Is your favorite main line now full of weeds and wild flowers?

[enr2099]

The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. OK so it's still operational, but the tracks are choked with so many weeds, and the rails are so rusty, you'd think the line has been shut down for years. In it's heyday the E&N was THE mainline of Vancouver Island. Interchanging with countless smaller railways up and down the island. Not much is left, the E&N itself has become another short line, just goes to show how much the industry on the Island has changed and how much the E&N's owners have wanted to kill the E&N.

The E&N at Langford


The E&N at Parksville.



The E&N at Cameron Lake


The E&N at Courtenay

[SALfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jockellis

Seaboard Coastline had a line running from Waycross to Tifton which had a good bit of traffic. As it ran through Willacoochee, site of the No Name Bar which was humorist Lewis Grizzard's favorite watering hole, it crossed Central of Georgia tracks which connected Douglas with (I think) Valdosta. First these were taken up by the late '70s. Then SCL (or CSX) decided it could do without it tracks between the town to the east of Willacoochee, Pearson, and Tifton. This left only a short spur from Waycross to pearson. I used to travel that way between Waycross and my parents home in Atlanta and loved to see the trestles spanning the various rivers and creeks along the way. I wish I had stopped to get a few pix of some of my favorite spots. But, you know how that goes; always too busy and in a hurry.
Jock Ellis

That's the old ACL line from Waycross to Albany. CSX sold the Tifton-Albany portion to Southern, which was later pulled up; they pulled up the Tifton-Pearson portion. Recently, CSX abandoned the Waresboro (just west of Waycross) to Pearson portion. I used to go thru Willacoochee traveling from Tallahassee to my parents' home near Savannah, and I too mourn the line's passing. Glad to hear from another Lewis Grizzard fan! Chili Dogs Only Bark at Night, you know.
Cumming, GA US of A

[mudchicken]

Some of my favorite main lines never made it from paper to the real world and in-service. For instance:

(1) Greeley to Laramie on the Denver Laramie & Northwestern RR Built The Tunnel, never laid the track....
(2) The Cincinnati Subway
(3) The The Denver Rollinsville & Western RR....
(4) Rock Island - Liberal, KS to Trinidad, CO and into the San Luis Valley and points west.
(5) CB&Q - St. Francis, KS to Colorado Springs, CO
(6) UP/KP/AV ...La Junta, CO to Raton Pass (Wllow Strings, NM)
(7) ATSF... Farley, NM to Colmor, NM (alias the Colmor Cut-off)
(8) Santa Fe Rocky Mountain and Eastern (Swastika Route) / St. Louis Rocky Mountain & Eastern east of Mt. Dora, NM
(9) Santa Fe Railway west of Salida, CO
(10) Garden City, Gulf & Northern north of Russell Springs, KS
(11) Cincinnati & Western RR...Western Hills, OH to Chicago, ng
(12) Kansas Central RR westward extension

[;)][;)][;)]

[Anonymous]

The line running west from Phoenix, Arizona to rejoin the SP line was a favorite train watching spot for me. I saw my first Genesis passenger locomotive out there two weeks before passenger rail service stopped. On a daily basis, I'd see a little way freight out west of town making agricultural stops and doing switching.

Obviously, that particular line didn't make economic sense, so it was abandoned. It did make for some interesting train watching, tho....

Erik

[slotracer]

2....one from my first life in railroading, and one from my second period of interest in trains.....

Early...when I lived back east.....DL&W mainline Buffalo to Binghamton, primarily the portion over Dansville Hill.

Later....DRGW Tenessee Pass

[jokestre]

DRGW Tenn Pass

[SALfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lonewoof

I'm with Gabe -- I feel a pang every time I see or hear about an abandonment. "if a clod be washed away, Europe is the less..." (John Donne)
The old Seaboard line from Charleston to Savannah (would have made a TERRIFIC rails-to-trails; we didn't even get THAT), C&WC into Beaufort/Port Royal (going...going...), Southern between Branchville & Augusta,...I could go on and on...

Guess my favorite abandoned mainline is the old SAL between Jacksonville and Savannah. Rode it behind a steam engine (can't remember which one - 2716?) about 1980 or 1981. The last time I was there, several years ago, a towering highway bridge over the ROW somewhere near Townsend, GA was still there, carrying the highway over . . . . nothing.

It was interesting to note in the February TRAINS map that this line was projected for an increase in traffic after the merger. It is more direct than Savannah - Jesup - Folkston - Jacksonville, but this line could be abandoned without cutting access to Rice Yard in Waycross. This line should have had fewer grade-crossing accidents than the one kept - it went through swamps and a very few tiny towns, country almost as desolate as the dark side of the moon, but with mud and trees.

[Anonymous]

My favorite two sections aren't now covered with weeds and wildflowers - in many cases they're covered with forests, mobile homes - or worse. They are on the routes of ACL's former passenger trains of the 50's and early 60's from Augusta, Ga to Wilmington, NC and exist from Jackson, SC to Cope (site of present SCEand G plant) and from Florence SC (big CSX hub) to near Wilmington. Apparently the merger of SAL and ACL made managers think this route was no longer worthy. I can't see why, when all the traffic now has to go WAY out of its way on other routes. Isn't the shortest distance between two points a straight line? The older I get the more I realize I don't understand.

