I’m wondering how many of you have incorporated abandoned ROWs into your layouts? To some it might seem blasphemy, but I consider abandoned ROWs as an essential part of the railroading theme. Since I enjoy hiking out-of-service lines and looking for relics left behind by the scrappers, I figured I had to work a few into my layout.
On the Wisconsin & Iowa, I have built several into my design (all fictional towns):
Wolverine, WI (near Iron Mountain): A branch of the SOO has been represented, with only the grade and ballast remaining, and one SOO flanger sign on a section of scrap rail for its post in true SOO tradition.
Catherine, IA (SE of Des Moines): A former interurban ROW splits a pasture, and north of the WIAR main a branch of the ROCK has been scrapped, where workers are in the process of removing the ties. A ROCK style flanger sign remains.
New Moscow, ND (north of Jamestown): An abandoned branch of the NP is in the process of being rebuilt, with bundles of ties having been delivered, work crews grading the ROW with a layer of foundation stone and excavating the foundations for crossing signals.
I model the year 1956 before abandonment became common place. The NYO&W became the first class 1 to shut down in 1957. Consolidation and elimination of duplicate routes became more common in the following decades.
Modeling an abandoned ROW doesn’t fit in with my period. However I am considering modeling an abandoned industrial spur when I my branchline. It could be a point of interest.
I think it gives a layout a greater sense of realism, and of time passing. I seek out abandoned ROW’s myself, and given the number of redundant lines in my state there’s plenty to hike. Some lines that serviced small mines, or just small shortlines were abandoned not long into the 20th century, so they can be incorporated into most layouts regardless of era.
Caveat - I do not have any scenery yet, so these are future-tense possibilities:
The local Class 1 was expanding, so there will be some, “Future trackage,” ROW, including a working pile driver pounding concrete pilings into the silt at the bottom of a drowned valley. I’m looking forward to modeling dust, mud puddles and earthmover tracks - and possibly a TBM visible through a window in the fascia. (Yes, there were TBMs in use in Japan in 1964.)
The narrow-gauge logger had a mainline built like the Norfolk and Western, and temporary branches built on crude trestlework. An abandoned branch heading up into a logged-over valley is a distinct probability.
I haven’t yet but plan on it. I model logging and mining. I plan on a small stretch of abandonded HOn3 track, representing the “old” line in to the area. Because of increased demand it was replaced by the standard guage.
Use normal methods. Crack up the pavement a lot; fade the lines, and put in lots of weeds. Add a burnt-out husk of a travel plaza here and there. Some crashed Mack fuel tankers and road pirates on modded dune buggies are a nice touch.
Think more positive! Right-of-way realignment wasn’t unusual when railroads improved their physical plant. For instance, a railroad made have originally relied on some sharp curves following a river, but later “straightened” the route with tunnels and bridges. One example is Palisade, Nevada on the Southern Pacific.
I have several sections of abandoned track on my layout, all located in the town of Dooley, NH. Snow Hill Lumber has an old section of track from whewn it used to be served by rail, there’s an old spur leading off towards some industries on the backdrop, no turnout, and another warehouse with a few crossties from when it was served by rail…when the passing siding was extended, most of that track became in the way and was removed.
Also in that town is a shortline connection, which was built on the former right of way that was washed out in the middle, so my main railroad built a new line over the mountains and sold the truncated branch to another small shortline. That interchange is one of my favorite (and one of the most busy) industries on the railroad.
This is an interesting idea. I am trying to figure out how this would be incorporated into a layout. Unless it was a double track main that became single track, it is unlikely you would see an abandoned ROW running for any length with an active ROW. So it could be an abandoned ROW that crosses the active ROW either at grade or above/below it. Another choice would be an abandoned branch off the active ROW. I’d have a problem incorporating this into the unfinished portions my current track plan. I already have a dummy interchange with the other main crossing my active main line. On the rest of the unfinished portion, the track runs close to the layout edge. If I model an abandoed branch diverging toward the aisle, I only get a few inches of visual interest from the abandoned ROW. If I have it diverge to the inside, then I have to come up with a way to disguise the meeting of the abandoned ROW with the backdrop, the same problem presented by a road which meets the backdrop. I’ll keep this idea on the back burner for now.
It’s quite possible to see an abandoned ROW near an operating line. Take for example the Fox River Valley (former CNW) main north out of Fond du Lac, WI. As soon as the Wisconsin Central bought the FRV they pulled a long segment of the FRV up north of Fondy - the former FRV ROW was clearly visible from the WC main (then further north the WC abandoned the SOO through Oshkosh, preferring the FRV’s route further east - fewer grade crossings).
