What railroads are in you hometown

In St. Paul, MN

I have a double main line directly behind the shop I work at. Every day I feel the BNSF, UP, CN, NS, and MN Commercial.(I think there might be one more) I've even seen live steam come down that track! There's another double line 1/2 mile north, I believe it's ex-Soo. 2 &1/2 miles west is the Amtrak terminal, at which many cars of the MR's Hiawatha line frequently reside, including a full length dome car and one of the "greenhouse" type tail cars. 4 miles East is the MN Transportation Museum, the former Great Northern roundhouse, currently holding SD45 #400 "Hustle Muscle", and currently renovating many passenger cars and two sister steam locomotives, one is planned to go live again.

So yeah, the five live freight movers, and three or four that don't exist anymore.:hehe:
 
Tucson Arizona

Ex SP now UP will an Amtrak train every now and then the UP has a decently sized yard here which serves our powerplant. A few months ago we rebuilt a part of our trolley line which runs a few blocks from Hotel Congress,for those don't know that is where John Dillenger was caught by the police in the 1930's. The amtrak station has a static 2-6-0 mogul,fenced off on the platform and I've seen California Northern SW's running around here.:udrool:
 
ok i have an interesting one
origonally back in the 1800's there was a brach line operating 2-6-0s and 2-8-0s i think:o the name of the branch was the Vaca Valley Railroad. most famous of the 2-6-0s was the ben ely
anyways the line ran right down modern day depot street in vacaville, long seince gone the track is gone itleast. alot of the old bridges and other random structures remain.

now lets fast foward about 35-55 years to the 1940's to the 1960's, there was alot of trackage in my town owned by Southern Pacific. the track was there and remained there for a while after abandonment. then in the late 90's i think the track was removed and the most of the bed was pathed over with a bike trail, some of the trackage ran from california st.(the bike trail) to the end of Davis St.(bike trail) and the trail splits off in a few places, like marshal road. if anyone is interested in this route. contact me and ill give good ol pics of the ol S.P.
-Taylor
______________
why cant any trainzers live near me?
:hehe: :o :eek: :confused: :( :sleep: :p ;)
 
reply

i am from lebanon indiana and live in florida now, and cant find any trainzers near me either, there were at least a half a dozen lines running through my home town of lebanon, i believe it was a heavy traveled route between chicago and indianapolis at one time, most were removed when i was a kid but 1 mainline still runs through almost everyday, and its CSX and Conrail, for many years even after the track was removed the switch buildings remained untill they were removed in the late 90's where a walmart sits over one of the old lines now


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Brief History of the Midland/Central Indiana Line:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1877 - Anderson, Lebanon and St. Louis Railroad constructs Anderson to Noblesville segment
1885 - Midland Railway incorporated
1887 - Westfield to Lebanon segment constructed
1903 - Operation transferred to Central Indiana Railway Co.
1929 - Segments abandoned south of Advance, east of Anderson
1943 - Lebanon to Advance abandoned
1968 - Operation transferred to Penn Central
1976 - Dissolution of Penn Central, Westfield-Gadsen abandoned
1976 - Remaining line transferred to Conrail
1982 - Gadsen-Lebanon, Westfield-Noblesville abandoned
1986 - Line sold to Indiana Transportation Museum
1991 - Line Transferred to City of Noblesville[/FONT]
 
Last edited:
i am from lebanon indiana and live in florida now, and cant find any trainzers near me either, there were at least a half a dozen lines running through my home town of lebanon, i believe it was a heavy traveled route between chicago and indianapolis at one time, most were removed when i was a kid but 1 mainline still runs through almost everyday, and its CSX and Conrail, for many years even after the track was removed the switch buildings remained untill they were removed in the late 90's where a walmart sits over one of the old lines now


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Brief History of the Midland/Central Indiana Line:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1877 - Anderson, Lebanon and St. Louis Railroad constructs Anderson to Noblesville segment[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1885 - Midland Railway incorporated[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1887 - Westfield to Lebanon segment constructed [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1903 - Operation transferred to Central Indiana Railway Co.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1929 - Segments abandoned south of Advance, east of Anderson[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1943 - Lebanon to Advance abandoned[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1968 - Operation transferred to Penn Central[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1976 - Dissolution of Penn Central, Westfield-Gadsen abandoned[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1976 - Remaining line transferred to Conrail[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1982 - Gadsen-Lebanon, Westfield-Noblesville abandoned[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1986 - Line sold to Indiana Transportation Museum[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]1991 - Line Transferred to City of Noblesville[/FONT]


damn
i wish i lived were you do!
 
I live in the northern Chicago suburb known as Evanston, IL. As of now, only two operating lines run through it: the former CNW, now UP, Kenosha Sub (which sees nothing but Metra commuter trains on this part of the line), and the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) Evanston Branch, more commonly known as the Purple Line.

Evanston has a rich rail heritage, but you would never surmise such a fact judging by what's left of it today.
 
Currently only Kelowna Pacific Railway, but it hasn't always been that way.

