Ghost Railroads of the East

Let's restart our engines, and discuss artifacts, ROW's, histories of Eastern bygones.

I'm not sure it qualifies, since its about to be reactivated under a different flag (Morristown & Erie), but if any of you folks has an interest in the Rahway Valley Railroad, please bear in mind that I'm trying to start a historical society dedicated to it. If you're interested, let me know.

-Alan Binenstock

Central Railroad of Long Island. Sections are still in service by LIRR

Shea Stadium-Floral Park: Abandonned, mostly park, some housing

Floral Park-Franklin av(Garden City): Part of LIRR Hempstead branch

Franklin Av(Garden City)-Endo BLVD: Garden City-Mitchell Field secondary, used only once a year for circus train, though I've heard word that it is used actually as much as once a month by LIRR for storage

Endo BLVD-Bethpage JCT(B tower in Bethpage): Abandonned, western part now Eisenhower park, rest of ROW clear b/c it is now used for LIPA power lines

Bethpage JCT-Old Bethpage: All clear I believe, old turntable pit still in tact I believe, located in Bethpage State Park

Bethpage JCT-Babylon: LIRR central branch, used by LIRR to Montauk on some trains, also used by freight

Babylon-Babylon dock: abandonned, I think it's all gone

Hello,
One of my favorite "ghost" lines is the old Manns Creek Railway in Fayette County, WV. It was a 3' narrow gauge line built by Longdale Iron Company in the late 1800's and was dismantled in 1956. It extended from the town of Sewell, in the New River Gorge 9 miles up the gorge wall and along Manns Creek to the town of Clifftop at the top of the mountain where 10 coal mines and a strip mine operated at different times. Another section of the line ran from a point known as "The Junction" halfway between Sewell and Clifftop and extended to the town of Landisburg and a huge lumber operation (Sewell Lumber Company and later owned by Babcock Lumber Company). The lumber operation ceased in 1930 and most of the property that the railroad operated on was donated to the State of WV and became Babcock State Park. In the 50's Babcock Coal and Coke Company (who bought the railroad and operations form Longdale in the 1920's) sold the operation to Royalty Smokeless Coal Company who built a more modern standard gauge line to Clifftop and new coal operations in Landisburg. Just before the line was scrapped, a railfan trip was made from Clifftop to the Tank Trestle (Horseshoe Trestle) near the junction halfway between Sewell and Clifftop. In 1956, an area scrap dealer came in and cut up three remaining shays, all rolling stock, and removed the rails. The engine house and shop remained until 1965 and were torn down.
Today, Sewell is a ghost town with stone foundations of the buildings remaining. Also remaining is the Manns Creek Railroad stone enginehouse and over 100 coke ovens along the CSX main line. Many parts of the old ROW remain and are used as trails and the access roads. The ROW from Landisburg to Sewell is now used as Park access roads, road to some cabins, and the Sewell road running down into the New River Gorge to Sewell. Another section from near Clifftop to the junction is used as the Narrow Gauge Trail and has a wealth of artifacts remaining including some ties still in place with spikes still in them, pieces of coal, trestle remains, and an old motor car wheelset in a creek along the trail. In Clifftop the old company store where train movements on the line were controlled, still stands. I hiked the line near Clifftop into Westvaco property and collected a piece of coal and some slate. I did not take or disturb any artifacts on park property.
The Manns Creek Railway consisted of 2 Baldwin rod engines, 5 climaxes, and 5 shays at different times. Rolling stock consisted of early coal cars (4 wheeled "Buck Jimmies"), later 8 wheeled side dump wooden hopper cars, log buggies (tanbark cars, flatcars, caboose, supply boxcars were lated built from them), slate cars, and two passenger cars in earlier years.

Here in my little corner of the world (southern Maryland) two lines of note are:

1. The former Baltimore & Potomac (PRR) line that ran from Faulkner to Popes Creek, MD. The line was originally chartered to run from Baltimore to Popes Creek just after the Civil War. In the 1960s, service south of La Plata was suspended by the Penn Central. The line got a reprieve in the late 1960s when PEPCO (the Potomac Electric Power COmpany) built a generating plant further south in Morgantown, MD and the line was extended to serve the power plant. However, the original line to Popes Creek was abandoned. Every day, thousands of vehicles travel on Route 301, crossing the old line which is now just a flat spot in the road. The roadbed is maked by a power line carrying electricity to the crabhouses at Popes Creek.

2. The Washington, Brandywine and Point Lookout branched off from the PRR in Brandywine (Prince George's County) and ran as far soth as Mechanicsville in St. Mary's County. While never a profitable line, it was extended to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Lexington Park during WWII. This line ran until the mid-1960's when the base started receiving aviation fuel by barge. The line was torn up in the early 1970s but the roadbed is still visible paralleling MD. routes 5/235 to Lexington Park, once again serving as a right-of-way for power lines for a goodly portion of it's route.

