs.com/
I remember there used to be a RR line that ran between Oshkosh and Ripon WI that used to actually be a junction with US 41 between Hwy K and 9th Ave. The line still exists up to about where it crossed 20th Ave. East of there is only a abandoned ROW that lead into the quarry along Osborn Ave. My grandparents used to live a block from Osborn and Mason on Kensington Ave (2nd house west of Mason St). We used to take walks along those old tracks up to the shopping area on Koeller St.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
It is still on google maps. Zoom in to Oshkosh near US 41 and Hwy 44.
Quote from: hobsini2 on January 16, 2012, 12:22:18 AM
I remember there used to be a RR line that ran between Oshkosh and Ripon WI that used to actually be a junction with US 41 between Hwy K and 9th Ave. The line still exists up to about where it crossed 20th Ave. East of there is only a abandoned ROW that lead into the quarry along Osborn Ave. My grandparents used to live a block from Osborn and Mason on Kensington Ave (2nd house west of Mason St). We used to take walks along those old tracks up to the shopping area on Koeller St.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
It is still on google maps. Zoom in to Oshkosh near US 41 and Hwy 44.
That Milwaukee Road branch originally went all the way into downtown Oshkosh. It originally crossed the river on a bridge parallel to the former SOO bridge and mixed in with the SOO and CNW trackage in the yard that was where the old Park Plaza Mall is now. After some time, the SOO and MILW bridges were combined into one with MILW using trackage rights on the SOO's structure. The line between the bridge (including a small interchange yard) and the current end of the track by US 41, including the at-grade US 41 crossing, was abandoned sometime in the early 1980s.
MILW had a similar branch that snaked its way deep into Fond du Lac as well, ending at a concrete batch plant along Scott St just east of Main St.
Mike
The closest thing to an abandoned railroad in Medford, New York, are the abandoned sidetrack over NY 112, and a few abandoned spurs between NY 112 and the rickety Horse Block Road bridge. The nearest truly abandoned lines are the segment of the Port Jefferson Branch that used to go out to Wading River, and the Manorville Branch.
Hernando County, Florida is a whole different story. Besides the Withlacoochee State Trail, which enters from Pasco County into Ridge Manor and leaves in Istachatta to go to Citrus County, you've got at least two heading northeast from the CSX Brooksville Subdivision, one of which is now part of the incomplete Good Neighbor Trail, which when complete is supposed to go from Brooksville to the Withlacoochee Trail in Croom.
Another section of abanoned railroad that spans from the CSX Brooksville Subdivision can be found at the truck weigh station along US 98 just northwest of Hernando CR 485.
Another abandoned spur went west of Brooksville, but there are no signs of it today.
Quote from: webfil on January 15, 2012, 07:42:35 PM
A couple of railfans set up a KML file containing actual and historical Québec province railroads.
http://quebecrailwaymap.webs.com/
Love. this.
I really should go and shoot around the abandoned CSX line between Beauharnois and Adirondack Jct, Kahnawake.
In Florida, US 1 down to Key West was originally built on a rail line abandoned after it was trashed by a hurricane in 1935. US 1 was later moved to a largely new alignment, from which you can still see some of the old bridges (most notably the remains of a long through truss that was too narrow for a road, so the road was built on top of the truss).
In Alaska, the McCarthy Road east of Chitina, and the Copper River Highway east of Cordova, were both built on the right of way of the old Copper River and North West (mocked at first as the "Can't Run and Never Will") railroad hauling copper ore from the Kennecott mine to the port of Cordova until both the railroad and the mine were abandoned in 1938. The east end of the Cordova segment of AK 10 crosses the Copper River on the recently-restored Million Dollar Bridge built for the railroad circa 1910. The McCarthy Road also has a notable bridge crossing high above the Kuskulana River (before guardrails were added, it was high on "scariest bridge" lists).
Parts of HI 19 north of Hilo were built on the bridges and ROW of a railroad abandoned after the 1946 tsunami. You can still see many of the bridges from the more or less parallel Mamalahoa Highway (very twisty and narrow, compared to the straighter railroad grade), which was replaced circa 1960 by HI 19.
