Looking at the map MossRoad linked to and looking at abandoned lines that I am familiar with, I can understand why they were abandoned. They were industry driven dead end lines that became surplus when the factories shut down or the project was completed. Where I lived in Skagit County WA, there were two lines running up the river valley, one went as far as Concrete, about 30 miles east of the freeway, the second line ended at Rockport but was extended to Newhalem by Seattle City Light for their dam projects. The big lumber mills are gone, the cement plants shut down, the dams were completed.
Some of the lines in Whatcom county were also industry driven or were closed down with railroad mergers and railroads with drawing service, The Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road each shipped one short train a day out of Bellingham. Between the two of them they made up about 20% of the rail traffic through town.
In many ways decrying the demise of the small railroads and their many spur lines is like mourning the loss of Sears or K-Mart. Their bad management and shortsightedness caused their demise and the competition filled the gap, and then some. With Sears and K-Mart, it's Amazon, Walmart and Costco, with the railroads it's trucking and the mega merger railroads, BNSF, CSX, Union Pacific and so on.
Railroads never could have put down enough steel to service all the store and shops trucks do. The result is we have better service, more choices, and lowered costs.
