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abandoned lines

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Aledo IL
  • 1,728 posts
Posted by spokyone on Friday, April 25, 2008 11:37 PM
 legsbluetrain wrote:
I saw on the news the other night they made MOPac's Junction Bridge between North Little Rock and Little Rock into a pedestrian bridge and it's now open.I heard they are going to do the same thing with the Rock Island bridge.
With the lift span permanently up, people have to climb & descend stairs to get across. I had heard talk of building a restaurant on the span. That would be grand.
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 69 posts
Posted by sunbeam on Thursday, May 1, 2008 8:34 AM
     An interesting abandoned line in central Texas is the Kerrville Branch of the SA&AP (later SP) and the Fredericksburg & Northern Ry which interchanged with it. The Kerrville Branch runs NW from San Antonio to Kerrville roughly along the same route as I-10. There is a large abandoned bridge on the SA&AP about 3-4 miles east of Comfort,TX over the Guadalupe River. About 10 miles north of the bridge is the tunnel on the Fredericksburg & Northern Ry. which is now a bat cave. The other few RR tunnels in Texas are also abandoned -the FW&D tunnel near Quitaque in the Panhandle, and the GH&SA tunnels that approached the Pecos River crossing on the Sunset Route.
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: near Chicago
  • 937 posts
Posted by Chris30 on Thursday, May 1, 2008 9:09 AM

There have been a few mentions of the Chicago Great Western ROW. Just a couple of things to add... First, I think about the CGW everytime I go to/from work and hit the old bridge that crosses the CGW ROW in W Chicago. With the condition that bridge is in its hard not no be reminded of the CGW yard that used to be there.

There are actually two different segments of the Great Western Trail. The eastern section runs from Villa Park, IL out to Wayne (@11 miles) as mentioned previously. The western section runs from just west of St. Charles to Sycamore (@15 miles). You can connect from one section of the trail to the other using the IPP Geneva branch, which is the old CAE ROW abandoned in the 1930's, plus the Kline Creek and Fox River trails. One interesting note about the eastern section of the Great Western Trail is that it is now designated as Dupage County highway 55 for funding and maintenance purposes.

CC 

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