Quote from: Takumi on November 18, 2011, 12:14:31 AM
My town has two. One has been gone much longer than I've been alive. Part of it has been a park as long as I can remember. The other one used to run behind my neighborhood but was abandoned in the 80s. I vaguely remember a bridge over it being torn up and replaced with solid roadway when I was really young. VA 144 still has a bridge over the ROW just west of the I-95 exit. I'll get pics of both this weekend.
This again; I remember when the city tried to convert one into a bike path but was shot down due to two communities not being fond of each other.
Quote from: mgk920 on January 16, 2012, 10:38:11 PM
Quote from: hobsini2 on January 16, 2012, 12:22:18 AM
I remember there used to be a RR line that ran between Oshkosh and Ripon WI that used to actually be a junction with US 41 between Hwy K and 9th Ave. The line still exists up to about where it crossed 20th Ave. East of there is only a abandoned ROW that lead into the quarry along Osborn Ave. My grandparents used to live a block from Osborn and Mason on Kensington Ave (2nd house west of Mason St). We used to take walks along those old tracks up to the shopping area on Koeller St.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
It is still on google maps. Zoom in to Oshkosh near US 41 and Hwy 44.
That Milwaukee Road branch originally went all the way into downtown Oshkosh. It originally crossed the river on a bridge parallel to the former SOO bridge and mixed in with the SOO and CNW trackage in the yard that was where the old Park Plaza Mall is now. After some time, the SOO and MILW bridges were combined into one with MILW using trackage rights on the SOO's structure. The line between the bridge (including a small interchange yard) and the current end of the track by US 41, including the at-grade US 41 crossing, was abandoned sometime in the early 1980s.
MILW had a similar branch that snaked its way deep into Fond du Lac as well, ending at a concrete batch plant along Scott St just east of Main St.
Mike
I don't suppose you have any more details on said MILW branch in FdL? I grew up there in the 90s. My parents grew up in the 50s/60s and don't remember this line, though they weren't really rail fans. I've seen exactly where it went on old maps and I've even noticed a hump in the road bed of Cotton St where the line went. Interestingly, there is a house on the north side of the street that is directly on top of the ROW and it looks like it's been there for some time. I wonder when these tracks were removed.
Sorry for the old thread resurrection.
Have the (mostly) abandoned New Haven-Northampton Farmington Canal line in my area. Much of it has been turned into a linear trail that is part of the East Coast Greenway. Some pieces still exist as an abandoned rail line. Here is such an example of where the trail ends and the railroad track still exists (look closely at the road).
https://goo.gl/maps/1FVVND8ynN52
Quote from: oscar on January 28, 2012, 04:35:28 PM
In Florida, US 1 down to Key West was originally built on a rail line abandoned after it was trashed by a hurricane in 1935. US 1 was later moved to a largely new alignment, from which you can still see some of the old bridges (most notably the remains of a long through truss that was too narrow for a road, so the road was built on top of the truss).
In Alaska, the McCarthy Road east of Chitina, and the Copper River Highway east of Cordova, were both built on the right of way of the old Copper River and North West (mocked at first as the "Can't Run and Never Will") railroad hauling copper ore from the Kennecott mine to the port of Cordova until both the railroad and the mine were abandoned in 1938. The east end of the Cordova segment of AK 10 crosses the Copper River on the recently-restored Million Dollar Bridge built for the railroad circa 1910. The McCarthy Road also has a notable bridge crossing high above the Kuskulana River (before guardrails were added, it was high on "scariest bridge" lists).
Parts of HI 19 north of Hilo were built on the bridges and ROW of a railroad abandoned after the 1946 tsunami. You can still see many of the bridges from the more or less parallel Mamalahoa Highway (very twisty and narrow, compared to the straighter railroad grade), which was replaced circa 1960 by HI 19.
