Abandoned Trains and Train Graveyards

[kschmidt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Noah Hofrichter

Last summer my dad and I took a trip to the quad cities area. Near one of the interstates there, there was a very, very, large engine graveyard. there were all sorts of roadnames on them. I was wondering if anyone knew who this yard belonged to? one other thing, the yard was near John Deer's combine plant somewhere in or near Moline.

Noah,

This would have been National Railway Equipment at Silvis, IL. I was there last year while the #261 was running the Grand Excursion in June 2004. Almost got locked inside the plant. We drove inside, through an open gate. However when we got back to leave the gate was locked. Luckily the security guard was nice enough to let us out and not call the police or something.

Here are some shots from June 2004.









I don't think they usually welcome visitors, however the security guard was quite understanding. Another thing that I noticed while walking near the road was quite a growth of "wacky weedus" . Apparently it grows quite well wild down there. I have a photo of that but I didn't know if that would be appropriate.

Keith

[shrek623]

I don't know how long they've been there but there is about 10-15 old SW?(I think) switchers parked on an old industry spur in Joliet by the now abandoned Statesville prison. Mostly UP but there were others. It didn't look like a temp location.

Shrek

[Anonymous]

I'm really glad that this topic has been dug up again! As I said in my post from a year ago, abandoned trains have always fascinated me.

There isn't really too much around where I live. I have seen a really old wooden boxcar on some farm in Alberta while driving to Calgary. Wheat City Metals in Regina, Saskatchewan and Mandak in Selkirk, Manitoba both have lots of old rolling stock, but these are scrapyrds as opposed to graveyards, so I'm not sure if they really count. Wheat City could sort of be considered a graveyard, as for many month they had piles (literally) of old freight cars in their yard. Then, all of a sudden they just disappeared. What's really interesting, though, is an old NP heavyweight baggage car that they have sitting on their property. It was sitting, complete with trucks, on a siding for quite a while, but now the trucks are gone and it's sitting beside a shed. Someone should rescue it. Mandak is a scrapyard that exclusively cuts up railway equipment. They save useable parts, such as trucks, wheels, etc. and sell them. It really isn't in a good location for taking pictures, but I did get some when I was there.

Keith, Excellent pictures! Thanks for sharing them with us!

Hopefully there will be others with more to add to the list.

[Randy Stahl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

Originally posted by john7470

Up in Maine:

1) Eagle lake, deep in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has two old steam locos (turn-of-the-century ex NYC, I believe) rotting in the woods. They were used in logging operations until the 30s. Bring your canoe... there is no road access.

They are still there. There's not much left of them to save. The group attempting to preserve them is asking for anyone who has visited these engines, and removed artifacts to please return the parts. One I believe was an ex Long island RR .
In Alamosa Co. there is a large bunch of narrow gauge cars gathered up . I was surprised to say the least.
Randy

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