Land Access Over Railroad?

[square1]

I used to know a girl in high school that had a private driveway to her parent's house over some RR tracks

I knew a girl from the other side of the tracks in high school too. Did we go to different schools together?

To the OP, sounds like there are some expenses that aren't readily apparent which could be very costly, but you already came to that conclusion.

 

[zing]

You might want to be sure of that. Those RR easements never seem to go away. I remember in the late 1990s when I was looking for my land I found a nice property with an abandoned RR easement on the survey, between the house and the road . Everyone assured me that it was truly dead and nothing to worry about as the railroad would never use it again. I passed on the property for a few reasons, one of them being that IMO if it was really irrelevant it wouldn't have been on the survey. And yep, sure enough they were right that the railroad had no interest in ever using it again, but instead it became part of a local rails-to-trails network. I use the trail myself and the current owners of that house have little privacy because the trail is a bit higher in elevation than the house, one of the major access parking lots is their next door neighbor, and they had to build a gate to keep the trail users off their driveway (which crosses the trail).

Absolutely agree, don't consider anything based on the idea that the railway will just go away. The city of Vancouver, BC is having a heck of a battle with CP Rail over the abandoned Arbutus Rail Corridor. Executive summary:

- The railway was abandoned for so long that residents created private and communitiy gardens along it. Many permanent structures like fences, gazebos, etc. Many there for years totally unchallenged.
- Railway decides they want to get rid of it so they want the city to buy it.
- City decides to be sneaky and says, "We don't have the money, so we won't buy it. I guess we will just keep using it though."
- Railway says "Screw you. If you won't buy it we will use it". Then the railway posted some notices to clear out the gardens and then came along with excavators and cleared it all out. Said they had to "remove vegetation and obstructions along the track to get it and the surrounding infrastructure up to federal operating standards for a rail right-of-way​."
- Nobody believes the railway actually plans to run trains there again, but they showed the city that if it was their property, they could do what they wanted. Trashed decades of work just to prove a point.
- Neither the railway or the city was popular, but the railway doesn't care, because they don't have to get reelected. The only critic they listen to is their shareholders, and they will do anything to anyone to look profitable.

Community gardens ripped up along Arbutus corridor - British Columbia - CBC News

 

[BAP]

If that is an Amtrak corridor, then your chances of getting anything across the right of way are next to nothing. With the newer high speed Amtrak, they won't allow a rail crossing to be added and won't allow power lines overhead and don't like drilling underneath the rails.

 

[MossRoad]

You might want to be sure of that. Those RR easements never seem to go away. I remember in the late 1990s when I was looking for my land I found a nice property with an abandoned RR easement on the survey, between the house and the road . Everyone assured me that it was truly dead and nothing to worry about as the railroad would never use it again. I passed on the property for a few reasons, one of them being that IMO if it was really irrelevant it wouldn't have been on the survey. And yep, sure enough they were right that the railroad had no interest in ever using it again, but instead it became part of a local rails-to-trails network. I use the trail myself and the current owners of that house have little privacy because the trail is a bit higher in elevation than the house, one of the major access parking lots is their next door neighbor, and they had to build a gate to keep the trail users off their driveway (which crosses the trail).

I wish they would have turned it into a rails-to-trails, but they came through, pulled up all of the tracks, took out all of the bridges (except mine for some reason), and sent notice to everyone it was abandoned. County missed a great opportunity. It linked a major city to two smaller towns and a state park.

 

[ericb2400]

subscribed

 

[CurlyDave]

Even if you could get access, I don't think I would want to live in house close to a railroad.

When that train comes rumbling through at 2 A.M. the whole house is going to shake rattle and roll...

 

[zing]

I wish they would have turned it into a rails-to-trails, but they came through, pulled up all of the tracks, took out all of the bridges (except mine for some reason), and sent notice to everyone it was abandoned. County missed a great opportunity. It linked a major city to two smaller towns and a state park.

Sounds like it is not too late. Talk to some neighbours and start a group, then lobby the local politicians and try to get some on board. There is precedent and a lot of experience out there, so contact other rails to trails groups to avoid having to re-invent the wheel. Getting it signed over from the railway to the county or state is just the start. The trail group will still be required to do trail improvements and maintenance, build and repair bridges, etc. That type of trail is a great community resource though and tends to increase property value just by being there. Horseback riding, mountain biking, parents with strollers, cross country skiiers in winter, all use the trails around here.

Be aware though, that like anything there will be politics and arguments. One of the first and biggest will be whether or not the trails wil lbe open to motorized traffic, like atv's and snowmobiles. That is one of the polarizing decisions that has to be made up front by every one of these trail groups.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Even if you could get access, I don't think I would want to live in house close to a railroad.

When that train comes rumbling through at 2 A.M. the whole house is going to shake rattle and roll...

I can vouch for that! My Dad was a Superintendent at a sand dredge when I was a kid, and we lived no more than 100 yards of the track. You (at least I did) get somewhat used to it, but I always woke up when the old steamers broke traction switching out the loaded cars. I would also anticipate today, that if there was a crossing, you could expect a blast on the air horn.

Interesting sidelight...we had lots of rattlers that liked to skulk around at night...guess what happens when a loaded RR car or steam engine runs over a snake!!!

 

[dave1949]

Even if you could get access, I don't think I would want to live in house close to a railroad.

When that train comes rumbling through at 2 A.M. the whole house is going to shake rattle and roll...

True that but it may not be as bad as the constant hum of a busy highway.

I wish we had a decent passenger and freight rail system. While sitting for two hours on I-84 in a 30 mile-long traffic stop near the NY-PA border a couple weeks back I asked myself if we could be doing something any dumber. Half of the traffic was trucks of course. The other half was people traveling in cars without many good alternatives.

I used to enjoy driving but anymore given the typical conditions, not so much. Boarding a train, relaxing, enjoying the scenery would be a welcome alternative for me.

This CSX train yard in North Baltimore, OH is an example of how rail freight could be modernized and speed up the handling.

North Baltimore rail yard expected to boost business in NW Ohio - Hometownstations.com-WLIO- Lima, OH News Weather Sports

"They can pick up and reshuffle the trains, take the containers off of one and put it on another," said Michael Ward, President of CSX. "So, it's a very sophisticated mixing center if you will."

At peak the rail yard is expected to serve about 30 trains a day. Two million containers of goods are expected to pass through the terminal each year.

"What we're able to do with this is bring in train loads from Boston, New York, Norfolk, and Baltimore and bring them in here and combine them into big trains," said Ward.

Containers can also be taken from or put onto semis and transported to nearby towns.

 

[orezok]

Back in another century... when I was probably 22 years old, I worked for a construction company that got a project to build a truck stop in Sweetwater Texas. They sent me out there to be the Field Engineer (aka known as go-fer to the Superintendent). I was a green kid fresh out of college and probably the lowest boy on the totum pole!

I don't know how big Sweetwater was at that time, but there wasn't a single apartment or room for rent in town. There was an old trailer park just out side of town so I checked there. Nope, nothing available but they told me that there was a roller skating rink down the road that had a couple of trailer spaces.

I went to the rink and sure enough they said they had one space available. My company arranged to have a trailer (single wide) brought in from Midland. I was going to be SINGLE WIDE TRAILER TRASH :cool2:

Now the fun part. The space was behind the rink and about 20' from a railroad siding. OK... siding... no big deal, but about once a week a train would come up the siding at 2:00 AM and the engines would stop right next to the trailer and sit for 15 or 20 minutes. I don't know if they had to pull off onto the siding to let another train go by or what.

You have no idea how much the ground shakes right next to an idleing locomotive.