Yes...US 1 but not the original Overseas Highway which was finished in 1928. Basically it ran from Florida City along Card Sound and occupied the south bound lanes of modern US on Key Largo. The original road ran next to the rail road to Lower Matecumbe Key where it took a ferry to No Name Key. Basically the first Overseas Highway took Watson Road over Big Pine to Little Torch Key where it ran on Old SR 4A. The original highway ran just north of the rails to Sugarloaf Key where it took a coastal turn and jumped over to Geiger Key. From Geiger Key the original highway took Boca Chica Beach to Stock Island where it entered Key West with the railroad. By 1935 the state of Florida had gotten enough money to build the gap from Lower Matecumbe to Big Pine alongside the Overseas Railroad. That's when the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane hit and basically damaged the railroad enough that the state of Florida bought the right-of-way on the cheap. At roughly mile marker 73 you can see the concrete piers that were being put in for a bridge from Lower Matecumbe Key, in fact the tiny island next to it is called Veteran's Key because the workers were WWI vets. So basically whenever you see a SR4A sign somewhere take note because it's the original Overseas Highway designation long before US 1 ever left Miami. You can still see a ton of the original highway alignment next to the rail alignment from Sugarloaf up to Big Pine on Goggle Maps.
Well....now that I've said all that, here is my go-to site for abandon rail finds:
http://www.abandonedrails.com/
In Pennsylvania, up on US 522 in Mount Union is a railroad. I'm not sure who runs it, but since 2010(?) the last train was parked just near PA 747. It runs parallel to US 522 and the road crossings haven't been paved over. When it intersects US 522 only feet away from PA 747, the signals and crossbucks are still remaining. Sometime after that train was parked (and is slowly being eaten away by rust) an "EXEMPT" sign was added under the cross bucks.
There's also the High Line in New York City. Various parts of the track were left during the conversion, and the park doesn't stray off from the railroad. You go through buildings and over avenues of streets which the railroad once traveled. In fact, the overpasses are original, with just elevators and stairs added to access the park. Off the beaten path and over fences, various spurs dead end at buildings. One has a rolling gate, a signal that's well over the age of 20, and the tracks remain. There's even an old security camera under the signal. Another has a railroad spur that had the wall filled in, ending at a building.
The Dequindre Cut was a former Grand Trunk track: http://detroitriverfront.org/riverfront/dequindre-cut/dequindre-cut
Quote from: mdbeaster on May 07, 2016, 01:38:08 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on January 16, 2012, 10:38:11 PM
Quote from: hobsini2 on January 16, 2012, 12:22:18 AM
I remember there used to be a RR line that ran between Oshkosh and Ripon WI that used to actually be a junction with US 41 between Hwy K and 9th Ave. The line still exists up to about where it crossed 20th Ave. East of there is only a abandoned ROW that lead into the quarry along Osborn Ave. My grandparents used to live a block from Osborn and Mason on Kensington Ave (2nd house west of Mason St). We used to take walks along those old tracks up to the shopping area on Koeller St.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
It is still on google maps. Zoom in to Oshkosh near US 41 and Hwy 44.
That Milwaukee Road branch originally went all the way into downtown Oshkosh. It originally crossed the river on a bridge parallel to the former SOO bridge and mixed in with the SOO and CNW trackage in the yard that was where the old Park Plaza Mall is now. After some time, the SOO and MILW bridges were combined into one with MILW using trackage rights on the SOO's structure. The line between the bridge (including a small interchange yard) and the current end of the track by US 41, including the at-grade US 41 crossing, was abandoned sometime in the early 1980s.
MILW had a similar branch that snaked its way deep into Fond du Lac as well, ending at a concrete batch plant along Scott St just east of Main St.
Mike
I don't suppose you have any more details on said MILW branch in FdL? I grew up there in the 90s. My parents grew up in the 50s/60s and don't remember this line, though they weren't really rail fans. I've seen exactly where it went on old maps and I've even noticed a hump in the road bed of Cotton St where the line went. Interestingly, there is a house on the north side of the street that is directly on top of the ROW and it looks like it's been there for some time. I wonder when these tracks were removed.
Sorry for the old thread resurrection.
When I did an internship with the City of Fond du Lac's planning department back in 1991, I recall 'blank outs' where that rail line crossed several concrete paved streets on the city's north and near southwest sides. Although I don't know for certain, I'm thinking that it was abandoned sometime in the late 1960s to mid 1970s time frame. The main riverfront path through downtown FdL is built on that grade.
There are several such abandoned grades lacing through Marshfield, WI, too (abandoned in the 1970s and early 1980s) that are now fiendishly difficult to trace without good detailed maps and period air photos.