The line started out as Shuswap & Okanagan Railway in 1885 and was operated by Canadian Pacific Railway much like the Kootney Valley Railway is today. In 1925, Canadian National Railway joined CPR in the Valley. In 1998, Okanagan Valley Railway took over CP's operations in the valley, and in 2000, Kelowna Pacific Railway took over CN's portion of the line. Sadly after a steady decline in traffic over the years, OKAN shut down in 2009 and KPR took complete control over the line.

And there you have it, a condensed version of the history of the local lines.

3976527348_10e2a08dcc_z.jpg

OKAN's two units sitting ready to be shipped to Omnitrax's other lines, Hudson Bay Railway (MLW M420W) and Carlton Trail Railway (EMD GP10)

4559125046_814844052c_z.jpg

3 of the 6 Geeps the KPR is leasing, return from the CN interchange in Kamloops.

The photo's are mine. More can be found on my Flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/okanaganrailfan/
 
NS (Old Norfolk Western Southern)
CSX (Old SAL ACL C&O)
Norfolk Portsmouth Belt Line
Commonwealth (Old Norfolk Franklin and Danville)
Chesapeake and Albamarle (Original NS)
 
Both of these are very active in our town in East Central Illinois-
Norfolk & Southern - old Wabash line
CSX - old C&EI route

Recent History-
NYC/Conrail had a presence into the '90s but when local industries moved out, so did they.

In the Way-Back Machine
Peoria & Eastern, and whatever it was called during multiple ownership changes
Big 4 (Cairo Division) from Danville, IL to Cairo, IL - hasn't seen rolling stock since the '90s. It was primarily for the coal available in the strip mines of East Central Illinois.
 
Union Pacific Roseville Subdivision, I live about 10 miles from the UP Roseville Yard! Amtrak's famous California Zephyr runs through either starting its journey to Chicago or ending. You can see an Amtrak Capitol Corridor (Amtrak's Nor-Cal Commuter) heading down from Auburn California or heading up to Auburn California. you can see a lot of freight action heading east, northwest, or southwest. The yard is one of the biggest Rail facility's on the west coast. SP owned the line and yard until UP took over the late and great Southern Pacific. :D
 
Last edited:
CN, NS, Amtrak, UP, BNSF, and KBSR.

Only CN, NS, and KBSR actually own lines. UP runs because they can, and BNSF is just there.

Cheers,
Joshua
 
Nada

I'm in Ludlow, Ma. CSX's (ex Conrail, nee Penn Central, nee New York Central, nee Boston and Albany, nee Springfield, Athol and North–eastern) Athol Branch that serves a few industries in Chicopee used to extend through here all the way to Athol, Ma but was abandoned in sections after they created the Quabbin Reservoir. The first section that got torn up was the part that served the four towns replaced by the reservoir when it was created in the late 1930's. The next section, which was in my town, was abandoned shortly after the twine company running the mills it was used to service left for India (the mills were the last customer on the section). The twine company left in either the 1950's or the 1960's. The nearest rail lines are the CSX main through Springfield, the CSX line through Amherst, and Pan Am's line through Holyoke. Both of the CSX lines also have Amtrak service.
 
The railroads that served my hometown at one time were the Chicago & Northwestern (Union Pacific), SOO Line (former Milwaukee Road, now Canadian Pacific), and the Burlington Northern (ex-GN, now BNSF) all served my town. The Burlington Northern line is a small line belonging to the Great Northern Railway that only switched through town. The C&NW came through via a main line, heading east to west, while the SOO Line operated northeast to southwest. Out of the three lines, the BN (ex-GN, BNSF) line is the quietest one of the three. The former C&NW (UP) line sees double stacks, autoracks, TOFC, and general freight traffic. The SOO (ex-MILW, now CP) sees agricultural, general and TOFC traffic. The BN (ex-GN, now BNSF) only does grain, lumber, and general goods on locals that rarely exceed 25 freight cars. Back in Milwaukee Road, Chicago & Northwestern and Great Northern days, the three carriers even provided passenger service over the line. GN was the 1st to discontinue service and that was in 1958. C&NW was next to do so, in 1967. Two years later, the Milwaukee Road did the same and the Milwaukee Road was only using a gasoline doodlebug and a coach from 1966 to 1969. C&NW, on the other hand used an F7A unit and two or three coaches with a baggage car on the rear. GN ran in their final years, an F3A unit on each ends, with three coaches and a cafe car between the first and second coaches. The number of trains that the three carriers had at the time were:
C&NW: 135
MILW: 90
GN: 70 (reduced to 20 by the time the Burlington Northern was formed)
 
Union Pacific in Arkansas & Santa Fe,when i used to live in California.I also want to know what kind of yard,Union Pacific has in downtown Little Rock,AR that's near the Verizon Arena.What is it called.
 
Last edited:
The main railway(s) in my CITY of Adelaide are the Trans Continental line, (Adelaide to Perth) and the main line to Melbourne. (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane)
Pacific National, Australian Railroad Group, Independent Rail Australia and the odd Queensland Rail Freight train from time to time.
 
Back
Top