Posted on 04/29/2023 11:56:54 AM PDT by John Leland 1789
Here in south-central Indiana we are watching the rail tracks removed throughout our region of the state.
There is, . . . no, was a rail line 500 feet from the Indiana house I bought in 1997. At that time we enjoyed watching and hearing two fairly long freight trains pass us each day.
We went to the Philippines for a missionary tour, and when we returned (2004), there was no more rail traffic. But after several months, one day, to our surprise, we heard the rail-crossing bells, then a train horn, then we saw a lengthy automobile carrier train move from the east to the west. We watched every moment of its passing. And THAT was the last we have seen of a train through town since early 2005.
Lately machinery has been pulling up the rails and ties, and the beds are being fairly leveled out. Ours is a rural town with fewer than 1,500 postal addresses in our ZIP code.
Would they be planning to asphalt some of the lines for walking/biking trails? I don't think that they would go through that expense out here in the country, although, at 67 years old, I might bicycle the 9 miles into Salem during good weather.
I haven't found any satisfactory information yet, even searching the WEB. But if someone has some leads for my, I'd be very interested indeed.
The US Heartland has been hollowed out, so there is probably little business for the railways where you are.
There has likely been an increase in efficiency in how rail is used.
Where is Willie Green?
If you want to send me a Freepmail message with a general location where you live, I can do some research on this for you. I work as a civil engineer and transportation infrastructure planning/design is my specialty, so I usually know where to track down information about trends and developments in the railroad and trucking industries.
Such as it ever was.
Airports too, so many near misses.
I think much of it is smart phones because most everybody is distracted from job, school— their life.
I don’t think society was ready to handle portable computers.
Too many careless mistakes nowadays in everything, and everywhere.
The only common denominators I see are smart phones and lowered standards.
Trains are longer now than they used to be and this is especially true in flat areas of the country. As Jonty said above the industrial base has also been hollowed out so more intermodal transport has been pushed to the coasts where we import goods (less movement of materials within the nation).
The railroads are still the most cost-effective (and green) way to move goods but the politicians are determined to electrify them sooner or later causing the same disruptions and unforeseen issues that “green energy” does everywhere else.
Let us know what is happening in rail. I’d be interested as well.
Boston’s MBTA subway/trolley system has absolutely gone off the rails.
Probably affirmative action hires
RR tracks become a new bike trail or hiking trail with some catchy name.
The RR company is just getting a jump on the day when the Indiana Transportation Commission outlaws diesel powered trains and requires all trains to be all-electric. It’s easy to rip out all your lines than comply with that diktat.
They are following California’s “lead” on this critical matter.
I do like occasionally watching the trains on Virtual Railfan....
https://www.youtube.com/@VirtualRailfan
Standards are racist!
/S
That’s good information. You should post more about it.
The area behind our neighborhood where I once lived is being made into “rails to trails.” Its a disused line which hasn’t seen rail traffic since the 1980s.
AT LEAST someone in government had the sense to preserve them as public “rights of way” - so nothing is built on them which would preclude them coming back as future rail, pipelines, telecom corridors.
The decline of rail in the last 60 years is fascinating. My great Uncle, born in 1880, as a young teen, used to be able to take this same rail line (buffalo-pittsburgh line) in the morning, travel 35 miles, to drop off milk from his family farm at a dairy in downtown Buffalo, and be back in time to go to school. He said it cost a nickel.
So in 1890, we had fast, efficient, cheap and profitable private commuter rail service - which has been basically eliminated from most cities.
Rail lines come and go all the time. I lived in the White Mountains of Arizona for seven months long ago and my property adjoined the Apache / White Mountain Short Line Railway. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the line. When I went back to visit 20 years later, all the track and ties were gone.
Burlington Northern is doing a major expansion and upgrade of its main lines through Idaho. They are completing a second bridge across Lake Pend Oreille and have added many miles of second track so trains do not need to pull onto sidings to pass. Unfortunately, lots of BNSF traffic is sending low-cost, low-sulfur Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal from Wyoming to China.
Routing of rail lines has changed in my neighborhood. The main rail track which passed by my house and was the key rail-link between Houston and all points Southwest. The rails have been removed and now the same path is The Westpark Toll Road. The railroads now route everything through Dallas to Houston instead of directly to Houston from the Southwest. It has to do, I think, with rail routing efficiency.
The same is true of the rail line between Houston and San Antonio which paralleled I-10. That rail line is now gone.
Consider a 100 car train is about 6000 ft long, more than a mile, some can get up to almost 300 cars, roughly 3 1/2 miles long.
Most likely the results of poor and deferred maintenance and heavier use with longer & heavier trains. Maybe a little deliberate sabotage thrown in as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.