And, don't forget the former SOO/WC mainline through Oshkosh, abandoned in the late 1990s when it was combined with the former CNW routing on the city's east side (now CN's Chicago-western Canada mainline).
Mike
There are a decent number of abandoned lines in my area, so I'll have to dig up my pictures and post them at some point.
Also, on a forum I help administrate, we actually have a thread dedicated to abandoned railroad crossings, if anyone wants to read through it: http://www.rxrsignals.com/Phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1596
(I probably have told this story before somewhere here...)
A friend of mine was telling me one of his friends was walking down an "abandoned" line (note the quotes) considering it for the rails-to-trails program. This person had done a fair bit of research into the line, the towns it passes thru, taking walks, etc. One day, to her amazement, a train was coming down the tracks! Apparently she had always researched the line at a certain time of day when the tracks weren't used, so she and the train never crossed paths before! Unlike many years ago it's not a very active track, but there's a train using it at least twice a day. Since it's a freight line, they don't have any published schedules.
I always wondered how much she takes into consideration...I've seen abandoned lines quickly become weeded with maintenance issues. This line has always looked like, well, an active line! Sometimes the little things matter! :-D
Quote
When I did an internship with the City of Fond du Lac's planning department back in 1991, I recall 'blank outs' where that rail line crossed several concrete paved streets on the city's north and near southwest sides. Although I don't know for certain, I'm thinking that it was abandoned sometime in the late 1960s to mid 1970s time frame. The main riverfront path through downtown FdL is built on that grade.
There are several such abandoned grades lacing through Marshfield, WI, too (abandoned in the 1970s and early 1980s) that are now fiendishly difficult to trace without good detailed maps and period air photos.
And, don't forget the former SOO/WC mainline through Oshkosh, abandoned in the late 1990s when it was combined with the former CNW routing on the city's east side (now CN's Chicago-western Canada mainline).
Mike
Thanks for the information. I have always found details on Milwaukee Road trackage to be the most elusive of the big 3 in this part of the state (compared to CNW/Soo). As a kid, I road my bike on that path along the river a couple times a week and had no idea it was a rail bed at one time. Fond du Lac was an incredibly active railroad place at one time and I often wish I was around a few decades earlier because by the time I truly got hooked, nothing was left but Soo/CN.
I found Verne Brummel's railroad slides and these seem to be some of the best old pictures to use as a point of reference, but I can't make out any details on the thumbnails so I'll have to see if CDs are still available. On some pictures of the MILW in FdL, from what I can make out, the tracks already looked overgrown in 1978 so your estimate is probably quite accurate.
Would have loved to see the Oshkosh street-running as well, however the street-running on WSOR in Sheboygan Falls is again running and a bit of a consolation. The rebuilt line from Plymouth-Kohler is probably one of the few instances in the entire country where an abandoned line has been reactivated. It would be amazing to see some more abandoned lines come back to life, though Sheboygan county probably has a disproportionate amount of agriculture and manufacturing which led to said project.
I saw a couple of videos showing former railroads of Southern Ontario including the CASO (Canada Southern line, former CSX/Conrail/Penn Central) along with the last surviving Canadian wigwag signals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yr9kAlmTLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMKvcYAKrRQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZFQfMHMoCk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWcWCh3Too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJJEGl7l9MQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjuWVsfVDk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIocmEewbEg
Quote from: roadman65 on January 14, 2012, 08:48:44 PM
In New Jersey you have lots of abandoned railroads.
There are plenty in my area of Jersey. Here you can see where two railroads crossed at one time in the middle of Beachwood:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9392458,-74.1901988,671m/data=!3m1!1e3 (https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9392458,-74.1901988,671m/data=!3m1!1e3)
The current US 9 roadway was a railroad line that crossed the Barnegat Bay to Seaside Park (you can easily see the old right-of-way from the aerial). There was also a spur from this line across the Toms River into Island Heights. Intersecting this line at the aerial map link above was the Barnegat Branch which ran south from Toms River along the appropriately named Railroad Avenue toward Barnegat. Portions of this line are now a rail trail.
