Abandoned Trackage

SimRacin14 Sep 5, 2008

  1. SimRacin14

    SimRacin14 TrainBoard Member

    482
    227
    22
    I find abandoned right-of-ways pretty interesting,in that with them,you have to really use your imagination to picture what things were once like.

    I present what few photos I have @tm:

    [​IMG]
    Former Southern trackage(now NS) in Lawrenceburg. The grade crossing has been paved over and the track on the other side of this is used as a siding for the most part. I believe this trackage went to Tyrone,KY.



    Now,down south:
    [​IMG]
    This used to be the right-of-way on the Louisville & Nashville's Lebanon Branch line. This picture was taken in St. Francis.

    [​IMG]
    Another former crossing,this one near a place called Dant. Can't really see much anymore.


    I'd love to follow the old Lebanon Branch remnants just to see for myself what's left.

    Then there's also 17 abandoned miles of the former Bardstown Branch,which begins just east of Bardstown going to Springfield,KY.

    Anyone else have abandoned trackage to share?
     
  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,735
    653
    Is the track still in place? Or just this bit crossing the road?

    In my area, I find it hard to explore much that once existed. I remember a lot of it. Often wonder if a line might be useful today. And am saddened when recalling the scenes of younger years.

    Boxcab E50
     
  3. SimRacin14

    SimRacin14 TrainBoard Member

    482
    227
    22
    The trackage goes to Versailles and into Lexington,I believe. Over in Versailles the Bluegrass Railway Museum uses it for their excursions. I'm guessing it hasn't been torn up for the most part.

    And there's also this:
    Young's High Bridge - WorldTimZone

    Young's High Bridge.
     
  4. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    I love chasing ghosts of railroads past!
    Here's a few ghosts:

    Silver Creek trestle, just a few miles east of the MT/ID border, on the former Milwaukee Road electrified mainline to St Paul Pass:

    [​IMG]

    This set of piers once supported a MILW trestle east of Bonner, MT on the Big Blackfoot Branch:

    [​IMG]

    Some snaking curves near remote Drexel, MT on the electrified mainline:

    [​IMG]

    Nine Mile Tunnel #17, near Soudan, MT:

    [​IMG]

    Yes, I am a MILW ghost nut. I'm trying to document all that I can in Montana's former electrified territory.
     
  5. SimRacin14

    SimRacin14 TrainBoard Member

    482
    227
    22
    Those bridge piers have something about them that just makes them look weird...and I've seen bridge piers without bridges on them before.

    I kinda wish we had some rail trails around here,would make my work much,much easier.

    Almost wonder if I could get the city of Bardstown to do that with the abandoned 17 miles of the Bardstown Branch to Springfield. They've made a park just behind the factory where the current trackage ends. It'd be a decent starting point.
     
  6. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,735
    653
    A couple from a favorite branch line. Until the early 1970's, this was the Milwaukee Road Everett Line. Pictures taken just east of where the depot and siding were once situated, at Duvall, Washington.

    Photos do strange things. One view looks east, up the valley. But although there appears to be a slight grade, it's virtually flat. In the other, r-o-w is at right, a trail to the river at left. The right side, running downstream, looks as though uphill due to an illusion of the trail at left. Which drops down quickly. There is no grade.

    Boxcab E50
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 24, 2010
  7. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    OK, Ken, whereizzit? Port Angeles, WA? Otherwise, I have no idea.
     
  8. SimRacin14

    SimRacin14 TrainBoard Member

    482
    227
    22
    Looks like a nice grade there.


    I checked satellite photography of Lawrenceburg. That abandoned trackage runs all the way into Tyrone(got one of those "No images/too close" things when I got close to Tyrone) and I'd be willing to bet it runs all the way to Young's High Bridge and into Versailles.
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,735
    653
    It says Duvall, WA.

    :D

    Boxcab E50
     
  10. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,735
    653
    Nope. Optical illusion. It's almost flat as a pancake all along there.

    Boxcab E50
     
  11. topgoz

    topgoz TrainBoard Member

    49
    0
    17
    Found aboard MCAS Beaufort, SC. Long forgotten and severed from the rest of the tracks aboard base (themselves being pulled up during Aug & Sep 08), these tracks continue about another 100 ft past this group of trees to where they used to connect and behind me for nearly 1/4 mile through more trees.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 5, 2008
  12. SimRacin14

    SimRacin14 TrainBoard Member

    482
    227
    22
    I rode along part of the old right-of-way of the L&N's Bardstown Branch to Springfield last night.Didn't see anything until I got past Valley Hill. I knew I first spotted the old line when I saw bridge piers over a creek right alongside the road,and from there I could see the old line in certain areas. It's really visible when you get to downtown Springfield and go behind the buildings.

