Rail roads and their tracks.

[Bigfoot62]

Okay I will start with the first stupid question... what is a roundhouse? Looks squarish to me.

Railway roundhouse - Wikipedia

We have a strong connection to the Railroad here in Western Louisiana. Several of the towns nearby were just "whistle stops" on the line. The old Tex Ritter song, 'Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair' was written about the whistle stops just across the river in Shelby County, TX. The property where I live was purchased from the Railroad by my great, great grandfather in the 1870's. It was part of a land grant from the Federal Government. There was even a narrow gauge railway on my property that ran to a local sawmill. I dammed up the cut and made a pond years ago. Most of the old depots are gone now. No passenger trains any more. There are still a few that exist as museums.

 

[caver]

Found this... lots of pictures, a story, and maps.

Corkscrew Gulch Turntable

The turntable was enclosed in a snow shed. Neat stuff!!

Glad you found that and their GPS coordinates seem pretty close. Just don't use the location someone entered on google Earth as it's off by about 400 feet. I saw a mention of it on someones website a couple years earlier. I hiked straight in from the closest spot on the highway. I don't remember it being that bad but when I went back in 2008 with Rod and Gerry it was bushwhacking and scrambling up a steep hill the whole way. We decided to walk the grade back down to Ironton and that was super easy. It's interesting to see the 70's pictures in that numerous wheels have been taken since then. There's also an old wooden pipeline in the area that used to cross Corkscrew Gulch and I think the support stuff is still there.

 

[the old grind]

This tune is on two of my 'Best of' CDs in regular rotation with BB King, The Who, James Brown, Jethro Tull, and ABBA. Louis, Sam, & the boys just get me going.

Louis Prima - Whistle stop - YouTube

BTW & OT, but my guy Louis will be remembered for first recording/releasing 'Just a Giggolo-I Ain't Got Nobody'-Medley (Capitol Redords Oct, '56) Louis Prima & Keely Smith, Just a Gigolo & I Ain't Go Nobody - YouTube

.. and for writing/recording 'Jump, Jive an' Wail. (Album "The Wildest") Louis Prima :::: Jump,Jive An' Wail. - YouTube

Anyway, the newness of diesel power amidst remnants of the steam era weren't the only things that were memorable about the '50s.roposetoast:

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I have a weird hobby of following live, dead, abandoned railroad grades across the country with Google Earth looking for signs of existing or long gone roundhouses. I have a couple thousand pinned on Google Earth. If I get much time off in the future, I'll compile them in a spreadsheet and share the locations.

It amazes me how long a RR grade will be detectable. I was working on am emergency road repair on SR 542 east of Bellingham WA a few years ago. I knew that a railroad had run up the valley about ninety years ago to service the gold mines in the are, but I was quite surprised to see clear evidence of it still visible a ground level. In some places stubs of rotting pilings could be seen, but mostly just the railroad bed with 2' diameter trees growing out along the edges of the ballast.

I now live in the Skagit Valley and there are abandoned grades here too. Part of one has been turned into a bicycle, hiking path, but I am sure that the grade must have continued all the way to Newhalem about 50 miles upriver to haul materials for the dam projects.

 

[Hay Dude]

Yep, a Farm down the line from me has issues with everyone under the sun wandering off the part of the trolley line that is now rail trail and fishing, picnicking and wandering around their farm. Most leave when asked, but some are belligerent. Posted signs don't mean much anymore.

Geeze what a nightmare. I thought we had it bad with a bass pond and trespassers.
And furthermore I had trouble understanding why anyone who did not have property up against the ROW had any say or vote in the matter. Lots of young, bright idea people there pushing for it while the elder property owners fought it. In the end, it was voted down in my town. I do see some of the positives, but after looking at the need for a local cop on a mountain bike, snow removal, parking, maintenance it just turned into an expensive, intrusive and potentially dangerous mess. Ifn I had to chose, I would rather subsidize the railroad back into use than subsidize a rail to trails project.

 

[ArlyA]

Here is some worthless trivia for you folks. The largest construction project in the world was our trans continental Railroad. They at times, were grading 300 miles at one time. It was indeed a government project that was bid out to various contractors and previous to it, most RR's were just short regional lines. Its length dwarfed all RR's in the world.

Now for trivia question. What event standardized gauges across the US?

This is from reading Stephen Ambrose wonderful book Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869

 

[dfkrug]

This is from reading Stephen Ambrose wonderful book Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869

Excellent book! Tho it was the second Transcontinental Railroad, the project also featured the biggest wooden building ever built (29-mile long snowshed in the Sierras). As part of the Union Pacific's efforts, they slapped together a colossal wooden trestle in Wyoming, in just a few weeks. It was abandoned after only a year of use, but you can still see the anchors at each end, on Google Earth.

BTW, the first transcontinental railroad was less than 50 mi long, across the Isthmus of Panama, in 1855. Most expensive per mile as well.

 

[ArlyA]

Excellent book! Tho it was the second Transcontinental Railroad, the project also featured the biggest wooden building ever built (29-mile long snowshed in the Sierras). As part of the Union Pacific's efforts, they slapped together a colossal wooden trestle in Wyoming, in just a few weeks. It was abandoned after only a year of use, but you can still see the anchors at each end, on Google Earth.

BTW, the first transcontinental railroad was less than 50 mi long, across the Isthmus of Panama, in 1855. Most expensive per mile as well.

I read "the path between the seas" twice which is a wonderful book by David McCullough. I believe that RR across Panama was owned by Americans. I do like my industrial history.

 

[Hay Dude]

Whenever I walk an old defunct rail line, I always marvel at the backbreaking effort that went into the tree removal, rail bed grading, stone and steel bridge building and track laying labor with very crude tools. I kind of believe those folks would be sad to see their efforts, though used a long time, probably wished they would have endured longer.
Amazing what trucking has done to the freight railroad business and what busses have done to the passenger rail business

 

[buckeyefarmer]

A couple from Blackhand Gorge, in OhioView attachment 646510View attachment 646511

That’s cool