Quote from: Stephane Dumas on May 09, 2016, 07:03:42 PM
I saw a couple of videos showing former railroads of Southern Ontario including the CASO (Canada Southern line, former CSX/Conrail/Penn Central).......
Back in the day.....this was the route you took if taking the train between Detroit, Buffalo and onto New York City. Multiple trains a day and hundreds of passengers passing through Canada and most probably didn't even know it. Customs did a cursory inspection and most passengers were just left alone.
Even today...crossing southern Ontario between Detroit and Buffalo via ON401, 403 and the QEW is faster and 100 miles shorter than via Toledo on !-75 and I-90.
Slightly off-topic when I read these articles about VIA rail who wants its proper network.
http://business.financialpost.com/news/transportation/via-rail-eyeing-private-capital-to-build-its-own-dedicated-rail-lines
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/free-via-from-limited-access-cn-tracks-with-its-own-3b-corridor-from-toronto-to-montreal-report
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/via-rail-plan-says-its-survival-at-risk-if-it-doesnt-get-access-to-dedicated-track-fleet-upgrade
Some of the abandonned railroads lines if they hadn't been torn up, could had got a 2nd breath if VIA rail had acquired some of them, althought they acquired recently the Brockville subdivision from CP rail between Smith Falls and Brockville.
My apartment building was built on top of a now filled-in tunnel that carried the original Troy and Greenfield/Boston (later Boston and Maine) mainline that ran through the Hoosac Tunnel. This portion of the line has since been removed. Not far from here is what was once a grade crossing on I-87 just south of the Mohawk River. There's another notable one between Glens Falls and Lake George that is now a bike path.
I suppose i'll share the fruits of my boredom at work here.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Q91IBeZLh916Q5auDaQ9-x25vh0
I've been tracing abandoned railroad right of ways I've discovered using Google Maps, generally in and around Illinois. The map is incomplete, will always be incomplete, and I'm sure wrong in (many) spots. Eventually I'd to at least have the state of Illinois somewhat complete, but even that is a pipe dream given how many railroads have come and gone out of Chicago. Nonetheless, I love doing it and will keep expanding as I find more abandoned railroads. Much props to the abandoned rails site for being a reference for many of these.
This is the 'remains' of the IC East Omaha double track swing bridge. Tracks on the Council Bluffs side have been removed. Bridge opening mechanism damaged in a fire many years ago, the few times the bridge has been swung since were accomplished with a bulldozer and some cable. Now with the trees I don't think it could be closed. As I recall, it is one of the very longest span RR swing bridges in the world.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.panoramio.com%2Fphotos%2Flarge%2F8128405.jpg&hash=d0825cb7e421f236c79e0566270de294c155922d)
We've got some rather unique abandoned (and quasi-abandoned) rail lines here in the Bay Area, including a long stretch that was part of the original transcontinental line. In about the same timeframe that construction of the transcontinental was taking place northeast of Sacramento over Donner Pass, a western extension to San Francisco Bay was being built. To avoid having to build extensive fill over the marshlands west and immediately south of Sacramento, the Southern Pacific (C.P. Huntington's other RR venture besides the Central Pacific to the east) struck out from Sacramento southward to Stockton, remaining east of the Delta estuaries. The original plan was to snake around the Delta to the south, but marshland was again encountered northwest of Tracy, so the line climbed over Altamont Pass before descending into what is now the Livermore Valley. From there the line extended southwest through Niles Canyon before turning northwest on the East Bay plain to a terminus in Oakland. SP always considered this route as temporary, since they preferred an alignment without significant grades -- but they needed something right away (circa 1857) to transfer goods to and from the Bay harbor to Sacramento -- and, while operationally difficult, the Altamont Pass line sufficed. After several years, they finished the line from Tracy to Martinez along the south side of the Delta and Suisun Bay; this required much filling-in of marshland in the Brentwood and Antioch areas -- but it provided an alternative route to Oakland that avoided the grades and curvature of the original Altamont mountain line. The original would have been largely abandoned except for two things -- the rock quarries between Pleasanton and Livermore, which provided building material for the region, and the construction of the rail bridge across the southern reaches of the San Francisco Bay from Newark to Redwood City, including a swing-span drawbridge (SP always preferred this type when practical). This allowed direct freight movement to San Francisco from the San Joaquin Valley via the Altamont line, which directly linked to the east end of the new bridge. But most traffic, including all through passenger service, utilized the new low-grade line through Antioch and Martinez. Except for local service primarily established to serve the Livermore quarries, the Altamont line was used by trains transporting agricultural products to San Francisco and its port facilities.
