I would like to talk about abandoned lines.Here in Pine Bluff 3rd Ave. used to be the SP line.They put in another track on 4th Ave. and took the track up on 3rd and they took the track up that used to run to the Pine Bluff Arsenal.Also my mom’s side of the family grew up with the Ashley,Drew,& Northern(AD&N).That track was also taken up.Also I ran across an abandoned roadbed in LA that ran paralell to US highway 425 and the track crossed the highway in some small town.Anyone with info on that line?Also I discovered an abandoned line that ran paralell to US highway 412 in MO.Anyone with info on that line?Also post your info on abandoned lines here and also include the location of them.
…Are you interested in long ago abandoned lines in the east…? Have Pennsylvania in mind. My home state. And are you interested in satellite photos if I locate them for you…?
Anywhere,any state.
…Ok. Let’s see if I can do this.
Use “flash earth”…just google it and bring up the web site.
check out the space to install the address in lower right corner.
Insert: Friedens, Pa.
Move the picture about a mile in distance NW.
Move in close enough to identify stuff on the ground. Roads, etc…
Look closely and you will find an abandoned coal hauler {B&O}, and it has almost 4 connected horseshoe curves as it negotiates around the hill sides to maintain a useable grade to get to a town named Ralphton, Pa. There’s more to the story, but I’ll let it stop there and see if you can find it. This route was abandoned about 60 or so years ago. It is still quite visible. My home {was}, just a few miles from this location.
It was known as “The Boswell Branch of the B&O”.
…Note: If you are successful in bringing up “flash earth” site…click on those words to bring up the screen to find the address window down at the right bottom side of the screen.
The line running parallel to US-412 in Dunklin County, MO would have been a branch of the Frisco. They served Kennett, and particularly the Kennett Cotton Oil Company. I don’t know where the branch originated, but the last time I was down there was when the Frisco was still independent and running black and gold GP9s.
There were a number of lines built by Louis Houck, radiating out of Cape Girardeau, MO. They’ve been abandoned since the 30’s, in fact SE Mo was still mostly swamp at the time. I have photos of the remains of a RR called the Saline Valley Railroad, abandoned about 1913. There are still wood trestle pilings in Saline Creek and some roadbed. This is in Perry County, MO.
There are a lot of others here in MO, you also have a good many in Arkansas. I understood there was a segment of the Mo. & North Ark., running between Cotton Plant and Fargo. I was doing a lot of work on the Houck lines, but other things got in the way and now I’m too lame to tromp through the woods like I used to.
the south half of the lower pennisula of MI is criss crossed with abandoned lines…mostly old MC/LS&MS …i also use Flash earth for over head mapping…i would also look at IN OH and IL…more old rail lines then roads it seems
…Lots of abandoned interurban lines in Indiana too.
MI had some Interurbans too i believe…but because of Henry Furd they disappereared quick…
I have always been intrigued by abandoned railroad beds, especially if they retain a lot of character such as cuts and fills, remains of trestles, bridges, tunnels, etc. Here is a beauty presented in lots of photos including some reference photos of the trains during the time of operation: http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,108977
Beautiful photos…Must take time to check them all.
Now I have done so…Awesome, awesome photos…!!
I guess the best-known example on Chicago’s North Side is the former NORTH Shore interurban line, that ceased operations in 1963. The main line ran thru Wilmette (just above Evanston); the alternate “Skokie Valley Route” was partially reactivated by the CTA and runs from Howard Station on the Chicago/Evanston border to Skokie as the “Skokie Swift.” [ [#offtopic] Sad to say the Swift went off Skokie cat last year but happy to say it runs weekends again, the first time in many years.]
IIRC, farther north the former North Shore route parallels one of the Milwaukee-bound lines heading north from Chicago (UP North by Metra? CP thru Rondout? Help me, someone! [D)] ), and much of it is a bicycle path. IOW except for the fact there are no visible trolley tracks in Wimette, a lot of it is still recognizable. Even north of the Skokie Swift’s terminus at Dempster Ave. near I-94 in Skokie, the patch to the near north is a utility easement, but buffs who “read” landscape and infrastructure well will guess it to be what is once was, ROW.
Around here we have the old CNW Kelly line. The line west to Marshfield was Abandoned a while ago. But the line East to Green Bay wasn’t abandoned till later in 94 or 95. The line still goes out to Kelly for a little ways. But then is a bike train to Shanow.
The last one around here that I some what know of is the CNW line that paralleled the MILW to Mosinee. It was abandoned a while ago. But the CNW went to the mill in Rothschild not to long ago. The tracks are still hiding in a row of trees.