[jcavinato]

For me it's the DL&W cut-off.

[Anonymous]

I am going to have to agree with espeefoamer that the tennesse pass royal gorge route rates right up there. I will throw two other honorable mentions, namely the Old Colony from Dennis to P-Town MA and the Air Line from Middletown to Willimantic CT. These two lines run through some of the best east coast scenery. The scenery, unfortunately, was unable to pay the bills.

[Anonymous]

How about the old Rock Island Line. Being a Quad-Cities native, that is the one I miss. Alot of my family worked over at the Silvis Yard. The building is still there. They use it to repair locomotives. The old yard is over-grown with weeds and most of the tracks have been long-since torn out. The ones that are left are filled with hundreds of defunct engines lined up on them. You can still get a good view of the place from the I-88 / Ill. 92 overpass. My grandpa was a supervisor there. When I was 5/6 yrs. old, he took me over there and we got into one of the switchers and drove it out to "the hump" and back. Most all of the main lines are still being used by the Iowa Interstate Railroad.

[Anonymous]

For Mudchicken

Any info as to why the Santa Fe stopped construction of the Colmor-Farley cutoff? I think they laid tracks as far west as Farley then stopped. Is the track to Farley still in place?

[Anonymous]

My favorite line or lines is the former Pennsylvania from Wellsburg WV to Wheeling WV along the Ohio river. Also liked the Wheeling Terminal Railway which went from the B&O connection by Linsley Academy through a tunnel and crossed the Ohio river in north Wheeling. Sad to say all are gone. If anyone has any info on these lines I would appreciate hearing from you.

*** Watkins

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wrwatkins

For Mudchicken

Any info as to why the Santa Fe stopped construction of the Colmor-Farley cutoff? I think they laid tracks as far west as Farley then stopped. Is the track to Farley still in place?

Officially - The Belen Cutoff was successfull and The Colmor Cutoff was no longer needed. (and you were still stuck with EB 3.3% at Glorietta, Glorietta to Canoncito, like falling off a tabletop)

Unofficially (and supported by closeout & AFE ledgers), the big bridges between Farley and Colmor had expensive foundation problems to be solved. There are notations where piling sunk over 60 feet did not reach hearing, some of which just disappeared.

Farley, NM to Felt, OK was removed by 1944

Boise City, OK to Felt came out in chunks by 1962 (most of the timber bridges are still there though)

The big yard, terminal, depot , west wye and roundhouse at Boise City (Moved from Elkhart, KS in 1926) is all but gone except for 4 long storage/interchange tracks that handle interchange with the Cimarron Valley RR (Dodge City to East Wye at Boise City, old ATSF/DC&CV "CV" District)...The whole thing was engineered to 90 mph standard curves and grade...lucky to see 30 MPH on the surviving remnants now./ Boise City Terminal was planned to be a huge yard...For a short time, 1918-1928?, there were T-2 signals between Dodge City and Boise City I am told, have seen a handful of abandoned battery cellars near Montezuma, KS. and Ensign, KS..

http://abandonedrailroads.homestead.com/nm_atsf_mountdora_farley.html

[Glen Ellyn]

Well, yes and no. Their is an old C&NW railroad line in Skokie Illinois that is now being torn up. What is weird is that before it was being torn up, From Oakton street, I would allways see a Union Pacific train just sitting their at the end, covering 4 grade crossings for houres. When the line was last used in 2003, their were weeds, plants, even a tree starting to grow in the middle of the railway. What makes no sense is that, why would the Union Pacific have a coal train sitting their at an abondened factory, paying fines for sitting for grade crossings for more than 15 minutes, with a line that end's right their?

[cpbloom]

I would think the Brilliant branch that runs from CP-Home (on NS Pittburgh line) to what was Vi Tower (on Conemaugh line) is totally covered by overgrowth now. My US railroad map says it is now owned by Alleghney Northern; don't know how much they use it though since I don't live in Pittsburgh anymore. Its not like it didn't have weeds when Conrail had it back in the early 80s and it saw LITTLE IF NO TRAFFIC [:(]. It was double-tracked and Amtrak's Pennsylvanian used to back its trains from downtown all the way out to the wye part of it near CP-Home to turn around then head back downtown before heading back east.

[Anonymous]

Atlantic Coast Line had a branch from Rocky Mount, N.C. to Portsmouth, Va. which I grew up near and rode passenger trains on many times in the 40's and 50's. A friend of mine and myself used to hang out at an interlocking tower on weekends where the old Atlantic and Danville Ry crossed the Coast Line. Now it is all gone at least between Portsmouth and Suffolk, Va. Don't know about the rest of the line as I have lived in California since 1958. I did manage to save a spike from the tracks at the Portsmouth Depot before it was torn down. That's all I have left of it except wonderful memories. Ray

[Anonymous]

I think the conrail danville IL branch is the saddest story, back in 1982 conrail ran north, south, east & west out of danville. Now, nothing! CXS filed for abandonment on parts of the south branch from danville to paris IL, causing all 4 directions to totally exempt. East to crawfordsville IN got cut in 1982, west to champaign IL got cut around 1990, north to chicago IL got cut from service in 1994 & finally the south to paris IL is cut. Danville's old conrail routes are only a memory in the past.

