Working rail roads and their tracks.

[BackRoad]

I got lost in that railroadfan.com link for a while...

Live in Northern PA...great fun searching the PA state shortline links.

Some of the excursion rails...with their 1920's steam locomotives...great stuff!!!

Saddened with seeing some of the history on other less fortunate locomotives from the 50's...scrapped...out of service...etc.

Lots of shortlines listed...suspect owning one is more money pit than profit center...without real freight demand already established.

 

[JethroB]

When some early RRs were built (Transcontinental) its said they some were given a mile of ROW. Was that a mile wide or a mile on either side?

 

[ultrarunner]

Wasn't it alternate sections and dependant on grade...?

From 100' on both sides to 10 squares for mile of grade with 5 alternate on each side.

1/10 US land mass greater than Texas totalling 175 million acres in all.

Go with a friend to hunt in remote Northern CA on land leased from RR and was 640 acre square....

 

[dodge man]

Pioneer Railroad? Around here they own a bunch of junk. They got one set of tracks that was going to rails to trails. I think it has something like a 15 mph speed limit. On a water main project we were the engineers on the contractor dug up their rails where they went through a street. They wanted the city to pay for wrecking their rail line and making it unusable. Keep in mind the rails were covered with asphalt and there was absolutely no rails or ties anywhere else. The line they own here is called the Keokuk Junction. Somebody I know that has to deal with them for easements calls them the Petticoat Junction.

 

[MossRoad]

https://pioneer-railcorp.com/keokuk-junction-railway-company-kjry/

 

[MossRoad]

Pioneer Railroad? Around here they own a bunch of junk. They got one set of tracks that was going to rails to trails. I think it has something like a 15 mph speed limit. On a water main project we were the engineers on the contractor dug up their rails where they went through a street. They wanted the city to pay for wrecking their rail line and making it unusable. Keep in mind the rails were covered with asphalt and there was absolutely no rails or ties anywhere else. The line they own here is called the Keokuk Junction. Somebody I know that has to deal with them for easements calls them the Petticoat Junction.

Keokuk Junction Railway - RailroadfanWiki

Train speeds are 10 mph max except between Rawalts and Kolbe, 20 mph max, and Smithfield to the Spoon River, also 20 mph.

 

[bcp]

A comment about land grants to the railroads.

From:
How did 19th-century government land grants to the railroads work? - True West Magazine

"Land grants had a big payoff for the federal government, as the railroad had to give the government reduced rates to ship. When this expired in 1946, the railroads had repaid the government at 10 times the value of the land."

Bruce

 

[dodge man]

When Keokuk Junction first acquired a lot of their miles of tracks they had two guys fly around in a helicopter and they would land and tell people they were on their row and demand lease money. They did this to a business in Good Hope Illinois. It’s kind of funny because I had just finished a boundary survey a few days before. The owner showed them my survey plat and they said “never mind”, got back in the chopper and flew off.

 

[BravoXray]

There is a line through Elkhart, IN that is in use a couple of times per week but in a very poor state of repair. You can see what happens when they don't keep it up. The ties sink in, fines fill in, weeds grow and the ties deteriorate. Here's a video of a section very close to where I used to work. I would walk this section at lunch on occasion. Also, this guy has some great railroad videos!

I just saw them crossing Jackson Blvd. this evening about 6:30PM with a string of hopper cars. It's a good thing their power is a couple old Geeps that are fairly light, though I'm sure those hoppers are loaded to the limit. I have always expected to see those on the ground sometime, given the state of the roadbed and ties.
I understand how they are allowed to deteriorate over the years, I'm sure bringing that relatively short amount of track up the snuff would cost millions of dollars, way more than the revenue it generates.
The Pumpkin Vine line ran through my grandfather's farm northeast of Goshen. I still remember the local that would trundle through every morning and afternoon after dropping and picking loads and empties in Middlebury and Shipshewana. At least they converted it to the Pumpkin Vine Trail years ago. Somewhere, I still have a couple of spikes and tie plates I scavenged when they tore up the tracks. All but about a mile or so between Goshen and Shipshewana was able to be retained in the trail.
It's sad to see these short lines fall into decay and be abandoned.

 

[Hay Dude]

Saw something really weird this morning. East Penn Rail came to their 4 lane highway rail crossing and removed both crossing signal towers.
They have not been replaced as of the end of the day. Could be a simple replacement, but you would think new ones would have been delivered already and be put in immediately, right?