Top 10 Most tragic railroad failures of North America?

[SD70Dude]

Firelock76

PPS:  If you really want to see "Titanic" buffs go nuclear, bring up the SS Californian, then stand back!

Talk about being asleep at the switch!

[rcdrye]

I can't let this go without the Duluth South Shore & Atlantic.  From Wallace Abbey: "The South Shore lacked a lot of things.  What it lacked most was economic viability"  He then went on to describe its losses, with the statement "over the period it made $5 million less than nothing!"

[Miningman]

A Railroad that went to Calumet and Houghton, Michigan is A#1 in my books...the Canadian Pacific thought so too! A tremendous pioneer nation builder that served the incredible native Copper and Iron Ore Mines of the day. Under horrid weather conditions! 

CN owns/operates on remaking trackage today.  Not so bad. 

[MidlandMike]

I had thought about the DSS&A, but since the line lasted for 100 years, and about half the track is still extant, I didn't know if it should be considered a failure.

[rcdrye]

Technically the DSS&A still exists, since it was the "Survivor" in the 1960 Soo Line merger. 

[Fr.Al]

Yes, but it no longer goes to Houghton or to Calumet in the Keewenaw Peninsula. I used to travel to the Upper Peninsula to serve a mission in the Houghton area from 1995 to 2005.

     One could also argue that the Rutland still exists. All the surviving trackage is now operated by the Vermont Railroad system.

[KBCpresident]

MidlandMike

I had thought about the DSS&A, but since the line lasted for 100 years, and about half the track is still extant, I didn't know if it should be considered a failure.

 

 

I think it still counts. I didn't mean they had to be abandoned, just miserable failures. Most Penn Central still exists, and that was one of my examples.  Commenting on the DSS&A, that sounds like an awful big route map to cover. Unless it's like the CRI&P which just never finished its routemap.