Former freight railroad grades converted into roadways

[Max Rockatansky]

Yesterday I drove up Central Camp Road in Sierra National Forest.  This road was originally the Sugar Pine Railroad which connected Bass Lake (Crane Valley Dam) to Central Camp.  The line was in operation from 1923-1933 as part of a lumber haul route which functioned as a continuation of the Minarets & Western Railroad. 

After 1933 the Sugar Pine Railroad went defunct and the grade was repurposed as Central Camp Road.  The lower parts of the roadway are clearly standard gauge right-of-way given the blasted grade is very easy to identify in the mountainous terrain. 

Around Fresno there are a couple significant freight lines which became roadways.  The San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad associated with the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project from Auberry eastward became:

-  SJ&E Road
-  Jose Basin Road
-  Old Railroad Grade Road

Santa Fe Grade Road near Los Banos was part of a never completed freight line.  The grade was repurposed in several places as a dirt roadway which connects to numerous waterways. 

[Dirt Roads]

Old railroad grades repurposed as public roadways are more common than one might think.  But some railroad grades have a unique feel when they go through tunnels and over the old railroad bridges. 

Perhaps the best example of this in Appalachia is the Twelvepole Subdivision of the Norfolk & Western Railway that ran from Lenore -to- Ceredo in Mingo and Wayne counties of West Virginia.  Most of the portion of the railroad grade from Lenore -to- Wayne has been converted as a roadway (which still runs kinda parallel to the old roads in that region).  The route includes the 347-foot Breeden Tunnel and the famed 3,331-foot Dingess Tunnel (both single lane), along with four bridges along the original railroad grade (IIRC, all of the original bridges have now been replaced by the WVDOH). 

https://www.highwaysthroughhistory.com/Content/roads/TwelvepoleLine/docs/brochure.pdf
https://www.highwaysthroughhistory.com/Content/tunnels/Dingess/docs/brochure.pdf

Once upon a time, I transcribed the various roadways that make up the 54-mile old railroad grade here on AARoads, but alas all the search engines have failed me.  Main point is that the southern end is almost entirely intact, running at least 30 miles or so.  (I'm not going to double check again, but be forewarned that the factsheets put out by the State are not entirely correct).

[GaryV]

There are former logging train roadbeds that were converted to roads, such as this one near Grayling MI, named for the railroad grade:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5LjBMyb2C2bAzDe89

[ElishaGOtis]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OjfEMj2-qI4&t=24s

Skip to 0:24

I couldn't resist

[ObsidianTheFox]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike, built along the ROW of the failed South Pennsylvania Railroad, is a huge example of this. The two remaining single-carriageway tunnels along the abandoned section probably show off that part of its heritage the best. (Image below is of the Rays Hill Tunnel, taken from Wikimedia Commons, which lists it as author unknown.)

[Beltway]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike, built along the ROW of the failed South Pennsylvania Railroad, is a huge example of this.

Mostly ... some places were relocated but the history is hard to determine. The bypass around Bedford looks like a clear example as normally an 1800s railroad goes thru or near the center of the city (borough in the case of Bedford).

[Rothman]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's history is undetermined?

[Beltway]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's history is undetermined?

Didn't say that. There is much documented history but I have not seen a clear measurement of how complete every section of the railroad was, and what percentage did the turnpike use. Best I can determine roughly 50% of the R/W and grading work was done and utilized by the turnpike. I would be welcome to see whatever info exists.

The South Pennsylvania Railroad was a proposed but never completed railway in Pennsylvania during the 19th century. It was originally envisioned as a competitor to the Pennsylvania Railroad, backed by powerful figures like William Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie.

Construction began in the 1880s, but the project was ultimately abandoned due to financial and political pressures. Some of the right-of-way intended for the railroad was later repurposed for the first 160 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened in 1940.

[Revive 755]

What Google has marked as Old IC ROW Road near Dupo Illinois, although Streetview has it signed as IC Road.

The bypass for IL 3 of Waterloo appears to have taken over part of the former GM&O alignment.

