I am looking for info on any Train Graveyards or abandoned Train cars or engines that people may know about. I am a photographer looking for more interesting subjects to document. The more overgrown and delapitaded the better. Any state… I’m going on a road trip. Thanks
there is a junk yard just off of highway 58 west of Barstow California that has a large ammount of freight cars lying around. mostly hoppers, box cars, and some flat cars i think. and the good thing is, it is right on the way to the Tehachapi loop 
Try this web site.
http://nt1.foothill.net/rumorweb/
Jeff:If you get to Morehead KY, You will find the remains of the Morehead& Norfork Railroad.There is some yard track in place,a engine house and general office building.(As of 1998).If your wonderings take you to Marblehead OH,you can see the engine house and station of the old Lakeside & Marblehead.(As of 2000)This may not be what you had in mind,but,I thought I would mention it.Oh,At Morehead Ky there was a old boxcar there in which I have a picture of.Good Luck in your quest for the by gone days!!
Massachusetts seems to be a graveyard of abandoned right-of-ways. The Guilford Rail System is headquartered in the Boston 'burbs (Billerica), and I understand that they have a boneyard with old heaps that are being cannibalized (Even some old B&M units). Next to Billerica is Lowell, which has it’s share of old yards. I’m sure that there are numerous others throughout the Boston area.
But hurry, many of these abandoned lines are being converted to bike paths. I often walk a path that started as the Bedford & Billerica RR (circa 1877). If you look hard, there are faint signs of the old RR. Just off the trail, there are the remains of a foundation to some sort of RR structure with whats left of a 15 foot high stone marker. A rather detailed history of this line can be found at: http://www.bedforddepot.org/BBHistory.html
In Boulder City Nevada there are a few real old timers sitting near the main highway through town. There is a member on this site that could confirm that theyre still there. Dan of Boulder City would know if they have been moved or removed. There also is an old engine repair shop in the north end of San Antonio with several old cars there. An old tower is at this location which I plan to model. There are areas in Los Angeles near the yard that have some of the old passenger cars that might have been used on the daylight train. This yard is huge and old rolling stock are tucked into sidings rotting away just like you want them. I havent lived there for about ten years so I would check with Union or Southern Pacific to find out if they`re still around and where the best place is to photograph them. Have fun! Gerald
Yes they are still there and very easy to get to. Also near Arden, just south of Las Vegas on a line that used to go toward Blue Diamond there are some cars and old and i mean old caboses. Interesting item, some of the cars at Boulder City are being repaired for future use by the “Boulder City Southern” for a short tourist ride I believe being powered by the first diesel locomotive purchased by the UP, D.S.1000 (or maybe 1001).
There is a rather large boneyard of abandoned rolling stock and passenger cars located in Madison, Il. (near E. St. Louis). The TRAA Madison yard and a UP yard are very close together in this area, as I recall the graveyard is next to the UP yard. There are also abandoned right-of-ways and trestles galore in this area. I have several good pics from many loactions in and around St. Louis.
Also try the ex Milwaukee Road/Soo yard in Milwaukee (just north of the Mitchell Domes, that’s on any Milwaukee map). There are several areas of dying rolling stock there, too
Thanks much! The rumorweb website has helped immensely! The abandoned engines in Solomon, Alaska are perfect! Your photos are very nice. Thanks again.
Jeff
Thanks all for the quick and immencely helpful responses…This is great. I have much driving to do!
Eastern Pennsylvania has its fair share of relics also. In Sinking Spring, just west of Reading on the NS Harrisburg Line there are a bunch of old plows, jordan spreaders, and boxcars sitting in the weeds on the north side of the tracks behind the swimming pool. In South Bethlehem, there is an old Reading railroad roundhouse being used by the local road department as a garage, and there is also an old coal tower standing alone, and the table from the turntable was sitting in the weeds as of April of this year. This area is just north of I78 on rt 412, behind the Wendy’s and mini-market. If you srive about 5 minutes further north on 412, you’ll run into the old Bethlehem Steel mill, which is overflowing with stored cars, and old steel mill equipment. In Topton Pa, on the NS Reading line, there is a building that for the past 25 years or so has been used as a trolly barn by a restoration group. There were/are alot of old traction hunks in the weeds around the building, plus some other railroad equipment owned by the East Penn Railroad, which is the operator of the Kutztown branch (I use operator loosely, they haven’t run a train into Kutztown in a long, long time).