Using Microsoft’s Live Search Maps and their ability to draw lines on the map I have outlined the complete Cincinnati and Lebanon Northern System.
The CL&N began as a narrow gauge commuter line in the 1880’s and converted to standard gauge in the early 20th century. The three lines listed in the map were eventually all bought and integrated under one company into the Pennsylvania system.
Regular passenger service ended in the 1930’s and parts of the line were abandoned as early as the 1950’s. Today much of the line is abandoned and the parts remaining are disjointed. Short parts of the line near Norwood are used by the Indiana and Ohio to service industry, and a tourist train with a GP7 operates on the track around Lebanon and Mason.
Using the "Bird’s Eye View’ feature it is easy to see details in the area around the line, some of which are 50+ years old. I consider the CL&N a facinating example of an Eastern Narrow Gauge and small pike with both urban and rual areas. I also have an album of photos, some of which still need to be uploaded.
I can give a few here in east central and central Illinois.
NYC - Cairo line, from Paris to Cairo, gone. Some of the grades and bridges can still be found, along with a couple depots that I know of.
NYC’s, Paris - Mattoon - Pana - St Louis, gone, some grades n bridges can also be found along IL-16.
PRR from Dennison - Paris - Decatur, gone, part of the grade can be found in places. I did hear of a trestle, a few mile south of Paris, but I haven’t check it out yet.
NKP, Danville - Metcalf and Neoga - St Louis is gone. The Eastern Illinois RR runs Neoga - Metcalf section.
IC, Mattoon - Newton - Evansville gone. There are two left depots in Cumberland county.
B&O, Springfield to Shawnee town gone, but part of it from outside of Springfield - Taylorville - Pana went from rail to trail
C&EI, Danville - Villa Grove gone there is a couple depots still around as museums I believe.
Here’s some link to help find other abandoned rails
http://www.abandonedrails.com/
This link I use to find some abandoned rail and old RR structures still around,
An inter-urban that ran from Terre Haute IN to Paris IL lasted from 1907 to 1931. There are two stations still around, Paris and Vermilion IL
Here’s a link to some other inter-urban rail that’s gone in Indiana,
Lots of abandoned 3’ narrow gauge lines in southern Colorado (D&RGW, RGS, C&S, DSP&P, F&CC, ext.) you can still see the row in alot of places on google earth. I went hiking on parts of the Rio Grande Southern many years back and there are still some remaining bridges & water tanks and even the remains of a tender from wreck. [:O]
Check out this site for info on RGS surving structures & equipment
http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/~rgsrr/rgs/index.html
Also www.drgw.net and www.drgw.org have lots of info on the D&RGW with lots of old pictures & maps of equipment, structures & row
I perceive old railroad grades to be historical artifacts that help me feel or visualize the long gone era where they operated. I think of the beehive of activity during the original grading and track laying and all the trains that puffed and clanked over them day and night, in all the seasons, as they outlasted the memories of generations of the people who worked them. How many stories could those silent cuts and fills tell?
The old roadbeds do seem to endure relatively long in the west where population is sparser and there is little need to reclaim the land. In the agricultural country of the Midwest, many railroad grades are gone without a trace. Underground though, the artifacts are still there. Railroad grades are littered with old iron; spikes, angle bars, track bolts, nuts, brake shoes, journal box lids, pieces of rail, brake beam hangers, brake rods and pins, couplers, coupler links and pins, draft gear parts, cast iron washers, pieces of firebox grates, etc. Some still lie visible on the surface after a century or more. Some of these generic parts from the 1800s can be quite different from their counterparts from the more recent era. Nineteenth century journal box lids, for example, can be solid cast iron with the manufacturer’s name or logo cast into the surface. Many were not hinged, but rather, dropped into a tapered opening like a wedge.
Occasionally, one finds evidence of a wreck as a particularly dense profusion of iron parts, sometimes right on the surface or sticking out of the ground. It is possible for these wreck sites to hold any fragment or part imaginable from rolling stock, locomotives, or track-work. Never were all the pieces picked up when a wreck was cleared. Out west, there are wrecks where rolling stock was simply left where it landed, and lies there today.
…Yes, I am one who admires looking and finding old ROW’s. I have interest in seeing how engineering was put to use to get from point A to point B.
Most of my hunting thru such areas has been in the home area of Pennsylvania. Old coal hauling roads from all the mining towns scattered around in Western Pa.
Amazingly, much is still visible. Satellite maps show lots still there to see…
This PDF http://www.iowarail.com/railroads/maps/Chronology_06.pdf shows abandonments in Iowa.
It was published in Trains as a ‘Map of the Month’ some time ago, and is available at the link above on the web.
Rick
This is a great site, I have already answered some questions that I have been pondering for a while.