Big Picture: The Milwaukee Road's Pacific Coast Extension (with an electrified "gap"); maybe the Rock Island. I never would have thought of the North Shore, though, Greyhounds! Thanks!
Small Picture: The Green Bay & Western (with carferrys); the C&NW lines through my hometown.
The line that went from the west coast to Hawaii.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
I like the idea of resurrecting the Wells NV/Twin Falls ID UP line already mentioned here. There is something about the remote linkage out in the middle of nowhere that is very appealing.
The KCMO would be a useless but fascinating revival. I could once again watch a long train of wheat hoppers in Orienta, Oklahoma, with the buttes of the Glass Mountains in the distance.
The Midland Valley would be near the top of my list. Now that the bison are back at the Tall Grass prairie, one could photograph those enormous beasts next to the tracks while a Wichita - Fort Smith train glides past.But my top wish would be for restoration of the old Frisco Kiamichi line, winding through the rugged mountains of SE Oklahoma.
Probably the most useful railroad that was lost was the Chicago, North Shore & Milwuakee.
You could get on a train running the Chicago Loop (Downtown elevated trains for those of you in Rio LInda) and go to Kenosha, Racine, and into downtown Milwaukee. Some of those trains even had a bar/grill car on the Chicago "L".
Finish your business day, then go home on electric high speed trains while enjoying martinis and burgers. (In 1962 such things were acceptable.) In contrast, to drive I-94/I-294 in a Chicago snow storm is to know terror.
The North Shore lasted until 1963.
I would travel to Colorado to see train on Tennessee Pass.
Locally, it would be a toss up between the Erie Lackawanna line from Chicago to NYC and the Kankakee Belt Line from Wheatfield, In. to south Bend. I think the KBelt would see some traffic. The EL would just be fun to watch. Another local line would be the EJE to Porter.
Great topic.
ed
Rio Grande Southern, It would immediately be a tourist line.
Link all three (RGS, D&S, Cumbries & Toltec) of them in Durango and Wow what a tourist railroad.
The Over Seas Railroad to Key West, Florida. How cool would it be to sit on a boat in the Bay of Florida and watch trains fly across the water for seven miles?
James
I would resurrect the former Pennsy/Penn Central/GTW line between Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Michigan. It's now a totally fantastic bike trail (the Musketawa Trail, named for Muskegon and Ottawa Counties). But Muskegon's only railroad is now the Michigan Shore Railroad (someone correct me if I have the name wrong, please), whose main lines were spun off from CSX--their only connection to the national network is via CSX at West Olive, Michigan, and they use trackage rights over CSX to interchange cars at Holland--with CSX.
This isn't meant to bash CSX, but there's a potential problem with the small, and very old, movable (swing) bridge over the Grand River at Grand Haven/Ferrysburg. Were that bridge to be lost to anything, Muskegon would be cut off--completely. I'm not sure that the bridge can handle 286K-GRL freight cars. A line directly to Grand Rapids might give the shortline a connection with NS as well as CSX, not to mention two other shortline railroads that serve GR.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
ALL OF THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also the Milwakee Road's Pacific Extention, and the Pheonix line (west end).
And as long as we are dreaming...How about the Carson & Colorado, Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas & Tonopah. Or mabee the UP's Wells branch
The Royal Gorge Route - Tennessee Pass line in Colorado.
Bring back the Modoc !!!!
OK, mabee not justifiable, but I miss it. Not that the Modoc Northern isn't doing a good job, but the loss of through freights is a real bummer.
The CSX (formar SAL/SCL/SBD) line from Atlanta-Birmingham (now the Silver Comet Trail) and the Western Maryland route from Cumberland across the Allegheny Mountains into Pennsylvania (now the Great Allegheny Passage trail) would be the first two projects in my Trails-to-Rails master plan. No viable economic reasons and nothing against the trails, but I would just like to railfan those lines and the trains were long gone by the time I got into the hobby. Jamie
CLICK HERE FOR THE CSX DIXIE LINE BLOG
The headline says it all: What U.S. rail line would you revive that is currently abandoned? Why would you? It can be either narrow or standrad gauge. For me, it would be the former D&RG Chama to Durango line 'cause you could once again travel all narrow gauge between Antonito and Silverton.
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