IIRC at least part of Forest Park Parkway in the St. Louis area. was built over an old Rock Island line that branched off what is now a light rail line near DeBalivere.

Part of Mel Wetter Parkway in St. Charles, MO was build over a spur from the Wabash line (a good portion of which seems to have had track remain in place for a few years after being severed by the roadway).

A good amount, if not all of U 67 between IL 100 and IL 111 in Alton were built on an old rail grade - the overpasses at IL 3, Alby Street and Elm Street were there for the railroad.  There's remains of a siding near 6th Street.

[NE2]

Here's an old example at mile 12.4. This is now Elkton Farm Road (SR 666).

Taylor Road outside Bangor was originally the Bangor, Oldtown and Milford Railroad. The Niben Club acquired the right-of-way and converted it into a bicycle path, shown on 1902 topos.

[Rothman]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike's history is undetermined?

Didn't say that. There is much documented history but I have not seen a clear measurement of how complete every section of the railroad was, and what percentage did the turnpike use. Best I can determine roughly 50% of the R/W and grading work was done and utilized by the turnpike. I would be welcome to see whatever info exists.

The South Pennsylvania Railroad was a proposed but never completed railway in Pennsylvania during the 19th century. It was originally envisioned as a competitor to the Pennsylvania Railroad, backed by powerful figures like William Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie.

Construction began in the 1880s, but the project was ultimately abandoned due to financial and political pressures. Some of the right-of-way intended for the railroad was later repurposed for the first 160 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened in 1940.

I take it our old PA highways experts have left the forum.

[oscar]

Much of the Copper River and North Western Railroad in Alaska, used to haul copper ore from the Kennecott copper mines to the Cordova harbor, was eventually converted to an auto road after the mines were closed in 1938. The present-day McCarthy Road, from Chitina to Kennecott (lots of photos), was built on or parallel to the old rail roadbed. South of Chitina, the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 severely damaged much of the roadbed, and the historic Million Dollar Bridge across the Copper River. Alaska DOT&PF reopened the Copper River Highway from Cordova to the Million Dollar Bridge (which I visited in 1994 and 2009) and a few miles beyond. However, later Copper River washouts of the highway north of mile 36 closed road access to the bridge, and the state eventually gave up on doing battle with the Copper River (as well as Cordova residents strongly opposed to a road connection to the rest of the Alaska highway system, and native corporations that argued their permission to build a rail line through their lands didn't mean the state could convert the old railbed to a highway).

In Hawaii, part of HI 19 was built on a former railroad along the Big Island's northeast coast. In particular, one of the old rail bridges converted to highway use, the Nanue Bridge, is now the highest bridge in the state highway system (208 feet above the stream it crosses).

[GaryA]

In Santa Monica, CA, the McClure Tunnel that is now part of CA-1 (just past the west end of I-10) started out as a railroad tunnel before being converted to auto use.  Don't know how much on either end was converted railroad grade.

[pderocco]

In Santa Monica, CA, the McClure Tunnel that is now part of CA-1 (just past the west end of I-10) started out as a railroad tunnel before being converted to auto use.  Don't know how much on either end was converted railroad grade.

Technically, it was demolished and a new auto tunnel built in its place. I expect the train tunnel was much narrower; no need for two tracks in each direction.

[DTComposer]

-The northern half of SP's Mayfield-Vasona Cutoff was abandoned in the early 1960s, and the ROW between I-280 and Arastradero Road is now Foothill Expressway (Santa Clara County route G5).

Going northwest from Arastradero you can easily see the rest of the ROW and where it connected to the mainline in Palo Alto; going SE from I-280 the railroad still exists, largely paralleling CA-85.

In the late 1950s I-280 was originally planned to follow the rail corridor, but Los Altos successfully fought to have it moved further west to its current route. Interesting that less than 10 years later they were OK with a four-lane 50-mph expressway (including a grade-separated interchange) on the same route.

