I am fascinated by abandoned track. Don't know why, just am. Yes, I have abandoned track on my layout.
I also look both ways when crossing an abandoned line. There is one line I cross where the track was removed in the '30s. If I am paralleling a track that is no longer there, I am watching it like there was track there. Am I crazy or are there other people out there that do crazy things like this?
In the 80s, a former PC/Conrail line ran east - west through Troy, OH. It intersected the B&O (now CSX) line between Cincinnati and Toledo. After the PC tracks had been removed, a search light signal still burned red for several years years. It was 100 yards west of the where interchange had been, just standing alone in a field.
I was told it was because there were still tracks to the east of the former interchange - which there were but they were isolated and no longer connected to anything. But until the search light was removed, school busses still stopped at the location of the former crossing. What an odd situation.
duckdogger In the 80s, a former PC/Conrail line ran east - west through Troy, OH. It intersected the B&O (now CSX) line between Cincinnati and Toledo. After the PC tracks had been removed, a search light signal still burned red for several years years. It was 100 yards west of the where interchange had been, just standing alone in a field. I was told it was because there were still tracks to the east of the former interchange - which there were but they were isolated and no longer connected to anything. But until the search light was removed, school busses still stopped at the location of the former crossing. What an odd situation.
That's just cool!
MMM--a friend of mine and I go around backroads and are photographing/cataloguing old structures close by to old abandoned railroads---been placing all manner of pix in various posts lately
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
trainmanI am fascinated by abandoned track.
Trainman, if you have any pictures you would care to share of real and ones on model rail roads that would be great. I have a old Tyco steam engine that will never see power again. It is made to look abandoned, and have some code 83 brass track. I can't decide rather to but it up in the mountains or down in the valley by the gain elevator?
Any pictures of board up tunnels? Did they board up abandoned tunnels?
Far as unusual interest, I am now studying weeds and dead trees?
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Your not alone, I pass over a section of track that enters the Navy base near where I live and there hasn't been a train on those tracks in who knows how long but every time I cross the tracks I'm looking for a train.
My friend I have followed another abandoned line that belonged to the PRR back in the day on our ATV's and drove through sections of track that were almost entirely covered with trees and brush etc. When we got farther down the line into what we call here the Pine Barron's we came upon a wide open section of track with old abandoned buildings, a freight house, some turnouts etc. the only thing left even closely resembling a train was a pair of wheels just sitting on a siding next to the rubble of a half standing building. We followed the line a little farther to a bridge abutment but no bridge so thats where our journey ended.We were like a couple of kids who were 12 years old and hadn't discovered girls yet. Our wives both just shook their heads at us when we were telling the story.
Allegheny2-6-6-6 Your not alone, I pass over a section of track that enters the Navy base near where I live and there hasn't been a train on those tracks in who knows how long but every time I cross the tracks I'm looking for a train.My friend I have followed another abandoned line that belonged to the PRR back in the day on our ATV's and drove through sections of track that were almost entirely covered with trees and brush etc. When we got farther down the line into what we call here the Pine Barron's we came upon a wide open section of track with old abandoned buildings, a freight house, some turnouts etc. the only thing left even closely resembling a train was a pair of wheels just sitting on a siding next to the rubble of a half standing building. We followed the line a little farther to a bridge abutment but no bridge so thats where our journey ended.We were like a couple of kids who were 12 years old and hadn't discovered girls yet. Our wives both just shook their heads at us when we were telling the story.
Allegheny 2-6-6-6, that's awsome. I also find myself distracted when I drive by abandoned tracks and structures. I love checking out abandoned buildings and railroad infrastructure that has been left to rot. To me it's a sorry side of progress and I can't help but think of the people who made their living and went to work everyday in places that are now crumbling ruins.
I work in a town like many other Pennsylvania industrial towns that still have not recovered from the collapse of American steel and north eastern manufacturing. This town still has all kinds of sidings that run through the streets into the sides of buildings, sidings covered over by brush and sidings that stop short of the modernized main line that now ignores them. Street cars stopped running in the 1930's here but there are to this day still tracks embedded under some of the streets. We still have a newer main line that still sees heavy commuter traffic as well as Norfolk Southern freight. It also sits next to a former Reading RR 3 track electrified main line that now sports a bicycle path. Many of the cantalever frames or their bases are still in the ground. The streets near the river sport all kinds of iron running through and under the streets. There must have been quite a bit of switching taking place here in the middle of the century.
Oh well, life goes on, I guess. I'm going to drift down there now and look around some more after reading this thread.
I too live by a set of almost abondoned tracks, used mainly just for storing dead cars, ect.... Funny how times change,..
I still wish i could feel the sound of those long ore trains and that old horn waking me up at 2 am for the crossing by my house.... long gone now...
weird the things you miss..
side note: Wanna see ALOT OF TRAIN STUFF in a decent movie..?
PICTURE THIS FOR STARTERS: There's a head-on with 3 steam engines,
a car pileup,
lots of misc. shop,rail and track shots,and you've got to see the encased / armored engine !!!
there's an rr crane car lifting an engine completely off the tracks and dumping it off on its side,.(no cg graphics here)
and he even installs new crank arm bearings in one of the steam loco's in a shop..ect..
look for a movie called simply " The Train" with Burt Lancaster...from the 40's..
yeah, its blk n white..but lots of action, a pretty good flick i thought,.....
worth a watch just to see all the 'real' footage...
I am also intrigued by abandoned rail lines.
Here is a web site http://www.abandonedrails.com/
Enjoy
Paul
eclipsepix85That would have made for a great photo if you could have arranged it... bus stopped, no rail / tracks on the crossing, but a red light on in the background.... ..... kids wondering wtf.....probably hanging out the windows,.... you could have really had some serious fun, at the expense of the poor bus driver, if you waited by the tracks, untill the bus stopped ,.. and blew one of those air horns with the compressed air, like a train was coming.......lol..... sorry kids... sick humor at large.... or better yet, at night with a flashlight and an airhorn as they cross the tracks.... adm, will i get kicked for this....lol , jk.....
