I'm working on the last section of my RR and plan to have a short section where the track runs down a street. I remember way back in 1959 riding the North Shore from Chicago to Milwaukee and our train stopping for traffic lights when we got into Milwaukee. I thought it would be a neat feature to have.
The recent issue of RMC had an article about the maintenance problems with street trackage in the prototype world. Given that and the logisitics of moving trains over city streets it made me wonder why prototype railroads did that. I'm guessing that the city streets were laid out before the railroad came to town and the only available right of way to get in and out of town was to go down the city streets. Is there more to it than that?
In any case I think it is one more example of something that was a headache to the real railroads but an interesting feature for the modeler.
Myriad reasons:
1. In urban areas, there's not much room for a traditional rail right-of-way
2. Similarly, development, topography, other obstacles limit rail access
3. Freight railroad most likely acquired old traction railroad company, which had most of its lines as street trackage
4. For some industries, this is the only way to access them
In the case of the North Shore, it was in the street because it ran...streetcars!
Or interurbans, as the case may be with the North Shore.
Many traction operations simply added freight service and utilized existing ROW by branching off of it as needed. Frequently in dense areas, freight moved at night, because people didn't so much. The longer trains vs the trolleys tied up traffic more, so better they roamed at night.
And some electric freight ops continued after the wire came down or they were absorbed by a freight RR. They simply operated what they inherited.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Or is some case valuable land precluded a dedicated right of way, PE served a citrus packing customer via street trackage that was necessary as pre-exsting orange groves occupied all available acreage.
Dave
In some cases the town grew up around the railroad and streets ran close to the tracks and maybe for a hefty tax break the railroad allowed the cities to widen the streets as cars,buses and trucks got wider.
The short line (a lot of the railroads bought these short lines to gain access to larger cities,another division or to a connecting road or through mergers) that may have own the track originally agreed to a right of way.
Main line street running isn't all that uncommon today.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Amtrak passenger trains and CSX mainline freights still go down the middle of the street in the median in Ashland, VA and Rocky Mount, NC. I've heard it said that the coming of the railroad was considered a great thing in the days when these lines were built, and the communities were happy to share the road with the trains. The roads may have been unpaved back then. Variations on this theme can be found in Bucyrus, Ohio, Sunbury, PA, and other places. I am aware of street trackage where the tracks are embedded in the pavement in Marietta, Ohio, and other locations. As far as I know, none of these examples has a traction origin.
Tom
If you're planning to model the Chicago/Milwaukee area, here's a site called Chicago Switching..
http://chicagoswitching.com/
For pavement, black craft foam (EVA foam) with gray craft paint sponged on works well. If you use 1mm foam on Code 100 track the foam can go the full width between the rails without interfering with the wheel flanges. Stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby only sell 2mm foam or thicker. An eBay seller named Wandy-Foam carries 1mm foam. (You might send him and e-mail and ask if he can sell you longer pieces than the 12" x 18" pieces he sells at his eBay shop in order to reduce the number of seams.)
You can use a kitchen sponge to dab the paint on. Make sure the sponge doesn't have a pattern embossed on it. I put some paint on a foam meat tray, dabbed the sponge in it, and then dabbed it on a piece of cardboard a few times to spread it around evenly on the sponge. Then start dabbing it onto the craft foam.
To make the darker regions where the cars drive I took a smaller piece of clean damp sponge and dabbed in on the EVA foam to remove some of the paint.
To make patches you can tear or cut out the patch, then rinse off some of the paint under the faucet.
For large craacks you can just tear the foam. For smaller cracks I chucked a straight pin into a Dremel and then etched them in.
Steve S
For some information on street running, take a look at "The Railroad that came out at Night". It is about railroad in Boston that could not service industries during the day due to traffic congestion. They did their work in the middle of the night
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+railroad+that+came+out+at+night
It is out of print, but Amazon has a few copies
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Here's the variation of street running here in in Bucyrus,Ohio that Tom mention. Today NS runs tank trains over this line as well as the CF&E local and a CSX grain train...
