JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After several vacant stations and interlocking towers have been demolished on CSX Transportation rights-of-way, the Class I railroad has said that it is addressing these issues with both safety and historical preservation i...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/06/19-csx-removing-vacant-structures-on-case-by-case-basis
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Do you know the reason behind this?
I suspect the lawyers and accountants are at work here, and I don't mean that in a nasty way.
If it's there, and vacant and attracts tresspassers, kids, vagrants, gang members, and any of them get hurt, the railroad's liable to be sued.
If it's there, the railroad has to pay property taxes on it.
Better to remove a non-securable structure, that is, one that's easily accessed, than to take a chance.
I'm as much as preservationist as anyone, but I can't really blame CSX considering this lawsuit-crazed society we live in.
Personally, I'm still mourning the loss of the old Fulton Yard coaling tower, what a steam era monument that was, but what are you gonna do?
Oftimes there is a group who would like to save a structure, but cannot secure the resources to do so.
Such was the case with the depot in Milford, MI. It was a developer who wanted the land, as opposed to the railroad wanting it off their rolls (it was already off the CSX rolls), but the local historical society could not raise enough money to have it moved. It was a fairly large building. It is now gone.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
We should not forget that Ashtabula is one of these demolitions that 'should not have been'.
This reminds me a lot of how CN disposed of the Jasper, Alberta roundhouse about 15 years ago.
It was learned by upper management that the roundhouse was about to be declared a historic building, and they didn't want to be stuck with it on the property. At the time it had only been out of use for 5 or 10 years, and was still in very good shape.
But an order came down, and the bulldozers showed up after dark quite literally the night before the historic designation was to be announced. No evidence of the structure remains in Jasper today, although the Rocky Mountain Rail Society (owners of famed 4-8-2 6060) managed to acquire the turntable later on (it currently sits on blocks outside their Warden, AB shop, they have yet to raise enough money to install it).
And what does CN use the former roundhouse site for today? Absolutely nothing. It is a open, vacant gravelled-over area, and is not even used as a parking lot.
And there has been another long-lasting effect of the roundhouse's destruction, which CSX should take into consideration. The demolition happened the same summer that Hunter Harrison ordered long sections of double track in Jasper National Park ripped up, and the Park was not at all impressed with the way the roundhouse was removed. Not long after Hunter left CN tried to rebuild the double track he had removed but the Park, remembering what had happened with the roundhouse, refused to allow it.
It is not a good idea to burn bridges, especially when those you are alienating have long memories and can wield considerable power. And what do you gain by demolishing old, disused buildings anyway? A bit of tax and liability relief? Put up some "no trespassing" signs and get the accountants to creatively write down the thing or something, isn't that why you have them?
Or wash your hands of them by donatinf the buildings to local municipalities or historical societies and putting up a fence between them and the track.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70DudeNot long after Hunter left CN tried to rebuild the double track he had removed but the Park, remembering what had happened with the roundhouse, refused to allow it.
The land use laws in the United States concerning rail rights of way are slightly different.
As long as the right of way is not abandoned and it was once used for rail. Whomever owns it can relay rail on it at their liesure because they never gave up the rights to do so when they took the track out of service. If the track was abandoned........totally different rules apply and abandonment usually means they lost the right of way.
If they are double tracking for the first time through a park and the line was never double tracked before. They still have the rights to do that but they have to submit a environmental impact statement first. The EIS can be challenged but usually the railroad wins in most past cases unless the challenger can demonstrate some new onerous condition exists. We had a case recently in LaCrosse, Wisconsin where NIMBY's attempted to stop BNSF with the laying of a double track through a protected swamp area. NIMBY's lost BNSF got it's track because the NIMBY's could not prove any substantial environmental change that was hugely negative.
I just had this argument with a neighbor here in Dallas who attempted to argue that since DART was pulling up track on it's right of way then that means there would be no light rail and they were forever abandoning the extension. Not so fast I said, if the track is labeled "out of service" it does not have to remain on the right of way, it can be relaid at any future date and put back into service. It's only when the track and right of way is abandoned that others have a say if the rail is put back in. Perhaps Parks Canada has extra legal powers in Canada that might give them authority over a right of way in a park. I don't think we have the same authority in the United States with our National Parks.
I agree that being within a national park is a fairly unique case, but my point about burning bridges still stands.
What if those anti-BNSF NIMBYs connected with a politician or government official who held a grudge against the railroad, perhaps for demolishing a historic building in that fellow's hometown? How many more hoops could have been thrown up in the way of the double-tracking?
BNSF probably would have gotten their double track in the end anyway, but it would have taken longer and been more expensive.
Can't forget what begat the historical preservation movement in the first place - the destruction of Penn Station in NYC.
The Marshalltown, IA exCNW depot went up in flame when locals started talking preservation. I don't believe they ever found a cause for the fire. Utilities had been shut off to the building.
Jeff
The preservation issue works in the other way, too. Recently, when Metra built a station at 35th Street on the Rock Island, a storage building on the IIT campus which was designed by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe had to be demolished. Some preservationists tried to raise an uproar but several architectural critics noted that the building was not one of Mies' better designs.
Joe, is the towers in Ansonia and Belfountain still standing? I think they were NKP. Is that right?
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Everywhere else is looking like everywhere else. Why Travel?
Considering how much has been razed recent decades, I'm surprised there's much left to argue about. Maybe that's a measure of how many structures it once took to run a railroad!
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