Rail roads and their tracks.

[bcp]

Old with raised brake hoses, new with conventional.

Bruce

 

[Hay Dude]

I am one of 3 bidders on a very very small “rails to trails” project.
SEPTA has condemned one of the 3 railroads in my tiny town. It was a freight line that originated at the Delaware River waterfront and made its’ way through Wawa and the rest of Delaware County.

The current land/easement owner put in a request to have 1,000 feet or rails removed to turn the rail berm into a raised walking trail.

I remember when freight cars stood proudly on these very rails!

I have submitted a bid for phase 1. Phase 1 is removal of rails (to be done by SEPTA). Bid includes removal of 60 medium sized trees, removal & disposal of RR ties and related track debris and environmentally responsible disposal of 1,000 feet of RR ties and digging out 60 tree stumps and their disposal.

There are 6 phases. This is just the clearing phase.
Submitting bid tomorrow. I do not have a high confidence level of getting the job, but I do a lot of work for them already, so you never know.
Larger, unionized companies are bidding against me, so I have my doubts.

Sadly, another rust belt railroad bites the dust, and America gets one step more wussified.

But hey, we still have active railroads here, too. lol

On edit: I hope this is deemed “on topic” by the OP. I realize it’s not copied & pasted photos of fancy railroads. Just let me know if I am “off topic” and I will delete the posts and start another thread.

 

[gstrom99]

A "news photo" type image showing CN's new ore cars along with veteran Missabe cars being scrapped. The DM&IR cars certainly have paid for themselves many times over. Proctor, MN - March 13, 2024 View attachment 857063

Nice. Do you know who built the new cars?

 

[ArlyA]

I was searching for video's or photos of the rail yard in Igloo and I came across this film taken of BNSF trains passing through Igloo and Edgemont SD where I lived. This is all double main libn ribbon rails here and when I lived there in 1980, there was a steel gang there laying down some. They came with they own train they lived in it. The guy who made the video does like his meadowlarks.

 

[ArlyA]

Nice. Do you know who built the new cars?

No I don't, but I did expand that photo hoping to see but could not make it out.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I am not sure if anyone has posted thid yet but I always thought it would be cool to have one of these to explore RR tracks.

Maybe use an ebike for a bit of help. The problem with abandoned RR tracks around here is they VERY quickly get taken back by nature. There is a privately owned rail line along the Hiawassee river in TN that I think would be fun to explore with one of these things. Travel along the tracks and find some good fishing holes. There is actually a thing called the Hiawassee Loop where the RR track doubles back over itself. Here is a video about it.

 

[gstrom99]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

Yeah, I know. But I promise I will be long gone by the time the cops get there. You know what I say about that. Screw them! "Thier" RR track goes through MY national forest. They are going to give me passage on it whether they like it or not.

 

[Hay Dude]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

Also looks like a way to get your chicklets knocked out

 

[ArlyA]

On the cover of USS corp magazine. Back when railroads were essential in the ore mines as haul trucks were tiny. Here an Oliver Iron Mining steamer switches ore cars for loading with red ore at Hull-Rust.
USS kept its rail network at Minntac long after trucks dominated everywhere else!