That sounds like a great halloween/haunted ROW trick! LOL!
BTW:--old ROW---this one we be just starting to investigate a little further---
Paul, thanks for the link! I just spent a hour on there site!
yes, old right of ways are interesting but don't try to build anything on one if you can avoid it. years ago, we put up an 8000 sq ft building on my business property. it was on the old L&M, former CPStL right of way and trenching for the foundation footing turned in to a night mare. pieces of cross ties, spikes, tie plates, angle bars and clinkers the size of dish pans played hob with the digging. only advantages i can see if any are the ground is stable and high enough so it never floods.
grizlump
The ultimate abandoned railroad site, all in the north west.You can spend days here.
http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
There's something incredibly intriguing about abandoned railroad grades. I grew up here in Northern California right by the old Nevada County Narrow Gauge railroad that was pulled up in 1943, and spent many times walking along the grade through the steep Sierra foothills between Nevada City and Colfax, CA. At one time, the little railroad had the tallest steel trestle in California, the huge Bear River Bridge that soared about 180' above the river. After the abandonment, the bridge stood over the river for years until it was pulled down in the 1960's for the Rollins Dam project.
The railroad was graded so well with Bear River gravel for ballast, that portions of the grade can still be seen on the highway between Nevada City and Colfax. In fact, though the railroad was 3' narrow gauge, it was designed with gradient and curveature to eventually be converted to standard gauge (which never happened). As far as the physical 'plant' of the road, it was always a pretty first-class operation.
When I was a kid, it was possible, with few exceptions, to hike the roadbed for about the entire 22 mile length of the road from Nevada City to Colfax, where the road interchanged with the SP. Now, of course, much of the grade has been elminated by highway construction, or is on private property.
But back when I was a kid, my buddies and I used to wear out a lot of hiking boots!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Unusual interest? Well, most of my friends, in fact all but one, are into modeling German narrow gauge and are amused by my interest in American outline model railroading. For them, my interest is more than unusual - they think I am weird!
Whenever I cross a grade crossing I always try to look both ways just to see where the track goes. Nothing looks more interesting than a track that curves out of sight.....hmmmm, I wonder where that goes? What terrain does it go through? What does the crew get to see? I wonder what it looked like 60 years ago?
My wife and I frequently ride our bicycles on the rail trails here in SE Michigan. There are some curves and grades as these were not main lines. As I ride along my mind wanders to what it would be like when steam and early diesels were the motive power on these lines - before the freeways and what is now a 4 lane highway was a gravel road. There's still relics along the way, a farmers seed and supply that's just hanging on, a lumberyard where you can see remains of a siding, or an abandoned timber grain elevator.
It's great being a model railroader today with the wonderfully engineered, smooth running locomotives, DCC, ground foam and all the tools we have today. But part of me thinks it would be worth putting up with cast zinc boilers, open frame motors, grass made of dyed sawdust and assembling power supplies from transformers and variacs so that a 2-8-0 pound up a grade hauling a string of loaded gravel hoppers was a common sight!
George V.
The base is NAS Lakehurst, you know the place the Hindenburg crashed. As best we can figure it that thing had to have flown right over where our house is now to get to the mooring mast where it blew up. A lot of stories about that from some of the life long residents who had family who worked there at the time.
The abandoned rail line leads right out of one of the main gates and crosses under Rt.70 and heads back through the woods into the Pine Barrons , I was told by my friend that since our trip he went back once without a problem but when he tried it a second time he got rousted by state police for trespassing. I looked over that entire site and didn't see one single no trespassing sign. We have several abandoned rail lines around here some still have tracks down and some are nothing but over grown roadbed.
Here are a couple of pics I took that day but can't seem to find the rest of them,
This is right on the edge of the town of Lakehurst, NJ we had to drie right through the center of town to get to this point, any where else two guys on quads would have attracted attention but not here a very common sight. You can see there is a boat covered up inside the fence so someone is using it for security but the heavy brush and heavey rust on the rail tops shows no train has been here in a long time.
This isn't a very good shot of what I wanted to show but if you look just the other side of the hwy. over pass you can make out what looks like an old signal bridge but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why as there didn't appear to ever be more then one set of tracks there.
I'm not sure I could ever be a traction modeller, but I do enjoy trying to locate the right of way of the old system that used to go through my backyard. I rely only on a handful of sources, like the station list and 1930s aerial agricultural survey photographs
Geared Steam The ultimate abandoned railroad site, all in the north west.You can spend days here. http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html
Oh man, I love that website! I have literaly spent days (2-3 straight this summer) reading through it.
I have to agree I love abandon railroads, almost as much as active ones, gets me insterested any time I see one.
Ship it on the Frisco!
Allegheny2-6-6-6 This isn't a very good shot of what I wanted to show but if you look just the other side of the hwy. over pass you can make out what looks like an old signal bridge but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why as there didn't appear to ever be more then one set of tracks there.
http://www.thebluecomet.com/cnj2512lakehurst.jpg
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
Frisco Ryan Geared Steam The ultimate abandoned railroad site, all in the north west.You can spend days here. http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html Oh man, I love that website! I have literaly spent days (2-3 straight this summer) reading through it. I have to agree I love abandon railroads, almost as much as active ones, gets me insterested any time I see one.
Let me chime in on that one--I pulled up the Milwaukee line over St. Paul's Pass and just blinked in admiration at how incredibly spectacular it was. I plan on spending at LEAST 3-4 days investigating that particular thread. Remarkable!
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.