Trainz allows us to build long lost mainlines and branch lines which we can bring to life. The question is what about those lines that have outlived their usefulness?
As sad as it maybe, there are some lines that become redundant and closed. In the real world a railroad company will want to ensure its lines make money and will want to remove from service and outright abandon those that are no longer in service because the railroads pay taxes on the assets as well as property taxes on the ROW. The railroad may have once served a factory or steel mill, however, the business have now closed. Rather than pay taxes on the infrastructure, the railroad will remove the tracks and abandon the ROW.
In other cases there may have been a washout on the line which has made repairing a dilapidated old branch line that saw service to a factory one day a month not worth repairing. In many cases, the rail company would put the repair cost back on the business and this usually means the service will end because that business does not want to pay the maintenance or rebuilding costs. The other reason maybe tat there is a secondary line which serves the same area so why restore this line that has been washed out.
Another situation maybe a highway cutting through an area, and the road company did not want to pay the premium for a road bridge over the railroad, especially if the line is hardly used to begin with. We see lots of these today. What was once a branch line or even a mainline, is now only a string of power lines owned by the local power company. We can tell this power company path was once a ROW because of the raised grade that the wires follow. The line that runs from Bradford, MA to Newburyport via Georgetown, and from Georgetown to Peabody, through Topsfield and Danvers is such a line. This ROW was abandoned in the 1940s after a washout took out a major bridge. Since these lines served a very rural area, at the time, the railroad opted to remove the tracks. Service, however, remained on the ends up until the 1980s.
Then there are those mainlines that are foolishly closed due to political or bad management decisions. The Maine Central Mountain Division, which did well under the Main Central, was closed by Guilford because they did not want traffic from that region. Instead of handing the line off to a regional, they ripped up the track on either end to prevent anyone from operating it. Since then the states in the area have been rebuilding portions of the line, which will hopefully come back into service.
We also have abandonments due to mergers. A competing line that has been merged into a larger company usually ends up on the short end of the stick. In New England the Eastern Railroad and the Worcester Nashua, Rochester and Portland both met a similar fate. The Eastern Railroad which once ran from Boston to Portland via Portsmouth was purchased, after a long lease, by the Boston and Maine. Even though the Eastern Railroad was faster and had fewer grades, the B&M abandoned a good portion of it in favor of its own mainline farther inland. The Eastern remained active as a secondary line up into the late 1950s and portions are still operated by the MBTA in the southern end for commuter rail. Great Portsmouth sees some freight, though not much because Pan Am discouraged online freight customers, and the same for the greater Portland Maine area.
The WNR&P was an earlier victim of the B&Ms hunt for control over the region. The portion between Worcester and Ayer Mass is still active, as well as, a portion near Portland Maine. The middle came up in the early 1920s once the leased line was merged in. This line was quite popular with the New York to Maine vacation trains with it's Worcester connection. People would come up the New Haven (Providence and Worcester) and head north to their summer cottages in New Hampshire and Maine. The great parades of passenger extras must of been quite the site. The Worcester to Ayer remains as the B&M's Worcester Mainline, and after the route abandonment, the passengers were transferred to the B&M at Ayer where they continued their journey north until that passenger service ended in the 1930s.
Another important mainline which saw a similar fate during the 1970s was the famous Cheshire Branch, which is sadly all gone today. This line ran from Ashburnham and Gardner Mass up to Bellows Fall, Vermont. During the 1980s, the B&M and Central Vermont combined services to save on costs. The B&M abandoned the Cheshire in favor of the Central Vermont's mainline. The southern portion exists only as a short branch up to Wichendon, MA. The Ashburnham portion has been totally wiped out and there is barely a trace today in South Ashburnham. The portions around Bellows Falls exists as the yard used by the Green Mountain Railroad. It's too bad the line which once served Keene, NH, Ashuelot, Fitzwilliam, and other towns was not kept.
My own Enfield route features such abandoned lines. To model these I've placed track in and used invisible track to hold bridge abutments in place. In other places, I have left the crossings in place with no track on either side, or sometimes there will be track, but it will be rusty.
There are cases on my route where an abandoned route has been returned to service, as this might happen in real life.
Whenever I have removed track from an area, I don't remove the grades. I will put in a cinder ballast and cover the area with trees. If you look at my maps, there will be dark stripes where lines once ran. In some of these locations, when I have expanded the route, I will return some of these lines back to active lines. This means cleaning up the route by removing the trees and then placing the infrastructure back in. The track laying is pretty easy at this point since there is no need to grade.
What's interesting about restoring a line back to use is the overall scenery looks better with the track going in after adding in trees and other details. The ballast texture blends in better and the tracks seem to fit better.
Here are some pics of some of my abandoned lines. This is a truly redundant line which was closed once the Westville branch was opened. Today there is still a bridge across the Little River and some stubs on either end. Sadly there is no hope for this line to be restored at anytime soon.
