A take off from my other thread. There has to be RR lines around that were abandoned but the track is still there.
…I can add one small line, a branch off a branch…In and near Hooversville, Pennsylvania. It was a coal branch line off the B&O RR. Several miles in length. It can be seen where it crosses the highway, route 403 in Hooversville. The line went up to Baker Whitely Coal mine operations. The mining town was named Baker Whitely too. The branch probably has not been used in 50 years.
Large size trees and brush completely cover the ROW as late as this year so believe it’s safe to say it’s still the same. Have no idea why the track was never taken up. It connected to the coal hauling branch {S&C}, of the B&O that is still in operation between Johnstown and Rockwood, Pa.
Edit: It probably can be seen on a satellite photo. Takes off of the RR that passes thru Hooversville and went towards the east in general.
It has been a few years, but the last time I was up in da UP, there was still quite a bit of the Copper Range tracks still in place.
Abandoned doesn’t necessarily mean the tracks are pulled up, there are a few lines around that have tracks still on them but haven’t seen a train in years. I guess it depends on the railroad and if the local towns want to put something else there. I know there are lines that can be out of service for a long time but not officially abandoned, then there are “Embargoed” lines. Gets confusing.
There’s about half a mile of a UP branch in Springfield, OR that hasn’t been used in probably 20 years Completely covered in brush. When they recently reactivated a short bit of this branch for a new customer a couple rails were pulled just past the customer facility, and a former customer at the end of what remains of the branch pulled a hundred yards worth for a new parking lot but the rest of the rails are still in place.
The old GN’s Brook Park - Mora line was that way up until a few years ago. Th St. Croix Valley RR was the last operator until the one remaining customer in Mora flew the coup and the St. Croix Valley abandoned the line (technically I guess it was embargoed first). The tracks remained for about a year and then were taken-up.
The ROCK’s Cedar Rapids - Iowa City tracks south of the CNW/UP overpass in Cedar Rapids were that way as well until several years ago. The tracks were heavily overgrown and practically impossible to climb-through in places if you’re out exploring. Now it’s been trailized.
I think a lot of it has to do with the price of scrap metal at the time of the legal abandonment. If prices are high the track gets scooped real sudden, and if it is low at the time it sometimes rots in place. People and companies priorities change and when prices do go up they never go back and get those tracks because they are busy on other projects.
I know nothing of the details but wasn’t there an article in Trains a while ago where the CTA said they had gotten an incredibly lucky break because it would have cost the CB&Q more in labor costs to remove some rail lines than the scrap value was worth and as a consquence the traccks were still there to be rehabbed by the CTA decades later.
AgentKid
Relatively close to your location is the UP owned, ex-M&StL mainline extending from Chaska, through Carver, to Merriam Junction. I think it’s about five miles long. As far as I know, it has been abandoned and the track will be removed.
There is a section of ex-Virginian track in the woods near Bower’s Hill, Va. This line was discontinued by the N&W after the 1959 merger, but IIRC they (Norfolk Southern Corp.) still own the right of way. NS still uses the VGN’s bridge over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River and a few miles of the line to serve the Cavalier Industrial Park in Chesapeake.
As far as I know, the Rock Island’s track through MO is still in place, although it’s been many years since I was out there. They were using the line from Lackland Station in St. Louis County, out to Owensville. There were some industries along the way, but they had a 10MPH speed limit. I remember waiting in Beaufort for a Cotton Belt train I had passed on Hwy. 50, hoping to get a photo. After about an hour I gave it up.
In Rosebud, there was a tree growing between the tracks, and a couple of SP ballast cars on a siding west of the track. They had a couple of interesting tunnels, one in Freeburg that had a gothic arch all the way through. If I had the time and energy I would explore that line a little. I don’t think it’s abandoned, but it sure isn’t used.
I don’t know the history of the line, But in Attica Indiana there is a Off Road park(The Badlands) that has a set of tracks that is all grown up with trees. It is cool to try to follow the tracks as they cross thru the property. By the size of the trees it’s been 20 years since these have seen train use.
Later Bill
Out near St.Charles, or something like that, there is a stretch of the old C&GW that is still in place. The UP uses as a spur to serve some customers on that part of the line. You can see it in Google Earth, just North and west of the West CHicago yard, I think. (Someone correct me if I got the location wrong) .
Not abandoned - out of service since 1983. SP/SSW was the last to run it. Amaren (power company) is the current owner and uses it as a pricing hedge with UP and BNSF. INRD operates the east end that still is in service under contract. MoDOT thought it was abandoned when it rebuilt US-65. (expensive mistake)
Another situation is the former CWI vertical lift bridge over the Calumet River. This bridge was built in 1971 as part of improvements to navigation and replaced a bascule bridge which had a narrower channel opening and a lower vertical clearance when closed. The bridge was primarily used by EL, C&O, MON/L&N and IHB (from the Calumet Western line). The rail traffic from EL and C&O disappeared on April 1, 1976 and the L&N traffic dried up when freight off the former Monon was re-routed into Yard Center in Dolton. IHB traffic was always very light and gradually vanished. The bridge still stands but the approach tracks have long since been removed.
Here’s a few pics of abandoned mainlines here in Georgia.
1.)Central of Georgia main between Bishop-Madison, GA
2.)Atlanta & Florida main between Roberta-Williamson.
(the CofG main was leased to the Great Walton RR in 2001, but it will cost millions of $$$ to rehabilitate the line, which they don’t currently have)
http://anb740.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=3714
Nothing like 20 year old pine trees growing up through the ties to make a railfan sick!
Parts of the old SP Modoc Line were like that for years but I think UP razed the “railbanked” Alturas to Wendel portion of the line recently. The Modoc did not have ribbon rail or even CTC because traffic seldom exceeded two trains per day. If the Rio Grande had not bought the SP in 1988, the Modoc Line would have been scrapped a long time ago as the SP had closed it earlier. UP operated a few weekly trains from Klamath Falls to Alturas for serveral years after the UP/SP merger and maybe even up to Lakeview, OR. I’m uncertain if they still do though.