Eventually the Altamont line was paralleled, circa 1909, by George Gould's Western Pacific; it went this way because SP, having been granted significant land adjacent to its Martinez line, declined to sell that land to WP for right-of-way (it had already sold off its land grants along Altamont to partially offset operating expenses). SP's policy was to retain the rights to any developable lands along its lines rather than sell them off to maximize their long-term returns. But the business downturn of the '60's and '70's, which hit SP particularly hard, resulted in the 1976 decision to abandon the line from Niles to Tracy. That action sat dormant with the FRA until the Staggers Act was passed in 1980, partially deregulating railroads, including allowing them to shed unwanted trackage. Trackside signals were pulled up by 1983, and tracks were pulled up, east to west, over the subsequent two years. Neighboring WP shelled out some cash to SP in 1986 for use of some of the remaining SP line between Sunol and Livermore so they could refurbish and realign a section of their own track, but after this detour was no longer needed (about 1989), the line was deemed to be abandoned. By this time SP had been sold to Philip Anschutz's Rio Grande Industries; they declined for fiscal reasons to undertake any more activity pulling up unused trackage, allowing it to deteriorate in place through Niles Canyon. For the next 18 years or so, from Niles (by then a neighborhood in Fremont) to between Sunol and Livermore was a segment of weed-overgrown tracks; east of there all the way over the top of the pass to Tracy was abandoned grade. Later SP management had no sentimentality regarding the demise of their original transcontinental line.
Eventually the East Bay Railroad Museum purchased the line from UP (which by then owned/had rights to both SP & WP Altamont lines); the line from Niles to just east of Sunol was refurbished and is now the site of a working tourist line through Niles Canyon, utilizing an assortment of vintage steam and diesel locomotives. The line runs mostly along CA 84, turning north at Sunol to parallel I-680 to the west; there is now a connection to the parallel operating UP line (also used for the ACE commuter trains from San Jose to Stockton) to allow movement and egress of museum equipment. The abandoned grade of the original Altamont line can be seen from, variously, I-580 east of Livermore as well as the original US 50 alignment along Altamont Pass Road to the north of the freeway. Except for a sealed-up tunnel that extends across I-580 underneath the roadway itself, and a short portion of realigned Altamont Pass Road which sits atop the old track berm, the old SP grade is quite intact -- and, to rail history enthusiasts, is worth exploration (along with a ride on the museum trackage -- for a tourist operation, it's not too bad, and comes replete with very knowledgeable docents as train operators).
I was in Wakefield, QC on September 1st (a really nice town if you're ever in the area), and I noticed a set of abandoned railway tracks along Chemin Riverside right by the road (on the side facing the river). Here are two photos which show the tracks.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FTtpaYoK.jpg&hash=f2a34997ed8e78231acf57ccaf1b3d07c58e0dc8) (http://i.imgur.com/TtpaYoK.jpg)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FRPbufvY.jpg&hash=54a471ebd2cad71b0ff1441eef83020609c1c798) (http://i.imgur.com/RPbufvY.jpg)
I know these tracks, it was used for a tourist train between Wakefield and Hull who was part of the longer and former CP Rail Maniwaki subdivision who used to go up to Maniwaki was abandonned in the late 1980s.
The Pennsylvania RR Redstone Branch ran from Brownsville, PA to Uniontown, PA and served the coal mines and coke operations of Fayette County. It was abandoned in the late 1960s/early 1970s when the coal and coke industry declined, and it has been torn out since then (though the grade still remains). Here is a bridge on that line that is still standing over Redstone Creek...
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7647/16971662095_f02f37d7f7_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/rRJcRH)
Redstone Creek near Grindstone, PA (https://flic.kr/p/rRJcRH) by Jon Dawson (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmd41280/), on Flickr
Not sure what the railroad was, but I used to walk along the rails (https://goo.gl/maps/GGn78qq9WiA2) here in Bypro Junction, KY (what was considered Wheelwright proper was actually just up KY 306 away from its junction with KY 122) between my grandfather's store (the fenced-off building on the right...my uncle refused to sell it after my grandfather passed away and now there it sits) and their house -- rails ran right behind the house a few homes up.
