Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

If you are interested in the history of railroads and industry in Atlanta, you might want to visit the Murphy Triangle . This area, located southwest of downtown Atlanta, is a historically significant railroad center, where two major railroads, the Southern Railway and the Beltline, intersected. Out of this intersection grew a substantial center of industry, ranging from lumber and metal to oil and wire. The Murphy Triangle also served as a major node for the State Farmers Market , a 1941 complex of 10 long, low sheds with gable roofs, where farmers and vendors sold their produce and goods, the Hanson Motor Works, and the Nabisco factory. A shed at the old Atlanta Farmers' Market provided shelter to farmers' crops. (Patrickbatl photo, Wikipedia Commons) As part of the Atlanta Beltline project, the Murphy Triangle is being converted from an industrial area into a 20 acre destination known as Murphy Crossing. According to the Beltline  site, "Murphy Crossing is a key 20+ ac...

There's a small but amazing looking heritage railway line in Japan that mostly runs along a bridge that no longer features other railway traffic after an earthquake: It is known as the Amaterasu Railway , and the more you learn about it, the more fun this line seems to be! I hope I get the opportunity to visit it someday. Open air "Super-Kart" trains that run along the route to the bridge . (Image: Sora News 24) The Amaterasu Railway runs in Takachiho, Japan, and takes riders on a roughly 30 minute train ride along a 2 mile stretch of track along the former Takamori Station and the Takamore Bridge of the Minamiaso Railway. " Amaterasu " is the name of a Shinto sun goddess in Japanese mythology, and one can certainly see how this mythology plays out over the bridge and scenery that encompass the railway line. One of the Amaterasu Railway's "Super Kart" open-air trains over the Takachico Bridge. (Image: TAR Inc.) Originally part of the Japanese Nati...

Keeping up with the recent past regarding blogs, here's our trip to the East Troy Railroad Museum on June 6th of last year! East Troy, WI was the westernmost stop on the electric railway from Milwaukee, known as the  Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company . Electric railway history in East Troy, WI dates back to nearly the turn of the 20th century in 1907, when electric railway building was booming across much of the United States, but especially in the urbanized sections of the Northeast, Midwest and Western US. Using electric motive power, this disorganized system nonetheless allowed commuters to connect to a major city from rural areas, and even inter-city connections via both steam and electric railways.  A post card I picked up from the museum of the East Troy Museum Car #24. In Milwaukee's case, one could hop on to the MER&L Railway from East Troy and connect to Milwaukee. From there, you could connect to the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad ...

While Silverton, CO is most famous as the terminus for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad , the town was a terminus for three abandoned railroad lines which ran to points north. During the operation of these lines, the Durango & Silverton was the Denver & Rio Grande's Silverton Branch , which came into service in 1882. Nope, not this one! Image: D&S 481, c.1980. FRRandP Photo Collection The Silverton Railroad ran from Silverton to Ironton, CO between 1888-1926. It, along with the other two abandoned lines discussed in today's blog were owned by Otto Mears to reach various mines in the area north of Silverton. According to DRGW.net, "Mears' intention for the Silverton Railroad was to eventually reach Ouray. The sheer ruggedness of the north slope of Red Mountain Pass made the route very hostile to railways. Mears' originally surveyed route - his toll road - had sections of 19% grade, making it very unsuitable for anything but possib...

The Old Colony and Newport Railwa y was the product of a merger between two railroad charters in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The Old Colony and Fall River Railroad merged with the Newport and Fall River Railroad, which had chartered a railroad running from Newport, RI to the Massachusetts state line. This merger allowed the line to continue to Fall River, MA, which it began doing so in 1864. Steam engine along the Newport Branch. Image: Old Colony & Newport Railway In 1865, with the acquisition of the Dighton and Somerset Railroad , provided a direct connection to Boston via Braintree, MA. It, along with Cape Cod Railroad , merged in 1872 to become the Old Colony Railroad , which it remained until the company was leased to the New York New Haven & Hartford in 1893. Image: "Two ladies are waiting at Middletown Station for the train to Newport." Trains Rhode Island Traffic along the Newport Branch began to decline post World War I. Bus and automobile...

