Working rail roads and their tracks.

[MossRoad]

It’s moving along pretty well. My son maybe able to utilize it for grad school commuting into Philly.
If you look at the Northbound view, of course you see the bridge across the highway. Notice new catenary constructed on the west side? We were told this would not happen, but it appears to me the line is going to be extended further. Next substantial sized town is West Chester. Service to West Chester was discontinued in 1990. All that operates on the tracks now is a rich guy running a tourist train.
I guess they have decided to keep going with more track!

So I google earthed it a few minutes ago. Interesting. I guess if they built that bridge west of the station, they're planning on continuing west. I see the new catenary supports to the west. I went to the western end of that line in West Chester. Saw the yard for the rich guy. Looks like quite the eclectic collection. That line dead ends. You can see some old grade to the west of that, but there's a building directly across the street. There's that little yellow engine by the street. Looks to be a few old catenary supports there. So that was an electric line at one time?

 

[Hay Dude]

So I google earthed it a few minutes ago. Interesting. I guess if they built that bridge west of the station, they're planning on continuing west. I see the new catenary supports to the west. I went to the western end of that line in West Chester. Saw the yard for the rich guy. Looks like quite the eclectic collection. That line dead ends. You can see some old grade to the west of that, but there's a building directly across the street. There's that little yellow engine by the street. Looks to be a few old catenary supports there. So that was an electric line at one time?

Yes it was.
The end of the line in West Chester used to be a large mill called the “Sharpless Works” 100 years ago. It terminated into a tunnel in the mill. The mill was turned into luxury apartments.
The line also had freight traffic from the quarry in Glen Mills, between Wawa and West Chester. If you look real carefully to the south of the new train station on Google maps, you’ll see the train line that came into my town.
That was the one destroyed by Agnes in ‘72 and never rebuilt. It would still probably be open, or at least open/abandoned if we never met that fateful hurricane.

 

[Hay Dude]

A bit more history about that very fateful rail line. It was only about 8 miles of track from Wawa to Chadds Ford.
in the map below, you see the red line. It is the path of the old rails. The rails are still there in the weeds and I farm the land near them.

Right where the red line crosses Ring Road is where artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth was killed along with his grandson in 1945. He crossed the tracks without looking or some say his car stalled. The train killed both of them on impact and pushed the car a few hundred yards down the tracks. The property I farm is just below the red line. The residents of the farm heard the brakeman jamb on the brakes, but far too late.

 

[MossRoad]

I saw that quarry. Quite the hole.

I think I've mentioned I have an abandoned RR grade on one edge of our rural property. And an old trestle. There was a siding on the south side of the bridge, so it's double wide in there for about 1/4 mile. It was active line until the 80's. They removed the track and ties but left the ballast. I kinda wish they'd have converted it to trails, but now it's just abandoned and overgrown. I find spikes and metal occasionally, but the trees are starting to come up through the ballast.

 

[MossRoad]

A bit more history about that very fateful rail line. It was only about 8 miles of track from Wawa to Chadds Ford.
in the map below, you see the red line. It is the path of the old rails. The rails are still there in the weeds and I farm the land near them.

Right where the red line crosses Ring Road is where artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth was killed along with his grandson in 1945. He crossed the tracks without looking or some say his car stalled. The train killed both of them on impact and pushed the car a few hundred yards down the tracks. The property I farm is just below the red line. The residents of the farm heard the brakeman jamb on the brakes, but far too late.

The RR that went through our property crosses a highway at the bottom of a large dip on both sides. Many car/train accidents occurred there I'm told. An older man that worked for me at the Newspaper said during the Vietnam war, he was a conscientious objector due to religious beliefs. He took a job as an ambulance driver during the war here locally. He recalls going to that crossing many times and pulling bodies from the wrecks. No flashers, just cross bucks. All gone now, probably for the better in that location.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Tractors and Trains

 

[aczlan]

+ 1 on that Lou. One of my hunting buddies owns the local propane dealership (no I don't get a discount other than dryer gas which is tax exempt) and he has a rather large tank (bottle) farm in Adrian, Michigan with a siding. He usually fills them via truck because the rail is very inconsistent with deliveries and interestingly, if the deliver rail bottles, they have to be emptied in a very short time span or the rail charges detention (think it's called on them) and he told me this year, trucking was actually less than rail. If I remember correctly, he has 25 10,000 gallon bottles there. All fenced and key carded too.

For the cars that we get at work we have 24 hours from when they are "parked" at our rail dock to unload them (Sat and Sun do not count). We get heavy loads of product (~3000# per pallet space) shipped across the country via rail, that means 11-13 per truck or 48-70 per railcar (depending on the box car size).

Aaron Z

 

[RobS]

A little oops in Michigan Saturday. High winds brought some power lines down and a train found them!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1244604789368157

 

[MossRoad]

Yikes!

 

[CobyRupert]

A little oops in Michigan Saturday. High winds brought some power lines down and a train found them!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1244604789368157

Good for the people in the cars that the train is going in that direction instead of the other way.