On my layout, a Rock Island branch into Catherine, IA was abandoned when the WIAR and ROCK worked-out a trackage rights agreement. It used to parallel the WIAR main east of town and crossed at an interlocking. The tower remains in operation to manage the junction of our Des Moines branch and the WIAR Kansas City Div. main between Indianola and Ewart, and the south end of the former Rock Island branch line from the abandoned crossing to downtown Catherine (now owned by the WIAR and renamed “Shops Transfer” to reach downtown industries, also used by ROCK way freights).
You can dream-up lots of rationale and circumstances to define your design - just takes some creative thinking.
Thats a good Rationale WIAR. The Rock and Milwaukee did it in Eastern Iowa to great success for both ( well before they shut down of course)
One good way to find old Rock Island ROW is to look for a canopy of trees. I have sen where trees grew up on either side of the ROW and had an area where they were not growing because of the passing of the train.
I’m learning! I read through the replies, finding erroneous thinking (abandoned rail lines are not era specific) and found SteamFreak’s comment, which mirrors my own. Many years ago, when I was still dabbling with American Flyer with the intention of building a “model railroad,” as opposed to just “playing with trains,” I helped a friend scenic his model RR. Like several others I knew, he was using the old Tru-Scale milled roadbed, the kind with the ties milled in place: all you had to do was put rails (Code 100–BRASS [shudder]) in the grooves in the “tie plates” and spike it down. He’d botched an earlier attempt, so he had a section of slightly mangled curved roadbed, and I talked him into putting it near one of his new curves and blending it into the scenery.
My family vacationed in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, near Eagle River, Three Lakes–and Rhinelander, and I’d often been “berrying” for blueberries along the Thunder Lake narrow gauge ROW, abandoned in 1941. I doubt if there were many roads in the US that didn’t have some abandoned trackage somehwere nearby: disused sidings, ROW realignments (as stated in another reply), etc. Railroading has always been a changing proposition, not just since the late '50s. Model Railroader has mentioned abandoned ROWs from time to time, though not recently–that I can recall.&nbs
On the new Layout I’m planning to have an abandoned Junction with the Former MILW and SOO. Both lines are operated by the WC. The Diamond will be taken out and only one leg of the wye will be operable.
Around Wausau I just recently found something out. The CNW paralleled the Milwaukee Road on the Valley Sub. My dad always remembed an Extra “notch” in the RR bridge abutment. Just recently after snooping around we found the tracks and ties still in place just south of that bridge running in the paper mill. It had to of been abandoned a while ago, trees where growing between the tracks! When the MILW or SOO re did the track south of Weston for the coal trains I’m sure they probably ripped up the old CNW grade. But In Mosinee there is a bridge there that looked to have an Extra abutment. If there is my theory would be right, and that the CNW did paralleled the MILW.
Well, in the third movie they did run a converted Mack B-61 truck-tractor with rail wheels (which had provided the power for Bartertown) on a long stretch of track (in surprizingly good shape even decades after the apocolypse) when Mel & friends tried to escape Tina Turner and her henchmen (oh yeah, they also had a wooden caboose where they played the french learning record on the Victrola)…
OK, here’s another ‘abandoned’ ROW idea (NOT the lonely rusted track bumper in the middle of nowhere I always push): track visible, in poor shape (rust & blacken it), bury it in ground cover and weeds except…in various area, add encroachments - run a backyard fence up to the track and cover the ROW with grass/lawn (even between the rails), cover the ROW with a vegtable or flower garden (plants grow rather well on railroad tracks it seems), park used cars over the tracks (bury the tracks in dirt to form a level parking lot) - these encroachments types and others were found on the Rahway Valley/SIRT when they started to rebuild (alas, still on hold), and forms yet another reason for NIMBY whining - ‘Hey, I’m using that track for my backyard/garden/business storage/parking’.
On my last layout, I originally had a siding coming off my mainline to a coal tipple. It wasn’t too realistic and didn’t operate very well. After getting tired of the derailments, I removed the switch and left the siding in place, bending the rails away from the mainline to make it look like the track had been severed and pulled away from the mainline. Later, when I relaid the track on my layout, I took a bunch of ground foam and covered the track and the area surrounding the coal tipple to make it look all overgrown. Turned out pretty good, I thought.
I had modeled an abandoned piece of a siding where the rails were taken up after a cross over replaced the old lead. The ties were never taken up and the a lot of junk began collecting in this area including an old derelict stock car and a water tank car. After reading this post, I decided to stage a scene of the logging crew removing this derelict equipment. This also gave me an excuse to make use of my Ohio locomotive crane.
