I became interested (read fanatic) sbout railroads when 3-1/2 years old. In East Reading Pa we still had streetcars, the Pennsy and my beloved Reading Company to explore.
My parents and grandparents were happy to describe the recently gone railroad facilities, the abandoned rural trolleys, the two mountain railroads with their long gone resorts and clubs, and every industrial site, church cemetary, roadhouse they could recall. My brothers and I ate this stuff up and since we had started a semi-feral summer life in the mountains on all sides, we explored them, the public library, and the historical society. Today, one brother has a regular museum and archive in his basement.
Then and since I’ve traced lines by foot, car, bicycle and often all three both around Reading, East Broad Top and where I currently live, Washington DC. Canals as well. Brambles, sock stickers, poison ivy and all.
Terraserver (I’m still figuring out Google Earth) is pretty good. I’d always wanted to see the Reading’s Mahanoy Plane. It was taken out of service in the late 1930’s but the railroad maintained it for awhile in case the Pennsy reneged on the Bear Run trackage rights. The bottom of the plane was called “The Foot” by locals and the headhouse was in Frackville. Terraserver’s aerial photo showed the straight angled gash down the mountain starting at the NE corner of Frackville’s athletic field.
My son and I were on vacation with the folks in Reading and went up to Knoebels (what a place!) amusement park. Going up route 61, I thought “Whoops, here’s Frackville: you gotta see this”. Went to far right center field, found a steep path littered with the debris of teenage debauchery, and stood on the foundations of the headhouse. Big as a canal lock with pieces of coal, ballast, crossties scattered around. The massive machinery, superstructure and view down the hill were all gone of course. But I could describe th
Northern Illinois has a few very intteresting examples. Noteworthy among them are the Aurora Elgin and Eastern, an interurban who’s remants can still be identified among all the mini malls, housing subdivisions, and suburban sprawl on Chicagoland. Tracing the path of the Great Western is fun as well, much of the ROW has been converted into the Rails to Trails program. The CNW’s line from McHenry to Lake Geneva is quite accessible as well. As for the North Shore, several sections on the Mundelien branch are evident from paralell rt 176. My new favorite is the comiclly misfortuned Woodstock and Sycamore Traction Co who’s brief life during the early 1900’s can still be traced, just barely, among the corn fields and rural roads of north central illinois. Great topic! This is always an unremarked sub-text to our hobby, good job! ~Kevin
I nominate Kansas as the abandoned rail line capital of the US. I made a map (by tracing a ks transportation map and gathering data from other sources) that shows the diffrence 100 (or more) years makes. At one point (1888) my county had 7 lines running through it. 4 Santa Fe (1st, 2nd, & Alma districts, plus a little known branch called the Osage City district (Osage City-Quenemo) which was nicknamed the peavine (yep the’re were two)). 2 MO-PAC ( Osawatomie sub and the Ft. Scott-Topeka line, later cut back to Topeka-Lomax)). And UP had a line from Lawrence to Carbondale. Plus the’re were 4 lines that were never built but were planned. The Lawrence & Emporia rr, KCM&O’s Emporia-KC segment, an inter county one called the St Louis, Osage City, and walnut Valley. And MKT surveyed a line from Burlington to Quenemo.
Today the only lines left are the 1st one to be built in the county, ATSF’s 1st district (1869), and the 2nd district, aka the transcon.
On another note. there’s actually 2 abandoned MP Osawatomie subs. In 1930 MP built a new line next to the original from Rapp (w. of Osage City) to Council Grove. Nearly all of the original R of W is still visible, especially west of Bushong.
And the only line built by the original rr is the ATSF 1st district. all others were smaller railroads that were bought out by ATSF, MP, and UP.
Well, let’s see if I can recall what I learned and saw of the C&NW in my hometown…
The first line through was the Saint Paul Eastern Grand Trunk (which, as I have pointed out before, was never within 200 miles of Saint Paul and-though it was east of it-was more a branch line than a trunk line and was never particularly grand in any way) which built from Oconto, WI to Clintonville, WI in 1880-1884. The only remaining active portion is from Stiles Junction to Oconto Falls (Escanaba & Lake Superior). The ROW from Oconto to Stiles Jct lasted until the 80’s/90’s and is pretty visible yet. From Oconto Falls west to Gillett was taken up just after WWII, I believe-the Gillett to Shawano portion didn’t make it that long. From Oconto Falls to Shawano, I expect the ROW shows up (if at all) on satellite pictures as a fence or treeline but there are a few embankemnts and cuts that are visible from the roads if you know where to look. The bridge abutments over the Oconto River are still there, too.
