Someone should write a book on this subject. Oh wait, someone did. "When the railroad leaves town." http://las.depaul.edu/centers-and-institutes/chaddick-institute-for-metropolitan-development/research-and-publications/Pages/when-the-rr-leaves-twn.aspx
I think there are two versions. One covers the eastern half of the country, the other the western half. I've not read either, but have always wanted to. Just haven't gotten around to it.
Jeff
Great topic that gets to the heart of things. It is something we have all seen happen and sold to us as "progress". The solid foundation of smaller communities and even much larger ones, while not dependent on the railroad, relied on the link..it was always there through good and bad and always solid, real. It had a spiritual presence that lived in the townsfolk. Once these links starting to sever the chain itself lost its strength and it went even faster. Economists and politicians, or just plain folk can site statistics and numbers and try to and will rationalize the reasons for the railroad tearing up its tracks and abandonment of towns and lines but it's like losing all hopes and aspirations for the here and now, something permanent, something real. My own feeling of great loss came from the NYC Canada Southern (CASO) and the parallel lines of its competitors Wabash and Pere Maquette and all the branch lines. Once gone these towns, some substantial in importance and size, from Windsor to Niagara Falls ( Detroit to Buffalo) all of them, saw pretty obvious serious state of declines to anyone. Replaced by trucks? A better future? More efficient? Less expensive, or as everyone and their dog says "cheaper"? You can lose weight by cutting out a pound of flesh but it will likely kill you. My take is we have lost too much, we would be better with what we had, to make it work because it must, because it is vital.
Answering that question really relies on knowing how intertwined the railroad and the town were.
If the railroad left because the traffic dried up, that's one consideration.
Many towns that never had a railroad in the first place have dried up and blown away as well. Probably the top reason is mobility. Kids (especially) can easily pick up and move away. Granted, they always have, but today it seems more like the expected thing to do. Which means nobody is left in the old home town.
Mobility applies to other things, too, like crops to market. There are semi's on the road today that carry more than some boxcars. So the freight traffic left, too.
In the end, I'm sure there are some trends that can be identified, and the reason for some rail lines coming out, and some towns becoming ghost towns may be obvious, but we may never have a definitive, one-fits-all answer.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
I live in a rural state, although admittidly, in the state's largest city that includes 20%+ of the population. South Dakota has lost a lot of railroad lines over the last 50 years as CNW, The Tootin' Louie, The Milwaukee Road, The Rock Island and The Illinois Central pulled up a lot of rails. It seems like every little town that lost their railroad lost their economic lifeline to the rest of the world. Since their railroad lines left, they all seem to be slowly reverting back to being prairie. Did the railroad go away because the towns dried up, or did the town dry up because the railroad was taken away? How is it in other states? Is losing the railroad the kiss of death for a small, rural town?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
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