As sad as it maybe, there are some lines that become redundant and closed. In the real world a railroad company will want to ensure its lines make money and will want to remove from service and outright abandon those that are no longer in service because the railroads pay taxes on the assets as well as property taxes on the ROW. The railroad may have once served a factory or steel mill, however, the business have now closed. Rather than pay taxes on the infrastructure, the railroad will remove the tracks and abandon the ROW.
In other cases there may have been a washout on the line which has made repairing a dilapidated old branch line that saw service to a factory one day a month not worth repairing. In many cases, the rail company would put the repair cost back on the business and this usually means the service will end because that business does not want to pay the maintenance or rebuilding costs. The other reason maybe tat there is a secondary line which serves the same area so why restore this line that has been washed out.
Another situation maybe a highway cutting through an area, and the road company did not want to pay the premium for a road bridge over the railroad, especially if the line is hardly used to begin with. We see lots of these today. What was once a branch line or even a mainline, is now only a string of power lines owned by the local power company. We can tell this power company path was once a ROW because of the raised grade that the wires follow. The line that runs from Bradford, MA to Newburyport via Georgetown, and from Georgetown to Peabody, through Topsfield and Danvers is such a line. This ROW was abandoned in the 1940s after a washout took out a major bridge. Since these lines served a very rural area, at the time, the railroad opted to remove the tracks. Service, however, remained on the ends up until the 1980s.
Then there are those mainlines that are foolishly closed due to political or bad management decisions. The Maine Central Mountain Division, which did well under the Main Central, was closed by Guilford because they did not want traffic from that region. Instead of handing the line off to a regional, they ripped up the track on either end to prevent anyone from operating it. Since then the states in the area have been rebuilding portions of the line, which will hopefully come back into service.
We also have abandonments due to mergers. A competing line that has been merged into a larger company usually ends up on the short end of the stick. In New England the Eastern Railroad and the Worcester Nashua, Rochester and Portland both met a similar fate. The Eastern Railroad which once ran from Boston to Portland via Portsmouth was purchased, after a long lease, by the Boston and Maine. Even though the Eastern Railroad was faster and had fewer grades, the B&M abandoned a good portion of it in favor of its own mainline farther inland. The Eastern remained active as a secondary line up into the late 1950s and portions are still operated by the MBTA in the southern end for commuter rail. Great Portsmouth sees some freight, though not much because Pan Am discouraged online freight customers, and the same for the greater Portland Maine area.
The WNR&P was an earlier victim of the B&Ms hunt for control over the region. The portion between Worcester and Ayer Mass is still active, as well as, a portion near Portland Maine. The middle came up in the early 1920s once the leased line was merged in. This line was quite popular with the New York to Maine vacation trains with it's Worcester connection. People would come up the New Haven (Providence and Worcester) and head north to their summer cottages in New Hampshire and Maine. The great parades of passenger extras must of been quite the site. The Worcester to Ayer remains as the B&M's Worcester Mainline, and after the route abandonment, the passengers were transferred to the B&M at Ayer where they continued their journey north until that passenger service ended in the 1930s.
Another important mainline which saw a similar fate during the 1970s was the famous Cheshire Branch, which is sadly all gone today. This line ran from Ashburnham and Gardner Mass up to Bellows Fall, Vermont. During the 1980s, the B&M and Central Vermont combined services to save on costs. The B&M abandoned the Cheshire in favor of the Central Vermont's mainline. The southern portion exists only as a short branch up to Wichendon, MA. The Ashburnham portion has been totally wiped out and there is barely a trace today in South Ashburnham. The portions around Bellows Falls exists as the yard used by the Green Mountain Railroad. It's too bad the line which once served Keene, NH, Ashuelot, Fitzwilliam, and other towns was not kept.
My own Enfield route features such abandoned lines. To model these I've placed track in and used invisible track to hold bridge abutments in place. In other places, I have left the crossings in place with no track on either side, or sometimes there will be track, but it will be rusty.
There are cases on my route where an abandoned route has been returned to service, as this might happen in real life.
Whenever I have removed track from an area, I don't remove the grades. I will put in a cinder ballast and cover the area with trees. If you look at my maps, there will be dark stripes where lines once ran. In some of these locations, when I have expanded the route, I will return some of these lines back to active lines. This means cleaning up the route by removing the trees and then placing the infrastructure back in. The track laying is pretty easy at this point since there is no need to grade.What's interesting about restoring a line back to use is the overall scenery looks better with the track going in after adding in trees and other details. The ballast texture blends in better and the tracks seem to fit better.
Here are some pics of some of my abandoned lines. This is a truly redundant line which was closed once the Westville branch was opened. Today there is still a bridge across the Little River and some stubs on either end. Sadly there is no hope for this line to be restored at anytime soon.
