1. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    Hi, there is a sidewalk project in town and I'm thinking an old cross buck will be a victim of it. I don't want to see it trashed so I'm trying to save it. The tracks it guarded are long gone and so are the businesses they served, so does the railroad still own the cross buck or does the city? I'd like to know who I should talk to about acquiring it. Thanks for any help!
     
  2. logandsawman

    logandsawman TrainBoard Member

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    The crossbucks are owned by the Railroad. However, if the right of way has been abandoned it would be the cities or whomever holds the road right of way. I would want to ask the city who owns the Right of Way (simply because they may be most likely to reply). If they own it, they own the sign. They might want to sell it on auction, however. Maybe they don't know they own it.
     
  3. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

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    I'm no lawyer, but I think a midnight requisition may be in order. The way this will probably work out is you call and ask for the cross buck. After a couple of days of runaround you are told you cannot have it, (city property). Naturally NO ONE knows what to do about the cross buck. You are disappointed and the side walk goes in and the cross buck (city property) goes into the trash.............? Jim
     
  4. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    If the property was officially abandoned, it may have reverted to whoever owned the land. Depends upon how the deed was written and area laws. If there is a local tax assessors office, maybe try them? If there is a historical society in the area, perhaps they'd be interested? If the sidewalk mentioned will be through where the crossbuck stands, usually it is city land or an easement to the city.
     
  5. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    I have been guilt of the "Midnight Requisition" in the past. I liberated the #27 mile marker off the San Antonio & Aransas Pass line west of Houston long after the rails were gone and the ballast was harvested. But I felt guilty about it until I saw the developer of the property had bulldozed the remaining markers poles along with a bunch of trees into a pile and was burning them. One was hanging out of the pile where I could get to it so I liberated that one too. The cross-buck in this photo was acquired legally from the UP storage lot in Rosenberg. It was off of a mast that was destroyed in an auto/train collision. The MOW signal maintainers gave it to me. It was pretty bent up but I was able to straighten it out.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    This is the one I rescued from the burn pile.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    Well I went by and the gas company is digging near it. I guess to check on any lines underneath. One thing that may mean it belongs to the city is how close a stop sign is to it. The bases of each are just inches apart.

    I went to the Street Dept. today to explain and the secretary and she said talk to the RR, but I highly doubt the RR cares at all even if they own it. Also which one even owns it? Middlesboro was dual served by SOU and L&N, NS leases the tracks from CSX, but all tracks on this street are gone except some buried track that a business uses as a parking lot.

    Right now I'm waiting for the guy in charge of the street dept. to call me since I gave the secretary my number to give to him.
     
  8. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Back when the railroad was in place, you would have at a bare minimum, single track, a twenty five foot wide right of way. That is twelve and one half feet to each side, from the center line of the track. Most often it is fifty feet. Where there is a siding, up to 100 feet and more. In a town, where there might have been a house track, team track, etc, one hundred feet, one hundred fifty feet and more if they planned to lease out to industries.

    Sometimes when a railroad leaves, they still retain property. Railroads used to have real estate departments. These days? Also, what a city or adjacent land owner believes is theirs, may not be. Very often there is encroachment onto railroad property, where people assume how wide the railroad is...
     
  9. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I found this 25 miles away from where it should have been.
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    Well now there is grass planted where the gas company was digging? Perhaps this spot isn't getting the same treatment as the sidewalk up the street? I guess it's safe for now? I still want a call back, and especially learn who really owns it.

    I do have a theory as to why it is still there- Maybe when the RR got rid of the tracks it just didn't bother with it cause as long as the track in the road were gone the job was done. Now the city won't remove it because they still think the RR owns it. Just my thoughts.
     
  11. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    Here is a reference pic. Please excuse it being on its side, shoulda fixed that earlier! As you can see there are cables that go into the ground which I forgot about. Yesterday everything was fenced off so I wasn't sure what would happen.
     

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  12. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

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    Good thing I don't live in your part of the country; it would already be in my basement! A pickup, a sharp saw, zero dark thirty and two minutes and it is yours. Don't mess with the stop sign though. Jim
     
  13. wm-webb

    wm-webb TrainBoard Member

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    A white pickup, safety vest, hardhat and liberate it in broad daylight. A few years back guys were stealing dwarf signals from an active mainline during the day in front of everybody that drove by. When the railroad reported the theft, the police said they saw those guys but just assumed...
     
    GP30 likes this.
  14. Mr. SP

    Mr. SP Passed away August 5, 2016 In Memoriam

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    In Ilwaco Wa. there is a cross buck guarding the railroad crossing of a railroad that was abandon in 1930. I'll have to go there and see if it's still there.
    The railroad was the Ilwaco Rail & Navigation Company. It was narrow gauge (36") and ran from Megler to Nahcottta Wa.
    The tunnel under Fort Columbia that Highway 101 goes through was originally the railroad tunnel. It was widened to get the road in it.
    In the museum in Ilwaco there is a coach from the railroad and if you know where to look traces of the railroad can still be found.
     
    Kurt Moose likes this.
  15. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

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    After the Milwaukee Road ceased operations, my uncle who worked for the Milwaukee Road took me to a location where they had an old abandoned semaphore signal. My wife wouldn't let me put it at the end of our driveway, but I did erect it at my shop. When I am in here working, I set it to the green position and when I am gone, it's set to red, or stop.

    If I didn't haul it off, someone else would have found it.
     
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  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Or some flea brain would have shot it to pieces.
     

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