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  • Any train, any track, any time?

  • This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.
This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #602818  by RussNelson
 
trainsinmaine wrote:I love the photo. Man, it's been a while since THAT line has seen a train.

Where is it?
It's one of three sidings that used to serve Barrett stone quarry in Norwood, NY. Vermont Rail Systems is now operating that railroad as the New York and Ogdensburg, and they've recuscitated one of the sidings. Put in new ties, cut back the brush, and they've taken at least *some* deliveries of stone.

There's a whole Flickr group dedicated to photos like this: http://flickr.com/groups/vanishing-rr-tracks/
 #756699  by airman00
 
Saw those old train tracks photographs, and it got me thinking...I know this might be an odd question, but are those tracks (at least some of them) abandoned? What I mean to say is, if you came across an old set of tracks running through say a wooded area, could you buy them?

It used to be a railroad right of way and if they just abandoned them and didn't bother to take tracks away, how would you find out who owns them and if they're available for sale? Get enough people involved and you could save an old set of tracks, even if it was just a mile or two, similiar to saving say an old caboose from the scrap heap.

Some of those pictures show rails that if you cleaned up all the underbrush, you'd have some halfway decent rails. You could start your own railway preservation organization that way. People always start a railway preservation group for say, saving an old train car or an old engine. But what about the rails themselves?
 #757005  by RussNelson
 
Well, I think that's WHY sometimes the rails are left in place -- because nobody really knows who owns them. If somebody isn't paying taxes on the land, then the county will take possession, and then they'll own it. Or if the property was an easement, it reverts to the previous property owner. But the rails ON the land? If a company went bankrupt, they belong to the company's creditors. But what if the company's assets were wound down, the rails forgotten, and the company dissolved? Technically, they still belong to the company's creditors, but I'm sure that there's a provision in the law for abandoned property to go to some governmental entity, which then tries to find the owner, and if no owner can be found, they're sold by the government and the money is put into the general fund. I know that it works that way for abandoned funds in a bank.
 #1237112  by mmi16
 
RussNelson wrote:Well, I think that's WHY sometimes the rails are left in place -- because nobody really knows who owns them. If somebody isn't paying taxes on the land, then the county will take possession, and then they'll own it. Or if the property was an easement, it reverts to the previous property owner. But the rails ON the land? If a company went bankrupt, they belong to the company's creditors. But what if the company's assets were wound down, the rails forgotten, and the company dissolved? Technically, they still belong to the company's creditors, but I'm sure that there's a provision in the law for abandoned property to go to some governmental entity, which then tries to find the owner, and if no owner can be found, they're sold by the government and the money is put into the general fund. I know that it works that way for abandoned funds in a bank.
How much do you want to spend in title searching the land - there is title to the land somewhere, it only has to be found.
 #1238579  by Ken W2KB
 
RussNelson wrote:Well yeah, a title search will tell you who owns the *land*, but it won't tell you who owns the tracks. There's no strong association between the ownership of the two. Although ... possession is 9/10s of the law.
Possession is zero tenths of the law. The 9/10ths phrase is an urban legend. That said, improvements on the property such as buildings, fencing, and to this subject, the rails follow the title to the land. So once the easement is extinguished, the improvements become the property of the fee land owner. So in the example of the railroad, or its receiver in a bankruptcy proceeding, the railroad or receiver would have title to and opportunity to remove the rails until such time as the easement was extinguished.