Do railways in most cases own the land out right or are they easements ?

[Murphy_Siding]

Many people sent us messages reporting abuse in this thread. All posts pertaining to that, rather than the question, have been deleted, and moderation has been imposed where appropriate. At least one suggested it be locked. I am reluctant to do that against the slim possibility that someone still has a helpful suggestion, but if there is any more off-topic posting, no matter how seemingly benign, the topic will be locked and those responsible will likely be moderated.

Please, be adults.

Thank you. Being a moderator is not fun.

[Choo_Choo_Lou]

In way of introduction, I was involved in line acquisitions and related issues in my 36 years of working for the State of Ohio. The answer to your question for eastern railroads is that it depends on how the original railroad acquired the land. Sometimes they bought the land outright, sometimes they only acquired an easement that expires when the line is abandoned and torn up. The only way of knowing for sure in Ohio is to get a title search to see how each and every parcel was acquired. In my experience there were generally parcels owned in fee by the railroad mixed in with other parcels for which there were only easements. For parcels where there were only easements, reversionary rights would kick in upon the tearing up of the railroad (unless there was a Trails Act action through the STB which kept the parcel as an “active” RR right-of-way). That’s the way it is. One warning: Title searches can be rather expensive. Hope that is helpful. Cheers, Lou

[mudchicken]

In way of introduction, I was involved in line acquisitions and related issues in my 36 years of working for the State of Ohio. The answer to your question for eastern railroads is that it depends on how the original railroad acquired the land. Sometimes they bought the land outright, sometimes they only acquired an easement that expires when the line is abandoned and torn up. The only way of knowing for sure in Ohio is to get a title search to see how each and every parcel was acquired. In my experience there were generally parcels owned in fee by the railroad mixed in with other parcels for which there were only easements. For parcels where there were only easements, reversionary rights would kick in upon the tearing up of the railroad (unless there was a Trails Act action through the STB which kept the parcel as an “active” RR right-of-way). That’s the way it is. One warning: Title searches can be rather expensive. Hope that is helpful. Cheers, Lou

[tdn] suddenly very disappointed in my home state (and one-time employer as a co-op student many years back, ODOT) if indeed that’s what they did. Maybe they need to rename themselves as a highway department. Sounds like a waste of money and probably got less than the desired result. (nobody on the state side looked at a DV-107 or understood ICC General Orders 1 and 7 of 1914?)

That being said, the older pre-1870’s lines, for various reasons, can be a struggle because of poor record-keeping, lost or destroyed records and ineptitude (on all sides of the fence).

[Convicted_One]

any insight or help would be much appreciated.

I do hope that once you conclude this matter, you will come back here and share with us how everything works out. Interesting topic and i think many of us would benefit from the knowlege.