[Anonymous]

The historic Illinois Central "Gruber Line" through Mendota and LaSalle. What a piece of history. I saw it scrapped in the 80's.

[Tharmeni]

Easy to answer: The Monon (CSX) south of Bloomington, Indiana. Beautiful right-of-way scenery and I rode Amtrak over it in the 1980s ("The Floridian"). Gone now. Hard to find in some places. Has another stretch of track fallen so far, so fast?

[Tharmeni]

A question regarding the Peoria and Eastern: Doesn't Amtrak's "Hoosier State still use part of it between the westside of Indy and Crawfordsville? I was on that train last year and it seemed we were on the old P&E doing 79 mph. I know the tracks were taken up (in 1966) between Indianapolis Union Station and the west side of Indy.

FYI, my great-grandfather was an engineer on the P&E and often was assigned to the "Corn Belt Limited" between Pekin (Peoria) and Indy.

[Tharmeni]

Oops, I also have to mention the old Pennsylvania mainline from West Indianapolis to Terra Haute. It was a well-maintained line that carried varnish such as the "Spirit of St. Louis", the "American" and the "Penn-Texas". Some genius at Conrail decided it was redundant and it , with its heavy welded rail, was torn out. You can still ride it out of Indy on the "Hoosier State" and "Cardinal" past the Indy airport and then you turn abruptly north.

[Anonymous]

used to be the u.p. line from wells, nv, to twin falls , id... last time i was there there

[mudchicken]

The 133 miles of the ex-MoPac Colorado Eagle route from Towner, CO to Pueblo wil be gone within 12 months. The crooks at A&K Materials got their dirty hands on it. (bought it from the witless morons at CDOT)...[:(!][:(!][:(!]

[tatans]

Weeds and flowers?? don't I wish, we have to avoid skidoos and now 4 wheel things and motor cycles when we TRY to walk on the old abandoned rail lines. it sound like a lawnmower test track and smells just as bad, oh well, in a few years when the railway wants their land back to put in another rail line(oh, you didn't read the fine print eh?) back to good old railroadin'

[rrnut282]

I wi***he weary Erie Lackamony across Indiana had survived to the era of the double-stacks. It was mostly two-main-track with wide clearances and deep ballast and I could look out the windows of my high school and see it. Another candidate was the PRR Panhandle from Columbus to St Louis. From Richmond to Indianapolis it was double track and PRR spent about $60M in the '60s to elevate it and eliminate all grade crossings. Nothing to slow you down, highball!

[Anonymous]

Based on the Map of the Month in the recent issue of TRAINS showing the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad the Panhandle line from Pittsburgh to Weirton WV is abandoned. Part of this former main line from Pittsburgh to St. Louis was downgraded to single track status under Conrail. As a former resident of the northern panhandle of West Virginia tell me it is not so. Tell me that the panhandle line still lives.

[Anonymous]

Weeds on abandoned right of ways? Heh, how about active right of ways being overgrown?.

Where I live the city code enforcement nazi's decided to become proactive this past year, and went out into the neighborhoods looking for people to write up for weed violations, and on some days it was amazing to see how many "weed violation" notices were posted, house after house.

But, strangely enough, the sides of the NS rail mains through town were overgrown so bad that they had grown beyond weeds, beyond simple scrub brush, they looked like they had gone wild again... Nasty nuisance trees, vines scrub, it was a disgrace.

it was funny in fact how the weed nazi's could cite home owners for a few weeds right up next to the overgrown railway, and not be troubled by the railway looking 10 times worse.

Finally, somebody did the right thing, and the mess got mown, hacked, and chopped back to a reasonable level. Less mosquitos too, made for better railfanning.

[dragenrider]

I wish I could have seen the Arkansas & Ozarks Railway before it closed. But, alas, that was before my time. Parts are still visible through the weeds and trees. A couple of bridges are still in place. [sigh]

[PBenham]

Ah, sadly, I must say yes. I miss the Lehigh Valley, which was abandoned west and north of Sayre,PA in 1976, since Conrail had no use for it. Now, it appears to be abandoned north of Mehoopany, the last time I checked. The Reading&Northern operates it now, west of Allentown (for all intents) with NS running it east from there as its major route to the tri-state area /a.k.a Metropolitan New York. The fromer Delaware Lackawanna & Western west of Binghamton (save for small parts of it between Corning and Cohocton, NY-LA&L and Wayland-Greigsville NY- G&W). Then there is the -don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen-restoration of the DL&W from East Stroudsburg to Dover NJ.