The question of which abandoned lines would look good on a map today can easily prompt answers that are of virtually no use to today’s railroading but would surely thrill the railfans. The NP (and later BN) climb over Lookout Pass on the ID/MT border comes to mind, with 4 percent grades and hairpin loops and large timber trestles. I suppose in the same vein, reopening Idaho’s Camas Prairie line up through Lapwai Canyon, and relaying track from Lawyer’s Canyon all the way to Grangeville again, would be mighty exciting. Just not very cost effective, considering how much of the area’s grain haul was being trucked to barge terminals even before the line’s abandonment.
But if one route could offer the best of both worlds, a place with tremendous photographic potential AND vital purpose to a Class I or regional, it would be the former SP&S between Spokane and Pasco, mentioned a few threads above. More precisely, it’s the stretch between Fish Lake and the eastern outskirts of Pasco. Active and retired people from BN and BNSF, including the late Bob Downing, have told me that the abandonment of the SP&S High Line was a huge oversight, and that BNSF wishes it had that property back in service today. It would be the perfect piece to plug back into a Northwest network that hauls so much unit grain, coal, and now oil traffic toward the Pacific Coast. From South Cheney, WA, it was pretty much downhill or dead level all the way down to Pasco. Same qualities as the surviving SP&S segment which BNSF uses from Pasco west along the Columbia River.
Although not abandoned, what is the BNSF’s attitude toward Montana Rail Link? It seems as if that SHOULD be part of the BNSF map. Was that a blunder also? Or has it worked well?
MRL came into existence for a variety of reasons, both operational and legal. At the time, the route was excess capacity for through freight, and BN was willing to spin off the local freight operations since much of it would be interchanged with BN anyway. I believe that there were also some questions about the bonds that were secured by that line that scared BN’s legal and financial staffs.
There was also talk about shedding the tax liability of that route at the time, costs of operating over two separate helper districts, etc. BNSF has reportedly made efforts in recent years to get MRL back, now that it’s an important bridge for coal, intermodal and manifest business to/from the lower Midwest, and a vital detour route whenever the northern transcon is hampered by trackwork, derailments, snow, or floods.
I think it was Ed King who described a trip on the old SAL as where the sun shone through the cab windows at all angles (due to all the curves on the line). The route was not perfect and the Trail-heads who inhabit it the ROW now advertise the 2% grade as a reason to visit. Even so, and as with former B&O mentioned already, they didn’t have an adequate alternative. Part of CSX’s reason to go after ConRail was the former NYC/PRR line to St. Louis to replace the abandoned B&O. That’s not an option between Birmingham and Atlanta.
I don’t see why Canadian National would be interested in the old P&E to reach Mitsubishi Motor Mfg. of America at Normal. Traffic flows don’t favor CN anyway.
NS is the OOS Mansfield-Bloomington segment because of a fiber-optic cable that runs along this route, though two ADM Grain Co elevators at Farmer City, served by CN, reportedly desire NS to serve them.
The NS/ex-P&E Mansfield-Urbana segment serves The Andersons’ Rising grain and potash terminal, Emulsicoat’s asphalt terminal in Urbana and Solo Cup Company (Dart Container), also in Urbana.
Well, I suppose that planners who don’t have to worry about getting good value for taxpayers’ dollars might wish that these systems had been retained. But the two Chicago lines, at least, wouldn’t make much sense today. Both the North Shore and the CA&E essentially paralleled other rail commuter lines (interurbans were often built to parallel conventional railroads). The North Shore “Shore Line” route was right next to what is now the UP-North commuter line (the two rights-of way abutted each other), and the Skokie Valley Route was between and just a short distance from two parallel commuter roads (CNW to the east and Milwaukee Road to the west). The main stem of the CA&E (Chicago-Wheaton) closely paralleled what is now the UP West Line (CA&E was right next to it for part of the distance). CA&E’s two major Fox River end points (Aurora and Elgin) were also served by conventional railroad commuter operations over more direct routes routes (CB&Q from Aurora and MILW from Elgin). The MILW route from Elgin wasn’t a full service commuter route in CA&
The Rails to Trails program is great. It preserves corridors should the need to lay rail would arise. But be aware. The bike and hike group are vicous. Just mention that you are planning to take a bike trail and convert it back to rails and all kind of things will come out of the woodwork argueing against it. To my knowledge no trails have been reverted to rails and i doubt if it could be politically accomplished.
You are right. Even though the program is for the preservation of the rights-of-way for future use when the future does arrive several supporters are loathe to let go. They never thought the day would come. A couple of decades back a nurse who was a trail-head saw my railroadianna and voiced his support for the recent abandonment of the CSX Florida west coast sub and subsequent conversion to a trail. He could see by my body language that I was not on board and asked why. In return I asked, “What happens when we need to put the track back?” He replied, “Oh no. That will never happen. They tore out the track because they will never need it again.” The lesson we learn boys and girls: Never say never.
