Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

Otherwise known as the Cooktown Railway , The Cooktown to Laura line of Queensland Rail was an isolated railway line located in the far northern part of the Australian state, built between 1885 and 1888. The line was built following a gold rush, but by the time the line was complete, the area was in an economic downturn. Although the Australian Parliament had authorized a 48km extension of the line from Laura, it was never built, other than a bridge to nowhere over the Laura River, which was used occasionally for excursion trains, but nothing else. Bridge remains of the "bridge to nowhere" over the Laura River , near the site of Laura Village in Queensland. Image: Cape York Australia The line had numerous bridges in addition to the one over the Laura River. This one, over the Normanby River, is pictured below. Cooktown-to-Laura line crossing the Normanby River . It closed in the early 20th century, before being reopened under railmotor power in 1927. It closed permanently in...

The Montana Wyoming and Southern Railroad was a short-line railroad in Carbon County, MT, completed in 1906 between Bridger, MT (where it connected with the Northern Pacific Railway ), and Washoe, MT, 23 miles southwesterly. It also served nearby Eagle, MT via a branch line. Yesteryear Depot 1930 image by Paul Eilenburger via SteamLocomotive It was built to be bought out by the NP, leaving investors with great returns, however it remained independent throughout its life, as NP did not want to deal with promoter Frank Hall, who had built an earlier competing line to the Northern Pacific.  Line of the Montana Wyoming & Southern on our Abandoned & Out-of-Service Railroad Lines Map Given that the line's only connection to the rest of the US rail network was through the NP, they nonetheless retained significant indirect control of the line. Map and caption from Something of a nuisance value: The Montana Wyoming & Southern Railroad, 1905-1953 The high grade coal of the area n...

The São Paulo Railway (or St. Paul's Railroad in English) was first chartered in 1859 was hailed as an engineering marvel for its time. ( Right of way ) Serra Viaduct Incline  old Antique Vintage Print - Harper's Weekly, 1868 It began at Santos, a port south of São Paulo, Brazil, running twelve miles north to Piassaguera. From there, it headed to Paranapiacaba by a steep grade using cable power, before reaching the plateau, and once again relying on adhesion to make its way to São Paulo and eventually Jundiaí. Map of the São Paulo Railway, both abandoned and still in-service segments. The cable system was replaced by a rack-and-pinion railway in 1974. Serra Viaduct. Image: Marcus Marcellus, Google Photos The original right of way has been abandoned, but the line itself is still in service as part of the nationalized Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima network. (RFFSA) One of the highlights of the old right of way was its many tunnels and viaducts. The most famous, Ser...

In 1944, the Federal government built the Ford City Drive Bridge and interchange, along with a companion structure on Cicero Avenue to the west, to assist with the large amount of traffic generated from shift changes and other activity at the Dodge-Chicago Plant.  The bridge served traffic over Pulaski Road, and was instrumental in bringing traffic to and from the plant during World War II, and shoppers postwar, but has in recent decades become blighted and does not serve a significant amount of traffic anymore. The bridge is so intertwined with the history of the area that when explaining its history, that its almost easy to forget about. This should have qualified the bridge for historic status, and could have been rehabbed, however as of late 2020, it has been demolished. Despite its demolishment, its still easily viewable on Google Maps . Image: Nathan Holth, 2011 via HistoricBridges . The Dodge-Chicago Plant was used to build aircraft engines for the B-29 bomber as part of t...

In any industry, media preservation is an ongoing issue, particularly when it comes to film and photography. For example, many early Hollywood films have been lost to history. To its credit, the railroad industry has been quite proactive about keeping its history preserved, at least when it comes to the largest companies and routes, as have the numerous historical societies that have existed long before the digital age. That said, much of the history of smaller short line railroads can be much tougher to come by, some of it is all but gone. It was only this week that a user clued me into a small railroad in the Chicago area I had no idea existed; The Midlothian and Blue Island Railway . Certainly, given the size of the ever-changing rail network, railroad historians have had their work cut out for them keeping up with the changes. The internet and digital media have been a fantastic tool to this end. Without it, my map of abandoned rights-of-way couldn't exist, at least...

The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad began in 1869, creating some of the longest lines in the state, including the now-abandoned Cowboy Line between Norfolk and Chadron, NE. The company also expanded into Wyoming and South Dakota, especially in the Black Hills area.  Image: Fremont Elkhorn & Missouri Valley 4-8-0 Mastodon Above Nevada Gulch on the Portland Line (circa 1900)   The larger  Chicago & Northwestern Railway  acquired the company and completely integrated the system in 1903. Most of its rights of way have since been abandoned, but the line north of Chadron, NE remains in service to this day.

The Embarcadero Freeway , also known as CA-480, was a freeway located in San Francisco, first constructed in 1959. Planned to be part of the Interstate Highway System, originally proposed as a connection to US 101 and US/40-50 in 1947, the Embarcadero was proposed as I-480. When it became clear the entire freeway wouldn't be built, the I-480 designation was removed, converting it into a State Highway. View of the freeway, facing north near Howard Street. ( America's Canceled Highways )  According to the Congress for New Urbanism, "San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway was originally designed to connect the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge but was never completed. The Embarcadero only succeeded in cutting off the city from the waterfront and running long ramps deep into the neighborhood fabric. In the most used sections, traffic on the Embarcadero reached well past 100,000 vehicles per day." Image: SF Chronicle , "Vista views of a section section of the Emb...