What U.S. Rail Line Would You Revive?

I’d like to to see the Erie Lakawana rebuilt East out of Chicago. When it was built it already had the clearances needed for double-stacks and it avoids congestion (and compounding delays) by travelling through smaller cities along the way.

Another good candidate is the C&O from Cincinatti to Chicago. It would short-cut CSX’s current route up through Deshler on those crowded lines. One side benefit is the C&O and Erie share R/W in NW Indiana so you get two for one.

I’d like to see the MILW’s mainline between Green Island and Council Bluffs revived plus the branch connecting Paralta (just east of Marion) with Jackson Junction (just west of Calmar) that went through my hometown of Edgewood, IA.

You might want to consider coming to Colorado to travel Tennessee pass before they put trains back on it.

Rebuildung the Erie would improve competition in the North-East. Good idea, IMHO

Rebuild Erie-Lackawanna and the Milwaukee Road as a Transcon.

D&RGS all the way up to Grand Junction and down to Silverton, with spurs up to the top of the Grand Mesa ( for those of you who do not know it is the largest flat top mesa in the WORLD. also this colorado for you eastern folk. it is the other C state along with Connecticut. ) ok where were we? Oh yes also spurs up to Rifle, glenwood springs and spurs running out to, Paradox and Paonia.

Oh one more thing some of those lines are not real like the spurs but the mainline is acurate as far as i know.

Ingenius! However too good an idea to be taken seriously.

I’ve heard this somewhere before. Seriously, I got a case of deja vu when I read it. I wish I knew more about where I heard this idea (probably before the lines were abandoned).

Trains magazine ran a column many years ago (30?) called the “Professional Iconoclast” who, among other things, advocated using both the Erie and the MILW as the basis for a transcontinental container route. The great advantage he saw to them was their lack of branchlines to minimize interference with/from other traffic. Almost makes today’s capacity problems the deja’ vu.

The C&O of Indiana got abandoned because of heavy grades and clearances.

Could the E-L, in conjunction with the Kankakee Belt, work well as a bypass around Chicago?

B&O west of Parkersburg was a financial and clearances decision. Today, I’m sure they wish they hadn’t hurried.

Revive the NKP from Arcadia to the Indiana state line, it’s all still there but R. J. Corman has it west of Lima and the NS is using it as a storage lot west of the state line to Portland, IN. Still think that was an NS “Hurry up and get rid of it”, shortsighted decision.

Sort of lack of branch lines. But more importantly the high and wide clearances and missing many major cities’ bottlenecks and congestion. And MLW being a last built to the Pacific benefited from more advanced engineering than those lines built in the 19th Century despite its routing…

Ahh, having grown up in Salamanca NY (a former division point on the Erie / EL), I can attest - yea testify! - that you would not bypass winter snows anywhere in SW New York! [:)]

Love the idea, though! The ghosts of the EL are thick in those parts

Yes, but you theoretically would not have the choking interchange, etc.of yards and yarding you have in Buffalo. Hopefully the E line would be able to be kept swept clear if not by traffic then by plow. It is difficult to keep one yard plowed much less several in one location.

I vote for the Erie Lackawanna - their colors, diamond logo, the whole deal. With their wide ROW and route that bypassed some of the bigger points of congestion between Chicago and the east coast, they’d be perfect for high-speed intermodal.

Because of strictly sentimental reasons I have to say the ICG line between Sioux Falls SD and Cherokee IA. Having grown up along this line, I can see no other choice. Of course economically there would be absolutely no reason to retain or restore this line. Oh well, nice to dream.

I can see that. Electrify the thing while you are at it and make a major score for oil independence (I do like those last two words)

PL

RI Choctaw line, simply because I grew up where it crossed the Katy in McAlester, OK. In yesteryear, you could stand at Main and Choctaw streets (which is in the middle of downtown) and see a parade of trains all day long. No economic reasons to give, although the merits thereof have been much talked about of late.

MisterPleasant, did you live on SE Oklahoma? The Frisco Kiamichi ran in front of my brothers farm (he still lives there) 10 miles SW of Clayton, OK. Much of the roadbed is still visible. There was a wye on top of a hill North of Talihana, OK that was used to turn around pushers needed to get trains over a steep grade mountain (can’t recall the name of the mountain). I intend one day to look for signs of that wye if possible. Knowing a little about the terrain I would like to see how they put it on top of one of those mountains. Must have had to level off a good area.

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I too have read more than once the Milwaukee across the Rockies was one of the better engineered routes. Too bad some of these well accepted ROW’s were lost. Money and timing…just not at the time that it might have had a better future.

Seconded!!!