It would be great to hear if any abandoned railroad lines or grades being reborn or rebuilt for use. Note them if you know of any!
…Right now don’t know of any but we sure can hope…!
I know the Boone & Scenic Valley in Boone, Iowa rebuilt a short segment
of the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern line between Boone and Wolf
quite some time ago that had been abandoned and heavily grown-over
for years. The BSVR is mostly a tourist line but within the last few years
they started providing a freight transfer service for local industries in
Boone.
The Minnesota Prairie Line resurrected a long segment of the former
Minneapolis & St. Louis Dakota Line between Norwood and Redwood
Falls, MN. The line had been dormant for 2 years and was in serious
need of rehabilitation. There’s a video available - do a Google.
(1) Heart of Georgia RR
(2) NS did a line change and reived a dormant branch to do it east of Pittsburgh last year (“h” when in PA, no “h” when is southeast KS or Central CA …got it!)
(3) Missouri Central is slowly reclaiming the Rock coming west out of St. L.
(4) Two Iowa shortlines spun off by UP are planning to go back on lines that UP tore up to limit interchanges.
(5) UP is about to put back about a mile of railroad abandoned in the late 80’s to build a bypass out by old Stapleton Airport (includes removing a 6 story motel)
(6) The long dead Associated RR in Denver (Denver to Federal Center, originally Denver Lakewood & Golden RR) is coming back as a Light-Rail line.
(7) State of New Mexico is lusting after a piece of the old New Mexico Central, Kennedy to Santa Fe (Indian School)…maybe just a pipedream…
Have seen renewed interest in alignments of Old Dawson RR (NM), Kansas Pacific Arkansas Valley RR (CO), Garden City Northern (KS) and parts of the old CNW Cowboy Line (NE - and not by who you would think)…pipedreams abound!
From your posts, cclune, you sound like a Chicagolander.
The best example I can think of in this area was the old Pennsylvania Railroad main line, which was downgraded by Conrail. Soon after they removed Amtrak’s Broadway Limited from this route they actually tore up rails from Valparaiso, Indiana, west.
When Conrail was split up in 1999, CSX was to take over the western end of the old PRR. They rebuilt this section of track to provide an “overflow” main line to handle the drag freights that would otherwise have cluttered their ex-B&O main line. The “clutter” didn’t happen, and a lot of this recently-restored trackage is now being operated by the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern.
(I’m not entirely sure of dates and facts here–corrections welcomed!)
KCS is studying the ROW between Roseville and Victoria TX which they got as part of the UP-SP deal. The recent KCS purchase of TFM adds some credence to that possibility.
dd
The former Rock Island cutoff, that left the KP at ‘Sandown’ and passes through what is now the Courtyard/Marriott parking lot?! (The I-70 and Quebec St. overpasses are still in place…!!!) Worth taking a trip out to Denver to see that…
Don’t forget Amtrak’s major-portion revival some 18 or 20 years ago of the old New York Central West Side Freight Line that had been dormant for about 12 years previously, in Manhattan. It was the line that went all the way downtown on the West Side to St. John’s Place Freight Terminal, a modern box-car-to-truck transfer station built in the early 30’s and disused in the late '50’s or early '60’s. Amtrak did this to consolidate all long distance trains at Penn Station, Previously, the trains to Albany and then west or north left from Grand Central. The line West Side Freight Line was the orginal line of the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central before the New York and Harlem was brought into the system and the connecting link from Spuytin Dyvil to Mott Haven along the Harlem River was constructed under Conelius Vanderbilt’s leadership. Some token passenger service held on until the early '30’s.
New Jersey Transit’s Hudson and Bergan County Light Rail is partly on an abandoned Central Railroad of New Jersey roadbed.
I understand the the St. Louis light rail system, long enough to be classified as a modern interurban, uses some old interurban right-of-way which had been used interchange freight service as well.
A good percentage of the new light rail systems have track in streets that once had streetcars. Canal Street, New Orleans is a very thorough revival indeed. Howard Street, Baltimore.
Well on vacation in August to NV read in the Salt Lake Paper the possibility of restoring part of the Nevada Northern towards Ely to supply coal to a proposed power plant.
Eugene Herdebu
YEP! - Track currently ends under the south side of the I-70 Bridges where it runs into a massive wall of fill dirt. UPRR traded DRIR for the bypass by giving them the NWT Stockyards Branch and the North Washington Industrial Lead. DRIR took over the Stockyards Branch and borrowed UPY 1120 to switch it within the last two weeks. (DRIR might actually have to learn how to maintain track now, should be fun to watch!)
Have walked the entire line 3 times in the last 24 months…
I read in the paper a week or so back that Duke Power, the local power company, is looking to build three more power plants in North or South Carolina. One of them is planned to be coal (the other two nuclear) and if the coal plant is to be built in upstate South Carolina, it will probably bring back a demand for re-opening Saluda. It was coal that was brought down the mountain to begin with, so I’m hoping this will happen. This is several years down the road in any case…
Eugene Herdebu,
It’s true there is talk of building a power plant around Ely. But I don’t think the line was ever abandoned. The tracks are intact. for a while they were shipping copper concentrate to a smelter in Arizona. And excoursion trains are run seasonaly in the immediate Ely area. When I was there a couple of years back, they had just got one of there steam engines back from the Heber Creeper railroad. It was loaned to them during the olympics.
The Nevada Northern is a virtual living museum. You can wander around the shops and yard complex and no one will say anything. It seems like this railroad never got rid of anything. There are many steamers on the property (some running), a steam rotary snowplow, and all kinds of old rolling stock, both freight and passenger. I highly recommend stopping by to check it out if your ever in the area.
If you have seen the movie Rat Race, the “Silver City” train station is actually the Nevada Northern shop.
Please tell me more, like where it is, which RR used to own/use it, has it actually come back to life? Thanks.
There is 7 miles of track that hasn’t seen a train on it for at least 25 years that was recently purchased by Wisconsin Southern Railroad (WSOR). The track is in Sheboygan County (East Central Wisconsin) and runs from Sheboygan Falls to Plymouth. This track was owned by Chicago Northwestern until U.P. bought out CNW. UP never ran a train on the track. Over the years, the county highway department paved over the track at crossings with asphalt. The only place the track was lifted was across State Hwy. 57. Otherwise all the track is still in place with lots of trees growing between the rails. By the way the rails are dated 1894!!! WSOR is involved in rebuilding the line along with adjoining lines. There is a good possibility that an ethanol plant may open just east of the line they are reopening and this plant could see 4,500 cars a year and these cars would travel this line.
There is a tourist line running passenger trains through the Royal Gorge on the ex Rio Grande line abandoned by the UP.
Up here in Duluth MN we have an absolutly excellent excursion line and depot. The depot is the Union Depot and in the 1960-1980’s was served by Amtrak and various freight roads. The line is the very historic former Duluth,Missabe and Iron Range Railway’s Lakefront Line along Duluth to Two Harbors. In 1988 the line was renovated and on June 8th, 1989, the line was declared open.The North Shore Scenic Railroad has operated under three different owners. Donald Shank operated the NSSR for the 1990 season, after which the Goldfine family took over. The Goldfines operated for five seasons, through 1995. The Lake Superior Railroad Museum has operated the railroad since 1996, and plans to for the foreseeable future. [bow] The website is www.lsrm.org