And yes,you can drive down that lane in the right side of the photo..
This was PRR's Ft.Wayne Line between Crestline and Ft. Wayne.
Steven, that foam street looks great!
Here's some more street running, in Brownsville, PA in August of 2014. Obviously not just a couple of loads for a local coal dealer:
...and the removeable panels to facilitate track maintenance:
Wayne
BRAKIE Here's the variation of street running here in in Bucyrus,Ohio that Tom mention. Today NS runs tank trains over this line as well as the CF&E local and a CSX grain train... And yes,you can drive down that lane in the right side of the photo.. This was PRR's Ft.Wayne Line between Crestline and Ft. Wayne.
Be sure to yield when turning left.
The Engine's horn really gets a work-out in this job....they still switch this area, to this day. Check out other's, on the side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrCa1muguc
Take Care!
Frank
In general, street running for freight railroads existed either because the city was there first, and the railroad found it easier to run in the street than to buy and tear down hundreds of buildings to build their own right-of-way, or because the geography of the area didn't allow enough room for both streets and a separate railroad right-of-way.
Fun fact: In Minneapolis-St.Paul, during winter the old Twin City Lines streetcar co. had to plow the entire street for any streets that had streetcar trackage in it. It was part of their contract with the cities.
The Southern Pacific now Union Pacific line in Santa Cruz California runs down the middle of the street through downtown.
wjstix In general, street running for freight railroads existed either because the city was there first, and the railroad found it easier to run in the street than to buy and tear down hundreds of buildings to build their own right-of-way, or because the geography of the area didn't allow enough room for both streets and a separate railroad right-of-way. Fun fact: In Minneapolis-St.Paul, during winter the old Twin City Lines streetcar co. had to plow the entire street for any streets that had streetcar trackage in it. It was part of their contract with the cities.
I have the vaguest memories of riding the streetcar down 40th St in Omaha and a little more vivid memory of the street being plowed up to remove those tracks. My best guess is this would have been around 1955 when I was 3-4 years old.
Edit: I decided to research the year Omaha streetcar service ended. I looked through many articles before I found one that said it ended in 1952. I have my doubts because I would have been too young to remember a streetcar then. Another article seemed to infer it ended in 1955 but didn't state that definitively.
Norfolk Southern had some street running in Erie, Pa, due to a little issue that the predecessor railroad had, having a issue with the city when they laid tracks. They were denied a right of way by the city leaders, so, they laid rails from both sides up to the city limits. Then they waited until a Sunday morning, when all the courts were closed, and blitzed through the downtown area laying tracks down the middle of 19th st. The city could do nothing about it, as by the time the courts opened on Monday morning, trains were rolling.
They were finally removed from service when, as a concession for CSX getting the Conrail (ex NYC) line, NS was permitted to use the line through downtown Erie via a connection on each side of town.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
And here we have street running in a city (Oakland, CA):
And freight:
Ed
In Long Beach Washington the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company 3' gauge main line ran down the middle of the main business street. The street was very narrow. The curbs of the wood sidwalks was about a foot off the edge of the ties on each side of the track. There was no room for wagons and autos. See photos at bottom of link. There is another photo looking straight down the street in the book - The Railroad that Ran By The Tide byRaymond J. Feagans
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I forgot to mention Tyrone, PA where the PRR mainline (now NS) ran on the south side of the Little Juniata River. The Bald Eagle branch came down from the North, ran up Washington Avenue, crossed a deck girder bridge that spanned a road, split into a wye whose two legs crossed deck girder bridges over another road and the Little Juniata, and joined the mainline at the passenger station. A wonderfully modelable location.
(edited for clarity)
With some of the earliest steam railroads built this was common because loading and unloading freight and passengers in the street was considered an advantage. For example, two very early steam roads in Indiana, the NKP's predecessor which built the NKP's Indianapolis-Michigan City, Indiana line and the Monon's predecessor are good examples. There were several locations in Indiana where these very early Indiana railroads ran in the city streets. I recall seeing N&W trains running down the middle of downtown in the street by the courthouse in Kokomo, Indiana and could kick myself now for not taking pictures and video footage. Later railroads inherited street running and it often was too expensive or impossible to reroute the trackage.
