How many RR lines and branches have been abandoned and the rails and ties are still there? Once abandoned, who owns the tracks? Can the rails still be recycled?
The rail (chattel) and the real property underneath still belong to somebody, the reasons and explanations behind the dormancy are all over the map. Simple research can usually find the answer.
When people start to ass-u-me, bad things happen, and when political bubbas get involved, it really gets messy. Witness the Honey Creek RR/ Roberts Pipeline Construction mess in Indiana.
Rail can be relaid, depending on what kind of service the rail has had so far. Recently rebuilt an industry track in the midwest with 1942 CF&I rail from a government facility that had been barely used. I had 90# rail still with the mill scale on it and plenty of pristine OTM. It is getting a workout now and its almost new state guarantees a long service life.
That’s a pretty instructive case, for those who really want to understand this kind of thing. See the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s Finance Docket No. 34869 or FD-34869-0, DECISION in HONEY CREEK RAILROAD, INC.–PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER, 36986 - EB, SERVICE DATE – JUNE 4, 2008, also at -
or http://www.stb.dot.gov/Decisions/readingroom.nsf/UNID/D358DE58B7E795D68525745D0063E27A/$file/36986.pdf [10 pages, approx. 39 KB in size].
- Paul North.
After The Milwaukee Road pretty much abandoned its lines in South Dakota (circa 1980), through some mechanism the state government took ownership of those tracks and rights-of-way. The idea was to “rail bank” those lines for possible future use.
B.N. initially leased some of that trackage and later bought the lines it wanted. I’m reasonably certain that the Dakota Southern, operating between Mitchell and Murdo, is leasing the tracks it uses from the state.
I’ve read where South Dakota, maybe two or three years ago, decided to completely abandon The Milwaukee Road’s “Black Hills extension” between Kadoka and some point just a few miles east of Rapid City. My guess is the rails and ties are gone by now.
The rails on the Milwaukee Road between Kadoka and Rapid City were finally removed around the year 2000. The scrap rail was mostly hauled out of South Dakota on the DM&E. Most was 72# rail. Probably from the original construction.
To the OP:
Abandonment of a rail line/removal of the tracks and abandonment or vacation of the right-of-way in fee simple ownership, or of the right-of-way easement (if not fee simple ownership) are very different things.
Books have been written on these topics, and the rules are different in each state and depend heavily on the original land interest acquired by the railroad and applicable state laws in the intervening years.
Unless the railroad has relinquished their rights, they or their successor can relay the rails in the future.
John
I’d wager most of us on here can relate to some location that contains a long ago {decades}, used rail line, branch…spur, etc…that still contain the rails and ties.
My thoughts of one back in Pennsylvania home land and formally B&O, is still in place for several miles to a small mining town. Trees now, between the ties / rails, etc…are so big the ROW is almost completely hid.
Why the line was not lifted when the mine closed {decades ago}, I have no idea.
The state of South Dakota purchased the tracks from the Milwaukee Road. They didn’t buy everything, just the major arteries, plus some short stretchs of track to keep Madison and Britton connected to the world. The BN leased most of it until they bought it outright until about 5 years ago. The DS also leases a line from Napa Junction to Platte, but that hasn’t been used for at least 15 years and it may not even be there anymore. (It was still there in the mid 90s, but it was VERY weeded over.)
The BNSF has an abandoned-in-place line stretching about 20 miles southeast from Joplin, MO, through Sarcoxie to a connection with their east/west mainline. Roads have been resurfaced over the rails and some of the fixtures are starting to rust. Trees are beginning to sprout between the rails.
In addition to the Dakota Southern trackage, the Dakota & Iowa, which is a subsidiary of a large rock quary, operates state owned tracks between Canton or Beresford SD to Elk Point. From Elk Point they hold trackage rights on the BNSF to Sioux City to access their own rock storage facility or interchange with either the BNSF or the UP.
An “abandoned looking” line in upstate NY, forgive me as I don’t know if it’s Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, or Putnam county, is not really abandoned. A local entrepeneur bought the property and left the rails and wayside equipment in place. The thing is, he’s collecting fees from the utilities that cross the line. Evidently there are multi-decade leases in force (of the old-style “199 year lease” sort) that must be paid by the utility that crosses the line. The leases sometimes are enforced on new utility line crossings but every time that happens there is a fight. This bad blood is also why the line doesn’t host its own lucrative fiber-optic cable contract (oops).
I seem to remember it’s in Sullivan or Putnam county, in the extreme New York City northern exurbs.