With that, good luck in your quest.
Up in Maine:
- Eagle lake, deep in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has two old steam locos (turn-of-the-century ex NYC, I believe) rotting in the woods. They were used in logging operations until the 30s. Bring your canoe… there is no road access.
Monson Jct is the old junction between the B&A and Monson Railroad (2 footer)- both lines were abandoned long ago, but the station is still there (as of 5-10 years ago), and had waybills, etc. inside from the 50s. The yard is overgrown but explorable.
If you’re out on the West coast, you might as well visit the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically the east bay side, at the north end of Oakland, just off of Maritime Street and Grand Ave, just south of the junction of the 580 and I-80 freeways right near the Outer Harbor Public Container Terminal and Army Base. There is a railroad refurbishing company with dozens of old passenger cars including early 20th Century “heavyweights” and a more modern streamlined Santa Fe Pullman “Vista Dome” car, some cabooses, other freight cars and diesel engines sitting on tracks with easy access.
Just south of here is the old Oakland SP passenger station, but the tracks are gone and the station is abandoned. Rough part of town so watch yourself.
There is a Frisco passenger car in a trash dump in Springfield, Missouri, Frisco’s former World headquarters. It is in bad shape, but still good enough to restore. It is located near Nichols Junction.
I know it’s too late for your road trip, but I’d like to add The Lost Engines Of Roanoke
Thier is a Passenger Car graveyard in Madison, Illinois called Illinois Transit the website is www.iltransit.com
Defiance has an old yard behind the jr high school.Get your pics of the depot before it falls apart completely.
stay safe
Joe
If you make your way up the west coast to Canada, on Vancouver Island the E&N is still running, but is about as close to being abondoned without being abondoned as a railway can be.
Take some pictures of the rolling stock now, as they aren’t likely going to be there much longer.
Last summer my dad and I took a trip to the quad cities area. Near one of the interstates there, there was a very, very, large engine graveyard. there were all sorts of roadnames on them. I was wondering if anyone knew who this yard belonged to? one other thing, the yard was near John Deer’s combine plant somewhere in or near Moline.
Last time I checked the East Broad Top’s Mt. Union yard had the following:
***dozens of EBT narrow gauge hoppers with trees growing through them
***a narrow gauge Buda ballast dump car next to a giant gopher hole
***a couple of strings of U.S.Army standard gauge wood sheathed boxcars
***acres of complex dual gauge yard trackage
***a dual gauge scale sans house
***foundations of the coal processing plant, water tower and lots of minor structures
***Really narrow gauge cars that carried refractory bricks through the ovens
***number 3 (or was it 6?), a standard gauge 0-6-0 with a set of couplers for each gauge slumbering away in the boarded-up enginehouse (you can see her through the cracks)
***Whew!
Late fall through early spring is the best time to explore as vegetation makes it difficult but not impossible the rest of the year. Visit it when the operating portion of the line starts or ends. The last night of operations at Rock Hill (Orbisonia) is always a thrill, when they dump one of the mike’s fire, blast the last steam horizontally several hundred feet with a huge roar, and use a gas motorcar to push it into it’s stall. Some European fans were there one time and we all pitched in with the formerly steam powered armstrong turntable. Unforgetable!!!
I’ve got a couple of little tales about that place.
Once, with my son we were pushing briar along the army boxcars. Most of them had holes burned through their floors from fires made by kids (Halloween would be fun there) or drifters. We would peer through the open doors as we passed them. Well, I stuck my head inside one doorway looking left and found myself looking at blue jeans two feet away that belonged to a man standing just inside. We both gasped and I almost fell over backwards. We both managed a quavery “Hey!!!”, and I got outta there toot sweet!!!
Another time, with my pal Kellam, we were squinting through the enginehouse windows which were if I recall, heavily louvre