The next line was built in stages over the next 10-20 years north to Iron River, MI and remains pretty much intact as a hiking trail (though not the entire length). All this went in the 80’s, IIRC.
The final portion was a cutoff line south to Pulaski, WI built in 1906. It was also the last to go and remains pretty much intact but too overgrown to see easily. The (longer) bridge over the Oconto River remains in use for another hiking trail.
Four different lines, boxing the compass, and not a single one left!
Of course nearly all towns and cities had streetcar systems. Sometimes one can find old track still in the street, lamp posts with parts of brackets that used to connect to span wire for trolley wire, attachments for span wire on sides of buildings, car houses converted to other uses, etc.
Of course in some cases, now, old track has been repaired and reused (Kenny Avenue, Dallas), or replaced by brand new track 40 or 50 years after that last streetcar was supposed to have been run (Howard Avenue, Baltimore; Canal Street, New Orleans).
I don’t know much about Pennsylvania, but I did get into the car once in the early 1970s, and drove there from Minnesota just to see Horseshoe Curve and the EBT. In hiking around the woods on the outside of the curve just downgrade from the park, there was a valley running upgrade and away from the curve at a tangent. I found a fairly prominent railroad grade running up that valley. I recall there were some remaining details such as culverts, rock walls, etc. It looked rather inviting to follow it into the forest, but I only went a few hundred feet, not wanting to commit the time. Somewhere since, I have read of the identification of this long abandoned line. Apparently, it was an independent coal feeder railroad that made a junction with the PRR at the curve. I vaguely recall the corporate name contained the word, “Lick.” Was there more than one of this kind of branch leaving the PRR at the curve?
You probably can find older photos on the “net” that will show there were two railroad branches leading off of the “Curve”.
One where you spoke of and another on the other side…Going up a valley {on the curves outside}, similar as the one you mentioned.
I have noted the one you spoke of from the access road that comes in from the west. I visited there just a few years ago again and was able to see bits and pieces of the row. {The access road that brings one in under the curve…thru the tunnel}.
There was also a depot on the “Curve” years ago too. Just on the Altoona side of where the “park” is located now.
I just explored Muleshoe on a trip a couple of months ago, it was neat and some say it was bet just as scenic as Horseshoe. I guess we’ll never know now.
Is that dark spot on the hill beyond the curve in the right side of the photograph just a tree? It almost looks like a tunnel opening with something leading to it.
…I believe the “dark spot” to the right side of the curve is a small pond of water. There might be a water tank there too. My second thought is it might be the shadow of the water tank…??
If you go back left about 2" from the dark spot…look and you can see a signal bridge across the tracks, and right there is a bit of a wide spot in the row {on the inside of the tracks}, and that is the location where the depot was located.
The Calumet Region of Northwest Indiana and adjoining parts of Illinois has its share of abandoned trackage, although much of it would be considered industrial leads and running tracks. Through Whiting and north Hammond, parts of the former NYC and PRR main lines have been abandoned, in some places the rails are still in place in the grade crossings. If you know where to look, remnants of the South Shore’s original route through East Chicago can still be found, especially around the east end of the former street trackage on Chicago Avenue.
Some day when I have sufficient time available, I would like to do some deep research on the New York Central “Putnam” division. I remember seeing remnants of this line which ran in the area where I grew up and ended service in the late 1950’s…long before I was a railfan. I would also like to research the old “New York and Westchester” electric line as I understand it was a very fast line which had multiple main line tracks and was WAY before its time and folks would be well served if it existed now with $3.70/gallon (I paid this last night near home) gasoline prices.
If you’d like to try Google Earth on an abandoned route in the California desert, consider the Tonopah & Tidewater, which was all taken up by the early 1940s.
Start in Ludlow, Calif. (along I-40), on the BNSF main. The T&T had a yard and balloon track there, and headed pretty much due north. You can track the route almost completely for easily over a hundred miles, crossing the UP (old LA&SL) main at Crucero (now population zero), through a huge not-always-dry-lake area, across I-15 (Las Vegas-to-L.A. highway) at Baker (easy to trace through town), past the former Tecopa RR interchange, to Death Valley Jct. (former interchange with the NG Death Valley RR), and on into the Beatty, Nevada, area with other former interchanges. The abandoned connecting lines left a lot of evidence, too.
From the link, the first picture that pops up, there is a portion of a trestle still intact. That trestle is constructed in a particular mannor and it has a name. Can someone tell me what it is? I would offer a reward but i’m too cheep.