(For the record I do not place the West Coast Sub on the list discussed in this thread. However, it would not hurt my feelings to see it back…)
The West Coast Sub ran from the Dupont Sub at High Springs to the Wildwood Sub at Owensboro. The line south of Dunnellon was abandoned and removed in 1986-87.
The “old ACL from east of tallahassee” was the Perry Cutoff from Thomasville, Georgia to Dunnellon and was lifted south of Metcalf, Georgia about the same time. The Perry Cutoff did not live up to expectations thus also does not make the “list” of viable pieces that should have been retained. (That does not mean I would not have it back…)
Dare I add to this list, The Washington & Old Dominion right-of-way (now known as the W&OD Trail, under the auspices of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority). This old ROW runs from Purcellville VA to Alexandria VA, through some of the most densely built suburban development AND the heaviest and intense traffic in the mid-Atlantic region. Oh that they could ever bring tracks back to that corridor! What a boon to the commuting. More’s the pity.
That is true Henry6 but some lines I think were abandonned to avoid competition and customers being leeched. Good example in my opinion is the Canada Southern Line once operated by Wabash. In Ontario, Nanticoke (Esso Oil, Stelco Steel now I think owned by US Steel and a coal using power plant) alone could make a railroad a nice bit of revenue. At one point in St Thomas to Simcoe I believe, all auto parts or auto manufacturing such as Formosa Frames in St Thomas, Ford Assembly in Talbotville (closed down now unfortunately), a few fertilizer and milling operations including ConAgra I believe. Once upon a time, despite using CN trackage rights, NS used to run 4 trains from Buffalo to St Thomas every day and a couple between St Thomas and Detroit. Other major industrial areas once upon a time was Windsor and Niagara Region particularly Port Colborne with multiple milling operations, a bio diesel plant now running, chemical plant making citric acid, steel pipe manufacturing, INCO refinery and several transloading facilities mostly all serviced by a shortline (Triliium Railways). Besides NS or CSX purchasing the CASO to perhaps leech into CN and CP’s revenues neer by, it is a very attractive intermodal route between East Coast and Chicago. Currently anything around here in Ontario, needs to go through CN or CP and ship their containers to Toronto/Brampton for terminal loading/unloading. NS has an intermodal yard in Buffalo (William Street) and I believe CSX built an intermodal terminal in their old defuct Seneca Yard I believe. At one poin
In the case of the North Shore vs. C&NW (Metra), the North Shore could have provided a more local type of service, whereas the Metra line would be used for trains from the farther north suburbs that would have little need for all of the intermediate stops. Currently, the Metra trains run almost as close together as they can during rush hour. Don’t forget, the CTA parallels the Metra line yet it has plenty of riders as well. Of course, ridership would have to increase substantially to even begin to justify the cost.
IF there were a such a great demand for additiional service to justify additional trackage (a big "if), it would make far more sense to add an additional track to an existing commuter route, rather than to revive a long abandoned interurban. You get a whole lot more bang for the buck adding by capacity to an existing corridor, and operating it together with the existing trackage by CTC as an integrated facility than you do paying a lot more to add a new, parallel stand alone line, particularly one operated by specialized equipment that could not be used on other commuter lines.
In addtion, the dependence of North Shore and CA&E on rapid transit lines to reach downtown Chicago would put them at a huge disadvantage to conventional commuter lines today, considering how badly Chicago rapid transit service has deteriorated Ride the Purple (Evanston) or the Red (Howard) lines as they lurch from slow zone to slow zone, and you’ll see what I mean. I rode them today, and it took over an hour to get from the Loop (State & Lake) to Foster Avenue in Evanston. North Shore used to get all the way from the Loop to Waukegan via the Skokie Valley Route in that amount of time. Clearly, that would be impossible today. In contrast, the conventional commuter operations in the city are faster than they used to, primarily because of the elimination of many in-city stations during the 50’s and 60’s.
The more fundamental point is that there is a limited amount of moneyavailable to fund public transit projects. What makes more sense - fixing the crumbling Chicago rapid transit system, which is absolutely critical to Chicago and its economy, or creating new, subsidized commuter rail services that don’t serve new territory but simply duplicate existing, subsidized commuter rail services?
CA&E’s connection to the Loop was broken in 1953 with expressway construction. It probably could not have been reinstated as there was no longer a direct connection to the Loop L since the Congress line fed into the Dearborn St. subway. The rather overrated Forest Park-Wheaton light-rail proposal was politically impossible since Dupage County would do anything to keep the CTA out.
The CNS&M Shore Line Route was abandoned in 1955, three years prior to initiation of abandonment proceedings for the rest of the system. This would imply that North Shore had given up hope on this line even earlier.
To the list, I would like to see the north end of ex-NYC Harlem Division re-instated to Chatham as a thru route. Not only would it expand the current passenger service, but it would have come in handy at the present time as an alternative to the storm damaged Hudson lines.
If anyone had read Ian Wilson’s Steam Through Palmerston they would get the picture here…imagine the entire branchline set up both CN and CP had north of Stratford. ON Owen Sound was an active port same as Goderich and Kincardine … many places such as Listowel, Mitchell, Palmerston and et cetera connected by a web of rail…