-The Camden Branch split off from the main Southern Pacific Coast (later SP) line near Campbell to serve the quicksilver mines at New Almaden (supposedly the name Camden was used as a portmanteau of the two ends of the line). The line was abandoned by 1940, but Camden Avenue (a 4 to 6-lane arterial) follows the route from Winchester Boulevard to Kooser Road.

[hbelkins]

The Nada Tunnel (KY 77) uses an old narrow-gauge railroad bed.

There are a number of county roads called "Old Railroad Grade Road" or something similar in Kentucky.

Much of the US 60 routing through Morehead, Ky., occupies the former grade of the Lexington-to-Ashland line of what I believe once was the Chesapeake & Ohio line.

[lepidopteran]

Two in Ohio.

• Just east of Athens, some of the eastbound lanes of OH-32/US-50/James A. Rhodes Appalachian Highway are built atop the r/w of the B&O mainline, a route which used to run all the way from Parkersburg to Cincinnati.
• In Beavercreek, the Wellston Division of the B&O was abandoned around the time that a new research park was being planned. So a short stretch of the "Research Blvd." (OH-835) was constructed on the old r/w. This includes the part that goes under I-675. In addition, the eastern end of this road used to continue on under US-35 -- same route as the tracks -- to get to a new WB on-ramp to 35. However, that stretch has been downgraded to a bike trail, though the footprint of the former loop ramp remains as a pond. (Note: this path provides access to a much longer rail-trail, which was built on the remains of a completely different railroad -- the Pennsy panhandle. The two tracks ran side-by-side between there and Xenia. Yes, a lot of trackage disappeared in that region over the last 40+ years.)

Don't forget the Key West extension of the Florida East Coast railway, most of which became US-1.  The multi-arched bridges, however, have been replaced by new causeways. Some of the surviving structures are used as over-water trails and/or fishing piers.

[VTGoose]

The eastbound lanes of U.S. 460 in Giles County, Virginia, are on the former Virginian Railway right of way from Glen Lyn to Narrows. The original two-way roadway is on the bluff above the eastbound lanes, now the westbound lanes and reduced to one lane through the curves. The Virginia Department of Highways condemned the railroad after the Virginian merged with the Norfolk & Western. After the merger, a connection was made in Kellysville, WVa. to move eastbound coal from the N&W to the Virginian, which had an easier grade to get from the New River to the Roanoke River. After the condemnation, the connection at Kellysville was reversed to move traffic from the Virginian to the N&W. A new bridge was built east of Narrows to move traffic back to the former Virginian line, which was abandoned from Kellysville to Narrows. The section between Kellysville and Glen Lyn, which included a tunnel, was torn up when U.S. 460 was upgraded with a new four-lane highway between Glen Lyn and Princeton. (See https://nwhistory.info/locations/Kellysville/index.php)

Bruce in Blacksburg

[hbelkins]

The eastbound lanes of U.S. 460 in Giles County, Virginia, are on the former Virginian Railway right of way from Glen Lyn to Narrows. The original two-way roadway is on the bluff above the eastbound lanes, now the westbound lanes and reduced to one lane through the curves. The Virginia Department of Highways condemned the railroad after the Virginian merged with the Norfolk & Western. After the merger, a connection was made in Kellysville, WVa. to move eastbound coal from the N&W to the Virginian, which had an easier grade to get from the New River to the Roanoke River. After the condemnation, the connection at Kellysville was reversed to move traffic from the Virginian to the N&W. A new bridge was built east of Narrows to move traffic back to the former Virginian line, which was abandoned from Kellysville to Narrows. The section between Kellysville and Glen Lyn, which included a tunnel, was torn up when U.S. 460 was upgraded with a new four-lane highway between Glen Lyn and Princeton. (See https://nwhistory.info/locations/Kellysville/index.php)

Bruce in Blacksburg

When did this happen? Westbound was two lanes the entire route the last time I was on it (which was admittedly several years ago).