Victor A. Baird
Fort Wayne, Indiana
At Delphos, Ohio, the NKP came down from Toledo and entered the north side of town. The AC&Y came in from Akron and connected with the NKP. Both roads proceeded 13 blocks south on North Washington Street to the PRR mainline where the AC&Y ended and the NKP crossed the PRR, curved West, and proceeded to Indiana.
I also remember riding the northbound C&EI Hummingbird passenger train some time in the mid 1960's and riding up the street while I ate breakfast in the dining car. I'm pretty sure that was in Terre Haute, IN.
Most cases of street running occured when upper management failed to acquire a private right of way into downtown stations or industries. I'm sure the operating departments all wanted a private right of way, where cars had to stop and let the train go thru at grade crossings. Sometimes the needed private right of way was all built up with expensive high rise buildings (or even expensive low rise buildings) and sometimes the price the owners demanded for the land was too high. Interesting side issue, some railroads enjoyed imminent domain, the privilege of taking privately own land against the land owners will. Others did not have this privilege. Did the street running railroads lack the imminent domain privilege?
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Also very common in port cities, where the waterfront often either predated the railroad or grew up around it. You can still find rails around Baltimore's Inner Harbor, if you know where to look.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
In cities like Philadelphia the railroads for the most part created the infrastructure for the city to grow and expand arround it. The oldest section of railroad in Philly is the line running under the art museum to Delaware Ave just north of Market St. Tracks are now pulled up and abandoned for the most part. The railroad provided a right of way for the roads to be built arround it with the tracks in the middle for the most part. With the railroad the industries could locate here and housing for factory workers were nearby. We are talking 1850's. At the same time horse drawn street cars were located on many streets to provide transportation for people.
The Reading Berks Street Line (North Pennsylvania Railroad, not the PRR) aka American Street line was built before any of it was paved. It was a 4 track line in many places with industrial sidings coming off the outer tracks. Factories were built along side this transportation infrastructure. Eventually the right of way was paved to accomodate first teams of horses with wagons, than motor trucks. Which came first, chicken or the egg, probably a little of both. Philly was becoming a major manufacturing center. Everything moved by railroad in those days.
In Philadelphia the street car lines were not frieght haulers. Many of these same lines are used today by buses and still some street cars.
If the North Shore is what you remember , why not build the North Shore? They did haul freight in thier own merchandise cars until 1947.
Randy
Randy Stahl If the North Shore is what you remember , why not build the North Shore? They did haul freight in thier own merchandise cars until 1947. Randy
No appeal for me. I wanted to model the transition era with steam and first generation diesels, not an interurban. There isn't much I remember about the North Shore because I only rode it from Chicago to Milwaukee and back again during the holidays at the end of 1959. I just liked that feature of street running and since there are many examples of street running for all sorts of railroads there was no need to limit my choices.
MidlandPacificAlso very common in port cities, where the waterfront often either predated the railroad or grew up around it. You can still find rails around Baltimore's Inner Harbor, if you know where to look.
Same with Portland, ME where Portland Terminal RR ran down the middle of Commercial St. They switched a number of industries and interchanged with Grand Trunk RR which had a station and other facilities on the east end. The street running continued into the 1980s.
An undated photohttp://www.panoramio.com/photo/88694900
and one from 1932http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/press-herald-file-photo-railroad-tracks-and-rail-traffic-news-photo/485831011
and one from 1982; the CV locomotive probably came from Grand Trunkhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/25111976@N03/21134706022/
I took this photo a couple of years ago while we were eating at a restaurant in LaGrange, KY. CSX operates trains in the middle of Main Street. The locomotive is the trailing unit of a train running from Louisville to Cincinnati.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU