Reading a previous thread on abandoned railroad right of ways had me thinking as to what is the longest abandoned ROW now in the US. I am thinking it might be the old Milwaukee ROW. Does anything else come close? Here on the east coast would it be an old NYC line?
Single railroad? MLW comes to mind, as does NYO&W, Colorado Midland, parts of the PRR and NYC given up by CR, NS and CSX. FEC’s line to Key West. CNJ in PA or L&NE from PA through NJ into NYS. I wouldn’t doubt there is a table or list…
I don’t know if it’s the oldest, but part of this line was abandoned in 1859.
http://www.abandonedrails.com/New_Castle_and_Frenchtown_Railroad
Are you talking longest as in mileage or length of time of abandonment?
At first blush, I take that as a contiguous ROW being abandoned. And along that line, I’d probably vote for MILW. Here in the east it was probably NYO&W.
Taking an aggregate total of piecemeal abandonments by a given RR may well result in a bigger number of miles.
Some of the longer ones in the West:
-SP’s ex-EP&SW line between Douglas, AZ, and El Paso, TX
-Las Vegas & Tonopah between Sin City and Rhyolite, NV
-Tonopah & Tidewater between Ludlow, CA, and Beatty, NV
-SP’s combinatioon of narrow-gauge and standard-gauge lines running from surviving branches south and east of Reno, NV, to Searles, CA
-Rio Grande’s long NG routes around Colorado, and running down to Santa Fe, NM
-ATSF’s mining branches running north from Goffs, CA, including up to Searchlight, NV
-SP’s original Central Pacific/Union Pacific route around the Great Salt Lake through Promontory, UT
The O&W perhaps, after all its the entire railroad.
CGW isn’t the longest but was almost completely abandoned.
The CGW was already merged into the CNW before the big abandonments happened. The same can be sait of the old M&StL - Not much left of the mainline there as well.
There is still a little of the old CGW mainline south of St Paul, and the ‘Spine Line’ trackage from Manly to Clear Lake Jct(Mason City area) was ex-CGW with CRI&P rights over it. Iowa Northern operates part of the Marshalltown to Oelwein trackage as well.
The MILW ‘Pacific Coast Extension’ is sort of gone in pieces BNSF and various shortlines operate selected sections where there still was traffic.
Jim
A person was right in saying that the NYO&W was the whole railroad in abandonment and not just part of a railroad but mostly it was in one state. The MILW abandonment though goes from like the Midwest to Washington State.
Sounds to me like a good “Map of the Month” for Trains…
Hear! Hear! Excellent idea!
That gets my vote too!
And here’s one more for our growing informal list:
SP predecessor Houston & Texas Central abandoned a long, misbegotten cutoff on its route from Houston up to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The 94-mile line ran from near Navasota to Mexia, and was only in place from 1907 to 1933. About five miles have been rebuilt as a spur.
Although not all abandoned the Rock Island from Tucumcari NM to Memphis TN. Probably over half is gone.
Much of the MILW line east of Miles City, MT was saved,and is operated by BNSF. West of Avery, ID some segments were saved (at least temporary). Miles City, MT to Avery, ID is 654 miles, which is still a pretty long abandonment, and I think the longest line mentioned so far.
The Norfolk Southerns P-Vine (Portsmouth-Cincinnati,Ohio ) line,roughly 99 miles,has most everything there to be a functioning line,nicely maintained track, crossings (protection) and TSA’s but hasn’t been used in it’s entirety for over 10 years now.
Oh ,they even weed spray the track [:O]
It has been cut and blocked out of service in two locations,and the signal system is out of service.