    I wish I had a road map that still showed the line in place. I've seen an online map before that had it,but I have no idea where that map was.
     
  13. MP333

    MP333 TrainBoard Supporter

    2,704
    208
    48
    Interesting topic! ROWs can be really fun to explore.

    Johnson Canyon was bypassed 50 years ago on the ATSF, but today the ROW makes for a good hike, including the only mainline tunnel in Arizona. You can just see the ROW in the background here:

    [​IMG]

    The western portal of the tunnel:

    [​IMG]

    I found this abandoned ROW near Flagstaff, not too far from the present day BNSF. I think this is basically a re-alignment:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 11, 2009
  14. John Barnhill

    John Barnhill TrainBoard Member

    3,277
    110
    49
    Flagstaff also had a few logging railroads around there. Might be from one of these??

    If I ever move there, and I might, I plan on doing a website about them similar to the one I do now for my area.
     
  15. JDLX

    JDLX TrainBoard Member

    310
    1
    17
    Four years ago now I took a tour of the Oregon & Northwestern Railroad grade between Burns and Seneca in eastern Oregon. See the following link:
    Oregon Northwestern Railroad- 20 Years Gone

    Some contributed photos of the Condon, Kinzua & Southern in north central Oregon:
    Condon Kinzua Southern Railroad- Kinzua Today

    Here's a railroad grade that never had tracks on it...
    Oregon Pacific Railroad

    Some other contributed photos of the Union Pacific's Burns branch in eastern Oregon:
    Oregon Eastern Division, Wyoming/Colorado Railroad- Empty Roadbed

    Lastly, if you can be at the right places at the right time you can get a series of "with rails/without rails" shots. These are of the Great Northern/BN/BNSF branch from Lookout Junction to Hambone in northeastern California:
    McCloud Rails: Lookout Line, Then And Now

    Jeff Moore
    Elko, NV
     
  16. Dave1905

    Dave1905 TrainBoard Member

    265
    284
    22
    Since I model the Wilmington & Northern in 1900 (later the Philadelphia & Reading, later the Reading, later Conrail, now Brandywine Valley) most of my research is "industrial archeology".

    Dave H.
     
  17. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    The North Montana Line departs the mainline at Harlowton, MT, and continues to Winnett, Roy, Agawam, Great Falls, and Lewistown. It was a huge grain feeder line, tapping into the fertile "Golden Triangle" of northern Montana. It was one of the most important branches originating the most traffic on the entire Chicago-Tacoma mainline.
    Just 15 miles east of Great Falls, Belt Creek Canyon is encountered, and conquered with 2 massive trestles, 4 tunnels and beautiful vistas.

    Belt Creek Trestle soars high above its namesake creek, flanked by Red Coulee Tunnel 6 and Belt Creek Tunnel 5:

    [​IMG]

    Amphitheatre Tunnel 4 was daylighted before the last days of the line, and is slowly succombing to the elements:

    [​IMG]
     
  18. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

    10,534
    707
    129
    While not nearly as photogenic as the former MILW, I offer this remnant of the Rock Island Railroad as a sad reminder of once what was, and now can never be:

    [​IMG]

    Looking east at Howe, OK, at the one-time KCS-CRIP crossing diamond. Beyond the guardrail is a creek which the Choctaw Route used to cross on its way east to Little Rock and Memphis. The track was taken up between here and Danville, AR in late 1985. Behid and to the right was the little "depot at Howe used by the Rock. Behind me, to the west, the line is still used by Arkansas-Oklahoma RR which interchanges with KCS on an as-needed basis using GE U-boats and rebuilt Super-7s painted in its RI-inspired colors of red & yellow.

    Owners of Marre's "Rock Island Power" can find pics of Alco RS2s and certain Geeps crossing the KCS in the early 1960s back before the vegetation covered everything up.
     
  19. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,560
    22,735
    653
    What page numbers should be viewed?

    Boxcab E50
     
  20. MRL

    MRL TrainBoard Member

    1,406
    14
    25
    I might have to see what i can dig up on the old ROW's around here. This is a fun topic.
     

Share This Page