[VTGoose]

The eastbound lanes of U.S. 460 in Giles County, Virginia, are on the former Virginian Railway right of way from Glen Lyn to Narrows. The original two-way roadway is on the bluff above the eastbound lanes, now the westbound lanes and reduced to one lane through the curves. The Virginia Department of Highways condemned the railroad after the Virginian merged with the Norfolk & Western. After the merger, a connection was made in Kellysville, WVa. to move eastbound coal from the N&W to the Virginian, which had an easier grade to get from the New River to the Roanoke River. After the condemnation, the connection at Kellysville was reversed to move traffic from the Virginian to the N&W. A new bridge was built east of Narrows to move traffic back to the former Virginian line, which was abandoned from Kellysville to Narrows. The section between Kellysville and Glen Lyn, which included a tunnel, was torn up when U.S. 460 was upgraded with a new four-lane highway between Glen Lyn and Princeton. (See https://nwhistory.info/locations/Kellysville/index.php)

Bruce in Blacksburg

When did this happen? Westbound was two lanes the entire route the last time I was on it (which was admittedly several years ago).

I don't have an exact date since I don't travel that way like I used to. It was last year when I went west and discovered that the winding section had been reduced to one wide lane instead of two lanes.

[VTGoose]

Another rail line that is now a highway is also in Giles County and ends in Bland County. The New River, Holston & Western RR started in Narrows, Va. and continued west for 35 miles to reach a variety of logging camps. When the road ran into trouble, it was purchased by the Norfolk & Western Railway and became the Narrows Branch. When the line was abandoned, the right of way was taken over by the Virginia Department of Highways. Today it is VA 61, which runs from Narrows to Tazewell. The section between Narrows and I-77 is on the roadbed.

Bruce in Blacksburg

[hbelkins]

The eastbound lanes of U.S. 460 in Giles County, Virginia, are on the former Virginian Railway right of way from Glen Lyn to Narrows. The original two-way roadway is on the bluff above the eastbound lanes, now the westbound lanes and reduced to one lane through the curves. The Virginia Department of Highways condemned the railroad after the Virginian merged with the Norfolk & Western. After the merger, a connection was made in Kellysville, WVa. to move eastbound coal from the N&W to the Virginian, which had an easier grade to get from the New River to the Roanoke River. After the condemnation, the connection at Kellysville was reversed to move traffic from the Virginian to the N&W. A new bridge was built east of Narrows to move traffic back to the former Virginian line, which was abandoned from Kellysville to Narrows. The section between Kellysville and Glen Lyn, which included a tunnel, was torn up when U.S. 460 was upgraded with a new four-lane highway between Glen Lyn and Princeton. (See https://nwhistory.info/locations/Kellysville/index.php)

Bruce in Blacksburg

When did this happen? Westbound was two lanes the entire route the last time I was on it (which was admittedly several years ago).

I don't have an exact date since I don't travel that way like I used to. It was last year when I went west and discovered that the winding section had been reduced to one wide lane instead of two lanes.

Google Street View shows it was sometime between June 2019 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/QhU5H78fzRw9kSTh8) and September 2021 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/sM6sgdHEj4sxLepf7).

It appears that VDOT actually took some pavement up from the right lane instead of merely restriping.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The extension of I-35 through Duluth, MN replaced a couple rail yards and spurs up to the road's new/present terminus.

[pianocello]

Didn't most the Overseas Railroad in the Florida Keys get repurposed as US 1?

(Although Max is one of the guys who knows the most when it comes to road/rail history in the Keys... the fact that he didn't mention this in his OP leads me to second-guess myself)

[Max Rockatansky]

Didn't most the Overseas Railroad in the Florida Keys get repurposed as US 1?

(Although Max is one of the guys who knows the most when it comes to road/rail history in the Keys... the fact that he didn't mention this in his OP leads me to second-guess myself)

Seemed a little too obvious of an example but I did consider mentioning once this thread got some momentum.  Seems it did and here we are. 

Really I was probably more hyped up about driving Central Camp Road.  Railroad grade aside that was a pretty bad ass drive.