The Rio Grande Railroad ran from Brownsville, TX to Port Isabel, TX, and was first completed in 1872 as a narrow gauge railway. It functioned primarily as a freight line to transport goods from the coast into northern Mexico. "Rio Grande Train: oldest Railroad in Texas. Built 1868." NOTE: TSHA gives an 1872 date, and that's the one we're using. It was also far from the oldest railroad in Texas. Image:  Texas Postcards "The Rio Grande was the only railroad in Texas and one of the few in the United States to be built to a track gauge of forty-two inches. Its route was relatively direct from Brownsville to the coast but required fifteen bridges, including a 15,550-foot trestle across the Badilla Grande." (Texas State Historical Association) The line defaulted in 1910 but was reorganized, and moved its track northward, avoiding the coastal areas that had left the road highly vulnerable to hurricanes and floods. It was converted to standard gauge in 1925, but t...

The Sumpter Valley Railway ran between Baker City, OR and Prairie City, OR. Part of the line used an earlier, unbuilt Union Pacific Railroad right of way for a Denver to the Pacific Coast line. Construction first began in 1890, the same year the first trains began running. ( Right of way ) It was primarily an operation for hauling logs to a sawmill at Baker City, but in addition to logging, the line also carried passengers and other revenue service. By 1910, it reached its full extent south to Prairie City. It wouldn't be long before automobile and trucking competition would prove too much for the line. Just 23 years after reaching Prairie City, the line abandoned the road south of Sumpter. By 1947, all but an industrial operation in Baker City remained of the line. Sumpter Valley Railway Company Number 16 Today,  a heritage line  uses the original right of way between  Sumpter and McEwen , with the rest of the line abandoned. A small part of the former road is now under...

The Cedarhurst Cut-off is one of the abandoned branches of the Long Island Railroad . Incorporated as the New York and Rockaway Railroad  in 1871, the abandoned section began near present day Laurelton Station and continued south in between Lansing and Edgewood Aves, crossing a bridge at North Woodmere Park, continuing down to Cedarhurst. The branch has been abandoned and rebuilt twice, creating a rather complicated history of the relatively obscure line. It was first abandoned after the LIRR took control in 1876, it was rebuilt in 1905, but was never put into revenue service and instead was only used to route equipment.  Thirteen years later, it was abandoned again in 1918. It was rebuilt yet again in 1928 as a LIRR ploy to protect their right-of-way from development, but the branch was nonetheless considered redundant, and it was abandoned for good in 1934. Despite not having a revenue train in the last 100 years, and not any development since before World War II, there are...

The US railroad network is an engineering marvel. And just as important to the industry as the rails themselves are its rolling stock. After all, without railcars, the rails would be nothing but iron. But the demand for railcars is not constant, and different kinds of cars are needed at different points of the year. While the exact number of railcars in service in North American railroads and holding companies isn't known, it's about 1.6 million. On any given day however, about 900,000 won't move . While many of these are simply waiting in large railyards, many more are redundant at certain points of the year, and yet will be needed in the future. Thus, there is a market for train tracks to hold excess cars. While many of these can be stored away in yards, an alternative to placing a line out of service or abandoning it outright is to lease the space and store railcars and other rolling stock on it. However, the practice isn't without controversy. Some of these c...

There are numerous online resources for almost anything you could want to know about railroad history. That being said, there are still some questions that I've been unable to find a definitive answer to, and I'm not alone. An old  Ghan  Locomotive. Image:  RadioMuseum.org For example, it's quite easy to find information on the longest train trip in the world, the  Trans-Siberian Express.   But what is the longest stretch of  abandoned  railroad right of way in the world?  The answer is hard to come by, because of several reasons, mostly in how one defines "abandoned". This even comes into play on this list, as most lines are abandoned piecemeal, and some stretches can reactivate over time. Thus I'm not sure if I'll ever have a definitive answer to that question, but in my time mapping the world, I've come across five lines (and one incomplete line) that are among the world's longest stretch of abandoned right of way. It would...