The bridge in the foreground was a rail bridge (or where the bridge was, anyway) and you can sort of make out the alignment from the link.
Also, regarding those houses, the Railroad originally owned the property and then divided it up into lots that were sold off to the people that built houses upon them. Found out when my grandfather died that they were sneaky and overlapped the lots so they could get an extra one in on the end. Go figure.
Got one right along the Wisconsin River in Prairie du Sac (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2927498,-89.7214156,206m/data=!3m1!1e3) and Sauk City (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2645317,-89.7255141,244m/data=!3m1!1e3). Further SW (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1939855,-89.7559186,576m/data=!3m1!1e3), the line has turned into rail storage (the Google Earth image only shows a fraction of the cars I saw parked along that line the last time I drove that stretch of Wis 78. There's also a bunch of abandoned track around the old Badger Army Ammunition Plant (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3746082,-89.7083849,3587m/data=!3m1!1e3). A lot has been removed, but the scars still remain.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on November 18, 2011, 06:46:14 PM
Literally thousands of miles of abandoned railroad live on in Wisconsin as Rail-Trails. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure we invented that in this state.
WisDOT's latest map (http://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/travel/rail/railmap.pdf), which shows most/all the lines that have been converted.
In the late 1950s, the B&M (?) Railroad withdrew service from Marblehead, MA; a classmate of mine's father rode on the very last train serving Marblehead. The tracks themselves (inside of Marblehead's borders) were removed in short order and a trail has been maintained since.
View of the tracks, as the locals called it, from the Village St. (1939-vintage) overpass (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Marblehead,+MA/@42.5005516,-70.8624001,3a,75y,253.43h,64.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHEL9XPfEG1V_hC2qIZF6lw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DHEL9XPfEG1V_hC2qIZF6lw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D324.23117%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e31513c7dff96d:0x3c632cd47308f96b!8m2!3d42.4999582!4d-70.8578024!6m1!1e1) (rotate view to see other side).
Site of the old Clifton Station from Rockaway Ave., the station itself was demolished by 1970 (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4820752,-70.8789399,3a,75y,49.11h,78.51t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sx0V8o1e-Ct6_7ZeCVvmEAg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dx0V8o1e-Ct6_7ZeCVvmEAg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D102.63956%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656).
Site of the old Clifton Station from Clifton Ave. (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.482613,-70.8778938,3a,75y,252.44h,76.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1srkZA2FQCjWg5KqhEBhnGiw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DrkZA2FQCjWg5KqhEBhnGiw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D322.65781%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656)
While Marblehead kept the right-of way largely in tact, the same can not be said for its Swampscott neighbor. Note: the northern crossing at Humphery St. (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4752814,-70.8933873,3a,75y,66.61h,78.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sveOdFE5OtOF1N7zCqsugQA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656).
For the longest time, Salem kept its portion of the abandoned Marblehead branch in-tact, including the rails. When one drove along MA 114/Lafayette, MA 1A/Loring Ave. & Canal St.; one would used to see tracks across the road; the crossing at Canal St. had a RR crossing signal assembly (but no gates) & the MA 1A crossing just had RR crossbuck signage. These would all be removed during the very late 1980s to early 1990s.
The right-of-way, between Canal St. & MA 114/Lafayette St. is now a paved trail.
Current Canal St. Crossing (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5029993,-70.8960378,3a,75y,124.79h,62.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3bBWRHAUwNEujQuKZwtoyA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
Current MA 1A/Loring Ave. Crossing (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5018469,-70.8948567,3a,75y,58.83h,79.17t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s9IrswnwzsFm8F0GHo9iVYg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D9IrswnwzsFm8F0GHo9iVYg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D168.03357%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656)
Current MA 114/Lafayette St. Crossing (paved to the left, unpaved to the right) (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4972497,-70.8870147,3a,75y,334.82h,66.51t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snOJTOhbfqE7ZY4IsmZ7LwA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)