Abandoned Railroad Railway

[21incher]

21incher, I've seen that bridge in Poughkeepsie.

Now it's a hiking trail over the river.  So glad they saved it and built a decent bed on it.

[thecfarm]

Yes, I saw that. I was there maybe 10-15 years ago. People were walking across the bridge.

[Walnut Beast]

Looked around a little while checking the deer feeder out at the farm with the old railway and there is an old electrical pole line at one time with the old green and white screw on glass insulators. A numbered sign that could be seen from both ways from briefly looking. No sign of any steel rails.

[Nebraska]

Our "cabin land is a rail road right of way lot that was part of a branch line that ran up to Bonesteel SD, on the Chicago Northwestern railways "cowboy line".  There's an old bridge abutment and the grade is there but it's pretty much grown up to Siberian elm, mulberry and box elder scrub. It has a spot where I wonder if they had a water tank to fill the locomotives.  Just looks  like it made sense the way the grade runs against the hillside as it comes into the little town. There's odd old foundation remnants and an abandoned water line in an odd spot. Old railroad bridge makes a good spot to catch a catfish in the spring when the water is high.

[Stephen1]

Looked around a little while checking the deer feeder out at the farm with the old railway and there is an old electrical pole line at one time with the old green and white screw on glass insulators. A numbered sign that could be seen from both ways from briefly looking. No sign of any steel rails.

The numbered sign is probably a mile post, if it is the same # on both sides. It will be  based from a junction of larger urban centre.

[Ron Wenrich]

I've been at my house for 46 yrs.  When we first moved in, there was an active RR track on the east side of my property for about 1/3 mile.  They used it every Saturday to pick up 5 cars of coal from a crushing operation.  About 35-40 yrs ago, they shut the line down, right after they repaired it with new ties. 

When they tore it out, they recovered all the usable ties and rail.  What wasn't usable, they simply rolled down the sides of the rail bed.  They're still there.  I did manage to get some RR spikes.  I found them useful to put in the ground where my cleanouts are located.  I can find them with a metal detector, if need be.  I recovered a few tie parts that weren't too rotted for some projects.  They're long gone.

I didn't have any ROW in my deed, so I'm not sure if there ever was one for my property.  I was told that they went to adjoining landowners to sell them the land, so I'm under the impression that the RR purchased the land.  There is an old canal from the early 1800s that is nearby and that was all purchased land.  I believe that was probably the way they did business in the 1800s.  There is also some abandoned RR lines that were being built and the companies ran out of money without ever getting into business.

Before rails-to-trails come in, dirt bikes used to run the old railbed.  Unfortunately, some bikers think that all adjoining property is free to ride their bikes.  There were also people who thought that old railbeds were good places to shoot guns.  I do know you hear the bullet wiz past you before you hear the shot.

They started doing rails-to-trails in my county.  But, they had to purchase old railbeds from landowners.  In one instance, they actually purchased the old canal property to put in the trail because a landowner refused to sell the RR bed.  When they did the trail next to me about 10 yrs ago, they invited me to several meetings to explain what they were doing, since I had an adjoining property.  I pretty well understood the process and knew it wouldn't affect me since it was pretty far away from my house. 

[Resonator]

Mileposts were common on railroad lines to measure the distance of track on each line, as said starting at zero at a major junction/terminal. Also before speedometers, the Conductors would time the distance on their pocket watch as they passed mileposts.

and there is an old electrical pole line at one time with the old green and white screw on glass insulators.

That is a most likely what remains of a telegraph line. Long before radios, computers, and cell phones, communication on the railroad was done by telegraph. Railroad employees would send a messages over the wires in Morse code, and each station would hear a stream of dit-dah-dit-dit sounds, de-code it, and reply back in code.

[Ljohnsaw]

I thought I had some pictures... Up past my cabin is Donner Summit. The SPPR has a line (the original Trans Continental) snaking up the Sierras on the west side. Right at the summit, going down to Truckee, they are on the sides of the steep mountains.  Lots of avalanches.  So they built snow sheds.  Originally wood and replaced with massive concrete walls and pre-poured roofs.  They later decided to bore a new tunnel.  It's about 3 miles long, IIRC.  Anyhow, there is several miles of snow sheds winding around that they abandoned.  The ballast is still there but the rails and ties are gone.  Big warning sign for no trespassing but everyone uses it for a hiking trail. Stunning views looking north over Donner lake and easterly toward Truckee.  Right at the beginning is a funny 1/4 mile tunnel through a solid rock peak.  The top of this massive hole is soot-stained from the steam engines.  Just past that is a granite shelf that a hundred or so people gather to watch the 4 of July fireworks on the west shore of Donner lake, about 3 miles away and 2,000 feet lower.  Really neat place.

[Stephen1]

Mileposts were common on railroad lines to measure the distance of track on each line, as said starting at zero at a major junction/terminal. Also before speedometers, the Conductors would time the distance on their pocket watch as they passed mileposts.

and there is an old electrical pole line at one time with the old green and white screw on glass insulators.

That is a most likely what remains of a telegraph line. Long before radios, computers, and cell phones, communication on the railroad was done by telegraph. Railroad employees would send a messages over the wires in Morse code, and each station would hear a stream of dit-dah-dit-dit sounds, de-code it, and reply back in code.

Conductors were in the caboose, would time the mile post to ensure the engineer who runs the engine pulling the train, was not speeding. The Engineer also used mile posts to time his speed. The odd time I would have an engine with a broken speedometer or one that was calibrated wrong, and I would use 10 poles to guesstimate my speed. There are 40 poles to the mile. 60 seconds for 60 mph, or 15 seconds for 10 poles gave a good estimate. Geese its been a while since I thought about all that.  :D

[Walnut Beast]

Love the interesting stories guys! And thanks for answering some questions I didn't know what the heck some of that stuff was for!