What is happening to the abandoned railroads?

[Klinger]

Umm...Not to be rude, but where have you been for the last 14 or so years? SP has been long gone.

And yes, I know that SP bought out the UP and kept the UP name, doesnt mean I like the UP.

Oh, and here in Texas, we have two nicknames of which I know of...

Uber Pathetic or Uncle Pete

No you got that mixed up. D&RGW bought SP, but kept the SP name because of something to do with freight speeds and oil costs projecting a better image, don't remember how that went. Then UP later bought SP around 1997 or 1996, which included all of the D&RGW as well, and they went with the UP name.

 

[evan123]

Umm...Not to be rude, but where have you been for the last 14 or so years? SP has been long gone.

And yes, I know that SP bought out the UP and kept the UP name, doesnt mean I like the UP.

Oh, and here in Texas, we have two nicknames of which I know of...

Uber Pathetic or Uncle Pete

Here's another one:

You can't spell stupid with out UP.

 

[SPNGTyler]

No you got that mixed up. D&RGW bought SP, but kept the SP name because of something to do with freight speeds and oil costs projecting a better image, don't remember how that went. Then UP later bought SP around 1997 or 1996, which included all of the D&RGW as well, and they went with the UP name.

Now Im confused cause I remember someone on here telling me its was the SP bought out UP. Not the other way around, like I originaly thought.

And yes, I know the D&RGW is in this too, just did not feel like including them for they were not noted in the post I originaly quoted.

And the UP/SP buy out was in 1996. I remember that becouse it was two years after I was born is when My favortie Railroad's Flag had to fall.

 

[tonyvdb]

I thought they left old RR tracks, because the tracks aren't worth much money.

It is very costly to remove old lines and companies dont re coop money from ripping up the old rails so most are just left in place. In Canada with its vast open spaces som abandoned lines were used in mines that no longer exist and are in remote locations. Abandoned lines in cities are as already mentioned used mostly for walking trails or for light rail transit. In my home city during the 1970's we had rail running throughout our downtown including a large rail yard but all of that has been removed and is developed into shopping a university and condos.

 

[JCitron]

Railbanking happens.


Starting in the sixties, when many railroads began to merge and consolidate their operations, quite a few lines were abandoned because they were redundant and uneconomical to operate.
Typically the contract between a railroad and local land owners states that if the right-of-way ceases to be used for transportation purposes, then the railroad's land reverts to the original owner.

Luckily, to prevent the destruction of potentially valuable right-of-way, we have the process of railbanking. In this process, the railroad's right-of-way is purchased by the local government, complete with tracks, bridges, tunnels, etc. This is under the agreement that if the railroad needs the land again, they can buy it back and reopen it.

During the interim period, the right-of-way is usually fixed up for recreational use. Tracks are removed, the right-of-way paved, and a multi-use trail is built where the tracks once were.



For example, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad was an interurban line, abandoned in 1968. The right-of-way was acquired by the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority in the seventies, and the whole railroad was reopened as a multi-use trail in 1982.

Though it is unlikely that it will ever see rail traffic again, the right-of-way still exists and is ready for reconversion at any time. (though it would require cutting a lot of red tape.)




The Capital Crescent Trail, on the other hand is a railbanked right-of-way which is likely to see railroad use again. Originally acquired by Montgomery County in 1988 from CSX, it was converted to a rail-trail from Silver Spring, Maryland to Georgetown in the District of Colombia.
However, with large new residential and commercial developments in the region, it has become necessary to build new rapid transit lines in the areas served by the trail.
As a result, a large portion of the trail is likely to be rebuilt as the light rail Purple Line of the Washington Metro. This light rail line would also include a mixed use trail paralleling it.



Old rail lines never die, they just get converted to rail-trails.

Sadly this is true, but in some ways a good thing as I am beginning to consider. We have a few lines in my area that have become rail-trails.

In Massachusetts the state government purchased many of the abandoned RsOW for railbanking. In some cases the lines have been restored such as the Newburyport extension of the commuter rail, and the more recent Greenbush line on the Southshore. The much complained about reopening of the Greenbush line has proven to be quite popular with the residents once they realized the convenience of taking a commuter train all the way into Boston instead of sitting on the Southeast Expressway for hours on end.

These two are rare examples of what should happen. The most usualy case is the original line is allowed to deteriorate, the railside buildings to rot, and everything to become shoddy. In the mean time the traffic is so bad on the road next to it that the cars are at a standstill. When someone suggests reopening the line as a rail line, the NIMBYs come out in force to complain loudly about the noise, smell, etc.

John

 

[milwfoam]

Let me clarify.

The class one railroad, Union Pacific, is referred to as the Yellow Empire (Or the Empire, take your pick). UP is known in the national railroading community for buying out the smaller shortline RR's to seek profits, and if I recall correctly the employees of the railroads that have been bought out keep their jobs to a certain degree.

Im sorry to quote a 2 year old thread but
The empire does not buy out shortlines that often. The empire buys out other class 1 railroads that were heading for doom such as the SP, DRGW, C&NW, Half Sooline, THE KATY and part of the MILW were bought. The other half of Soo went to CP i think

 

[rjhowie]

You are unlicky UnionPacificRules that your national passneger rail is so depleted and skeletal now this has came up for chat on the Forums before. We are still fortunate here in Gt Britain to have a railway that is virtually all passenger and heavily used. Goods (or freight as you would know it) tends to be very minor in comparison). As for former lines the vast majority of former branch lines here tend to be lifted as is that is norm rather than just left. Some have become pathways or cycle paths and others built over. In recent times a long shut passnger line from the 1960's Beeching days was brought back and a great deal spent relaying track and putting stations in. Where the line terminates in a sizeable town the trackbed actually is still extant to the next town although no track. It seems that town is moaning because they were not included! I doubt if that will happen as I don't think there would be enough sugae to justify such. That in Scotland passneger rail re-opening has happened several times our English, Welsh and Ulster cousins must be envious?!

