An AT&SF Arizona Mainline Mystery -- The Right-of-Way Somehow Vanished!!

[K. P. Harrier]

In the late 50s or early 60s, AT&SF relocated its transcontinental mainline for a number of miles in Arizona. In 1981, I traversed I-40 west of Williams, and the abandoned right-of-way adjacent the Interstate was clearly visible, and it had the unmistakable AT&SF signature to it. Even culverts and rusted cement signal blocks were still in place. But, that abandoned right-of-way is nowhere to be found today. What happened to it? Were the westbound lanes of the Interstate relocated on top of it?

[mudchicken]

1960 Williams Junction ByPass

Some of it is still there (look carefully), some of it was dug-up and used as "suitable fill material" by Arizona DOT and some of it did wind up under I-40.....

[Modelcar]

...In trying to find abandoned RoW of railroads sometimes can be frustrating...Understand some physical things did happen to the above situation but just the passage of time can really start to erase the location that at one time had rail traffic.....Know of a few places in the east in soft coal mining area that still have the rails and now is so much overgrown and with trees of fairly large size growing right up through the road bed....and undergrowth making it almost invisible...and perhaps will not have the rails lifted at least in my lifetime.

[Anonymous]

The arbutus corridor runs right through the middle of vancouver, the tracks are still there with the grade crossings, but no rail traffic for many years.

It's pretty creepy though, looks like the whole thing was just forgotten about.

[Anonymous]

Here's a recent article on it

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/newsreleases2004/NRarbutusdecision.htm

[Anonymous]

i drive through there all the time and you can still see some of it. including some bridge abutments. some of it has telephone poles stuck in the ROW.

[jchnhtfd]

All so true... the bottom line is that a railroad line, even a big main line, makes a has a very small footprint on the local environment (try saying that about an Interstate with the same capacity). An old railroad right of way can disappear real fast... unless you really know what you are looking for.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The Chicago area has a fair amount of abandoned right-of-way. Parts of the former Panhandle (ex-PRR) have been turned into houses since the right-of-way abutted a street. The CWI main line south of the Calumet River had a more interesting fate. The stretch from 126th St to 130th St became a relocated Torrence Avenue when Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant expanded (again) and the stretch from about 131st St to 136th St became the relocated NS (ex-NKP) main line when the auto rack loading facility for the Ford plant was expanded.

[tree68]

While a ground-level search for the ROW of the old Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg (Jefferson County, NY) will yield little of substance, you can still pick out parts of it in aerial photographs. The railroad folded somewhere around 1870. The funny part is that some of the places you can see it is through plowed fields. Must have something to do with different dirt used as fill, etc.

One fan did extensive research on it: http://russnelson.com/SHnE/

[rrnut282]

If you think finding physical evidence of an old r/w is hard, try to find it at the courthouse sometime! And if you're lucky there, try to place it in the "real" world with today's reference points and benchmarks. yikes.

[Modelcar]

...I've always wondered "how" to find a reference point when it is in an area not on the national grid system....
Two good ways to find old RoW: From an aerial view and when there is just a skiff of snow on the ground...That really brings out any evidence. And the second way is go to Terraserver.com and try to bring up the area of concern and find your location in question and bring up the magnifaction and old RoW's will be visible.

[SSW9389]

AT&SF Arizona line relocation work done in 1959-1960 by M-K. So its 44-45 years ago. Several recent article in Classic Trains on the subject line.

[K. P. Harrier]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

1960 Williams Junction ByPass

Some of it is still there (look carefully), some of it was dug-up and used as "suitable fill material" by Arizona DOT and some of it did wind up under I-40.....

What year was that? 1981 it was there. In 1984 could not find it.

KP

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

While a ground-level search for the ROW of the old Sackets Harbor and Ellisburg (Jefferson County, NY) will yield little of substance, you can still pick out parts of it in aerial photographs. The railroad folded somewhere around 1870. The funny part is that some of the places you can see it is through plowed fields. Must have something to do with different dirt used as fill, etc.

One fan did extensive research on it: http://russnelson.com/SHnE/

Wow that's a really neat site.
It's amazing that after all this time, you can still see parts of the right of way! [:0]

[Modelcar]

....Great use of Terraserver. I've used that site in recent past to look at all sorts of railroad interests...both present and some a hundred and twenty years old...[The South Penn RR RoW], in Pennsylvania. By the way a lot of that contruction is still visible at the site on the ground and construction was stopped in 1885 and at that time grading was only about 60 or 70% completed when it was stopped. I have also found the condo I was living at during Winter in Florida and could have seen my car if it would have been there at the time of the photo taking....Terraserver...a great site but not sure if it is still available as it used to be....Anyone know...?

[tree68]

I was on it just the other day: http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/

One of the mapping programs (Mapquest, Mapsonus, perhaps another) has color aerials. Wish I could remember which it was....

[Modelcar]

Tree68....Thanks for info., I'll take a look and see what the situation is now.
Item: I once followed the RoW of the Western Maryland RR over the Allegheny mountain From Meyersdale, Pa. down into the Frostburg, Md. area....Took me nealy 2 hr. to do it...[Via Terraserver that is].

[Modelcar]

Tree68...Just checked out Terraserver with your new address and inserted known addresses in Pennsylvania and bingo...Up they come. In the recent past I found it more difficult to locate a position...Now it is much easier and quicker.

[tree68]

Always glad to share.