I was reading through the post, “Is your favorite mainline full of weeds and wild flowers?” And wondering how often it is that a railroad takes back their R.O.W. and rebuilds them? If anyone has any stories please share them. Pictures are even better. Here in St. Louis there have been talks of rebuilding a now trail but I havent heard of anything in the ppast couple of years.
I believe CSX rebuilt the track along a portion of the former PRR main line in northwestern Indiana, around the time of the Conrail breakup. And doesn’t part of NS’ project to carry coal from a mine somewhere in Pennsylvania involve putting back track on an abandoned right-of-way?
A line will be rebuilt if the money can be made…
Adrianspeeder
…In southwestern Pennsylvania on the CSX {S&C branch}, at Coleman…a branch that has been out of service for years and very much seemed to be abandoned…extends to near Shanksville and is in the process of rehab and expected to haul strip coal again…from that area. It is a distance of about 5 to 7 miles from the Shanksville end to where it meets the S&C branch…
The Browns, Grayville, and Poseyville Railway is currently in the process of trying to rebuild the former Illinois Central Right of Way from Browns Illinois to Poseyville Indiana.
MoPacFan…What part of St. Louis are you from? I am up here in Florissant…The Largest incorperated town west of the Mississippi that has NO Rail Service…(Though, until 1930, we had a Narrow Guage Railroad)
wasn’t stampede pass rebuilt in the early-mid 90’s? maybe i have the wrong name but one of the abandonded passes in washington was rebuilt by BN.
You have the right name. BN railbanked the west side and leased the east side to the Washington Central for several years before reopening it.
Down in Texas KCS subsidiary Texas-Mexican applied to the FRA for a $50 million loan to return a SP line to service SW of Houston from Rosenberg to Victoria. In Missouri BN built 2 new lines on abandoned ROW. One was a line to a lead mine south of Cuba and the other runs south from Bevier using an old Bevier and Southern ROW.
Sounds fascinating! Any online reference materials available?
What are they going to do with the former IC line at Browns?
That was the line that ran thru my hometown and it would be good to see part of it running. What kind of freight is on the line?
ed
It was a listed item in the “abandonments” section of Trains magazine, either the December or January issue…
Here in L.A. the big thing of late has been using old or abandonded ROWs for new light rail projects. This has been done with the Blue Line utilizing old Pacific Electric/SP ROWs, the Gold Line uses the recently abandoned SF ROW thru Highland Park and Pasadena and will eventually follow it all the way to Claremont. The Exposition line will utilize the old SF branchline that parallels Exposition Blvd, starting at Hope St Station to USC then down Exposition all the way to Venice Blvd to Culver City then up to Santa Monica. It was supposed to follow the ROW all the way to Santa Monica but the whining NIMBY crybabies in Cheviot Hills didnt want a rail line thru thier tony little neighborhood and managed to get it blocked. Future plans also call for utilizing the PE trackage down to Cerritos, that could concievably go all the way to Santa Ana.
Santa Fe used part of the Southern Pacific’s abandoned Dawson, New Mexico branch to build a line to the York Canyon coal mine. [8D]
Two I know of in Chicago. The PRR panhandle line from 95th st. south and the approaches to Dearborn station - both with houses.
Awesome thanks for the replies. BNSFKline I am in south county the line I am reffering to would be the ex-mopac carondelet sub. I havent heard of anything lately though, but apparently the UP needed it for coal.
Did the Missouri Central ever take over the operation of SP’s old Rock Island mainline between KC and St. Louis after the SP abandoned it?
A Trains article back in the 1980s by Benson and Steinheimer showed how SP laid track on a long-abandoned grade over the top of a desert ridge on the Jawbone branch after a tunnel fire. More of a shoo-fly, really. I think it was torn out again after the tunnel was reopened.
True, and they robbed the rails from the north end to do it. I have faint memories of seeing trains on the jawbone up around Lone Pine when I was a kid. Then later in life I ended up traveling up and down 395 a LOT (as the matter of fact I will be going up there next weekend). around 82’ they paved over the crossings. And when they four laned parts of the hwy they significantly cut into the row in places, that would have made rebuilding that much more difficult. Then around 90’ someone replaced many of the bridges and there was a rumor that Kerr McGee was going to start moveing minerals out of there from the Lone Pine area (Lone Pine (dry) Lake?). It would have been cool to see this line come back to life. But alas it was not to be. I think sometime in the late 90s the new bridges were removed and gates put up to keep the motercyclers from falling in the holes.
Another line that came out of abandonment was the modoc line. About a couple years before DRGW got the SP they abandoned the Modoc. They removed a lot of equiptment and gate arms and whatnot, But they left the rails. Then when DRGW got it they put it back in service with plans on exporting coal out of Coos Bay,Or. And once again trains rolled on the Modoc (a lot of DRGW locos migrated to the area too). But that did not last long and the line was abandoned again although if I remember right the abandonment was postponed due to flooding on the Feather river, Shasta and Donner lines. The rails remained for a few years but two years ago A&K showed up and spent the next year harvesting the tracks. [:(]
When New York State Electric & Gas built its coal fired generating plant on Lake Ontario at Somerset, they used a short segment of the NYC “Hojack” line(Ex-Rome,Watertown& Odgensburg,Exx Lake Ontario Shore) from Somerset to near Barker. They also used some of the private right of way from the International Railway’s Olcott Beach line, but, NYSEG has owned that ROW since the IRC quit that route prior to WWII. The plant has since been sold to another operator, but there are still 10,000 ton coal drags moving on an old intreurban’s ROW, coming off a really impressive bridge in the Northwest corner of Lockport NY, over the “Gulf” area of that city. On occasion one can see run through UP, BNSF or NS power up there.
If only the PE never gave it up in the first place.[:(]