 

[rjhowie]

And the railway good news continues in Gt Britain. - well the northern part of the kingdom anyway! With 4 passenger lines re-opened having ben closed and lifted half a century ago another is now being worked on. The old Waverley Route I mentioned in another thread is now under construction. It will be re-laid just beyond Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. It is scheduled for passnger trains in 2014 (might beat the Ediburgh trams fiasco!). Thankfully the road and rail bridges and viaduct are all intact. In the group that fought for years for to get it back a lady in particular was heavy committed and she actually feels it should go all the way back across country to Carlisle. Much as I would like that, I don't see that ever happening although she says that the good folk of Hawick beyond @Gala' when they see Galashiels getting a railway again they might stir! Arguments are now being put forward for the St Andrew's line but nothing reasonably definite at all yet. So for passenger re-openings Scotland is leading the rest of GB.

 

[masontaylor]

[snip}....Arguments are now being put forward for the St Andrew's line but nothing reasonably definite at all yet. So for passenger re-openings Scotland is leading the rest of GB.

Quite detailed arguments. too, Bobby, with a lengthy feasibility study made by Tata Rail, available via a link on the StARLink site:

http://www.starlink-campaign.org.uk/

Interestingly, though, the game may be about to change considerably with the planned closure of the huge RAF base at Leuchars, just north of the proposed route near Guardbridge.

Since tentative plans to convert it to an army base seem to be foundering, one other option is to convert it to a civil airport. Ryanair have already expressed an interest in using it as their East Coast base. The existing Leuchars station (once the junction for the old St Andrews line) which is not only close by, but also has convenient direct links to all three East Coast cities (as well as much of the rest of the UK via its ECML and X-country services) would doubtless be handling a good deal more traffic than at present.

Since many services on the line are already running at close to full capacity, the whole structure of the timetable would require radical alteration, and I'd hazard a guess that an upgrade of the existing bus link from Leuchars to St Andrews, already pretty regular and not that long, would still present a viable alternative to the StARLink proposal (much as I'd love to see it happen).

 

[rjhowie]

I am not a great fan of Ryanair nor it's boss Mason but if an airport was a possibility that would be fair enough. The latest rail news is that one of the 4 Glasgow-Edinburgh lines (via Falkirk) is to be electrified? Wat you hearts out elswhere - 4 lines! As a premier route not before time and should add a tad to speed.

On airports, Belfast has two and the international out near Antrim has a rail line actually running past the boundary fence. It is the Crumlin Branch between Lisburn and Antrim junctions. The NIR ceased using it in 2002 but is kept intact hoping that one day finance might be available to use it again apart from maintenance and odd driver training. Airlines -espeically that other budget carrier, Easyjet have long argued for a short connection to provide a rail service into Belfast. I had a lot of enjoyment building that route in my present NIR project I am still working on.

 

[masontaylor]

Bobby, I've mentioned before the crass stupidity of not taking advantage of the similar proximity of a working railway on Edinburgh airport's boundary, where a short stub of light railway could have joined it to the main network for a fraction of the cost of the infamous tram fiasco. I should also have mentioned that the St Andrews StARLink plan uses relatively little of the previous route, so that it wouldn't be a direct reinstatement of the previous railway.

 

[rjhowie]

You're spot on with that observation Mason. And there is also a modern variation of the 'tram-train' idea being tried down south in England. It would have been one heck of a lot cheaper and made common sense. When you also consider that each of the re-opened pasneger lines from Beeching times have passed expected levels tells us something does it not@ Maybe the only exception is the Glasgow (Queen Street) - Anniesland shuttle. It is lesser used and I remember a railwayman at Anniesland trying to tell me before the opening that a brand new line was being created. I then had an h of a jib tyring to tell him he was in princiole wrong. He looked puzzled when I informed him that they were putting back a line that had been there decades ago from the West Highland route down to Annielsand. In fact if I recall correctly the original was double tracked niot singled as today.

Although the whole network of the Borders was essentially lst the Waverley Route was poorly treated. The old BR refused to agree to the possibility of the line going to a potential preservations society. Anyway, having origanised camps at Melrose twice and as said walked part of the old route, I will be glad to see that back in the next two years and intend experiencing what will be a delightful run to well at least just past Galashiels! When they were clsing parts of the city suburbans in Glasgow I travelled on the last day of service on the route off Partick West as far as Crow Road on a 1st Class day return. The station was mobbed with more passengers that it would have seen in weeks. Did the other line through Whiteinch and through the lower East End before closure. Then Central (Low Level was a mucky, sooty and smoky dungeon and very much different of course than today. But even then stupidity when the closed the Argyle Line altogether then years later bring it back electrified as part of the suburban network. One other lone I thought great was the old one through Balquidder (the station was a mile from the village!) and through Strathyre with those wonderful Victorian stations was something fondly remembered. Further back I travelled on a hire special steam train from Whiteinch (victoria Park) station all the way to Campsie Glen as a wee laddie on a Sunday School trip. That for a train lover was a pure delight. A short distanc away and bearely a few years later I and hundreds of officers and Boys from our local Boys' Brigade District went on a 7 coach train from Scotstoun (West) all the way along that Clydeside line through Central Low Level and in a convoluted way crossed the Clyde to Queen's Park Station for the Glasgow BB Review in the long gone Recreation Ground. As a young person I loved the trains and now I can look back knowing that I have travelled some closed lines. I even travelled once on that wee single decker tram in the Transport Museum from Partick Depot getting off at Whitieinch whilst it went on to Clydebank.

Bobby