Abandonded Railroad lines do you ahve nay near where you live?

[Anonymous]

The Ohio River & Western
The Grafton to Cincinnati B&O main (never did understand that abandonment)
The B&O Muskingum Valley line
The B&O Ripley WV branch
the B&O Spencer WV branch
The Little Kanawha
The PRR/PC Marietta Ohio Branch
Cairo & Kanawha
The partially graded but never completed PRR Hannibal to Marietta Ohio Line.
The Federal Valley
The Hocking Valley (the real one, not the present day short/tourist line)
The Ironton end of the Detroit Toledo and Ironton
Two other narrow gauge short lines who's names are rattling around in the back of what is left of my mind but refuse to come out.
And a surprising assortment of very old coal mining and quarrying industrial lines.

[jchnhtfd]

Anywhere in New England the woods are full of them (literally!). As someone said, it's rather fun finding and seeing them; as MC said, when your job (only occasionaly on my part, sadly) includes identifying them and tracking their history, it's even more fun! Just a partial list in my immediate area: Central New England (Boston to Maybrook via Putnam, Willimantic, Hartford, Winsted, Norfolk and the Poughkeepsie Bridge) -- a few odd bits here and there, almost all gone, a few bits preserved as trails; New Haven & Northampton (New Haven RR Canal Line) -- much of it gone; a few pieces as trails, a very few pieces still live track; New Haven Waterbury branch north of Torrington, CT to Winsted (junction with CNE); may become a trail; New Haven Unionville branch (Plainville to New Hartford CT, junction with CNE) -- a bit of it is a rail trail, otherwise gone; the New Haven's Air Line; Cedar Yard New Haven to Putnam via Middletown; the south end still in service, the rest of it trails or gone completely. Etc. etc.

When I note 'gone' in New England, because of the way ownership is determined, I do mean gone -- houses, industrial parks, whatever built on them. At least one Town in Connecticut (Farmington) deliberately sited an industrial park on the old Canal line, to prevent its ever being used again for rail, particularly commuter rail. Go figure that one...

[Anonymous]

The old Erie Lackawanna Cut-Off crosses my road about a mile from my house.

[Anonymous]

Not far from where I live is the abandoned ROW for the Rio Grande's line to Ogden, Utah. The line goes as far north as West Bountiful (small town north of Salt Lake City) to reach a Holly oil refinery. Beyond the refinery, it's nothing but miles of ballast without tracks, and paved over crossings. The Utah Transit Authority has purchased the ROW for possible use as a light rail corridor.

[Anonymous]

I would have to answer yes, there are abandoned rail lines near me. [:(]

Some of them are from the Rock Island, some of the rail has been taken up.

Some of them are Cotton Belt.

[emdgp92]

There are a few near me. The closest abandoned line is the old Montour RR. Most of the line was made into a hiking trail, but the rest is overgrown.

The former Waynesburg & Washington narrow-gauge railroad isn't too far away. It was widened during WWII (and leased by the MGA), but the rest of it was abandoned.

I *think* the Monongahela Connecting RR is abandoned now, but I might be wrong. I'd be surprised if it survived...especially since all the mills it once served are gone.

[Anonymous]

Daniel,
How about the proposed Kansas, New Mexico, & Orient whose grade can still be seen south of Matfield Green?
The former Neva to Superior, Neb. branch west of Strong City?
The former MKT and Missouri Pacific Lines south of Council Grove and east to Herington?
How about the former Missouri Pacific Lines around and west of Marion??
And then, there is the former MKT southeast to northwest of Americus?

What happened to the Santa Fe items and literature that your grandfather and great uncle would have accumulated while working for the AT&SF?

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by mudchicken

06:

.... When you have to retrace old R/W's as part of your job, it never gets dull.

[:p] .... I'm green with envy

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