Two of my favorites are the
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes in ME (much of which ROW still very visible)
and
Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis (B&A) which is sorely needed again along the US50 corridor. (wouldn't hurt for the ole Short Line to B'more to reappear either)

My favorite ghost...Wilkes Barre & Eastern. This little coal hauler brought loaded hoppers down the steep grade into Stroudsburg Pa. Lucky the only thing going uphill was empties. The WB&E went under about 1937. Much of the ROW remains, a portion as a hiking trail around Camelback Mtn.

Here are a couple of really arcane relics that only the hardest-core RR archeologists would want to explore:

First is the famous, or infamous, South Pennsylvania Railroad -- the projected mainline across southern Pennsylvania between Pittsburgfh and Harrisburg. This line, as most historians know, was William H. Vanderbilt's planned invasion of the PRR's mainline territory, and was to include 9 tunnels as well as much heavy grading through the succession of mountains and valleys en route. Work was stopped when it was about 60% complete, and the route eventually became the route of the original Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Many people assume that the Turnpike was built on the old rail alignment, but this isn't so. The Turnpike completed seven of the tunnels, but otherwise it used more direct alignments, since it could use a 3% maximum grade instead of the railroad's standard of 1%. So all through Fulton, Bedford, and Somerset counties one can find evidence of the line's grading, including cuts, fills, and culverts. One of the better-known relics is a large fill at Geiger, PA, three miles north of Somerset, where the SP crossed the B&O's Johnstown branch. At this point the SP had to build a short tunnel for the B&O to pass under its fill, and the tunnel still remains.

The other is the so-called "Tapeworm" railroad (it never had a formal name), built in the late 1830s by the State of Pennsylvania at the behest of the politician and entrepreneur Thaddeus Stevens. This line was to run from Gettysburg to a connection with the B&O somewhere west of Hagerstown. (At that time the B&O was planning to follow the north (or east) bank of the Potomac.) It was graded and almost all its stone bridges and culverts were completed between Gettysburg and the west side of Jacks Mountain. Like the South Penn, work was then stopped.

The Western Maryland took over the route in the 1880s and used the right-of-way between Gettysburg and Orrtanna, PA, including the original 1830s-era stone bridges -- all of which remain in CSX service today. Between Orrtanna and the summit of Jacks Mountain, the WM used a different, and steeper alignment, while the Tapeworm route followed a more roundabout path generally to the west and north of the existing line. Several large stone culverts remain on this route, and in wintertime the two grades can be clearly seen on the east side of Jacks Mountain.

I've posted this on the previous versions of this board. In northern NJ there are several ghost railroads. In northern Passaic County the remains of the EL Greenwood Lake Branch can be seen from Pompton Lakes north to Ringwood. From Pompton Lakes north to the Wanaque Reservoir dam in Wanaque the roadbed is used for the Wanaque Reservoir pipeline. In Wanaque the roadbed is still visible, but in many places has been built upon. The bridge abutments across the Wanaque River at the Reservoir dam are still visible. Once in Ringwood the roadbed is used for access roads for Wanaque Reservoir maintenance and security vehicles.

Just over the border from Ringwood in Orange County, NY the roadbed of the Sterling RR can be seen paralleling Sterling Mine Road. If you travel north on Sloatsburg Road from Ringwood into NY you will eventually crest the only hill on that road. Once over that hill, look to your right and you will see the roadbed through the trees. Just as the road curves away from the roadbed you can see a telegraph pole with several insulators still on it. If you are coming from the other direction, just as you start to go up the hill, look to the right, you will see the roadbed curving through the trees. The Sterling RR roadbed is most visible during the winter months when the trees are bare.

On the previous version of this board there were some great photos posted on the L&HR thread. Not only were pictures of the abandoned L&HR and DL&W Cutoff posted but there were some excellent pictures of the Warren RR and Sussex RR posted as well. Hopefully they will get reposted.

I don't know if it qualifies but the Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad was graded the entire route from Millersville, MD to Drum Point near Solomons. Most of it parallels MD route 2 from Lothian to Sunderland and then parallels MD Route 4 from Sunderland to Lusby. Numerous cuts and fills are visible. Its reason for being was to build a port at Drum Point to rival the Port of Baltimore. I understand every time someone got the project started the powers in Baltimore found some way to stop it. The last attempt which produced the graded right of way was in the 1890's.
There was also the Chesapeake Beach Railway which ran about 35 miles out of Northeast Washington DC to Chesapeake Beach MD through Prince Georges, Anne Arundle and Calvert Counties, MD. MD Route 260 to Chesapeake Beach runs on a portion of the ROW.

Trackbolt

1) DL & W Cutoff - I have walked this entire line
2) Rahway Valley RR - I have walked most of this line
3) PRR - A & S - This is then next line I am going to explore

CarterB wrote:Two of my favorites are the
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes in ME (much of which ROW still very visible)
and
Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis (B&A) which is sorely needed again along the US50 corridor. (wouldn't hurt for the ole Short Line to B'more to reappear either)

CSX Vet posted a comprehensive piece on the WB&A/ B&A on the Ghost Interurbans & Trolleys Thread. It is excellent and I commend it to anyone interested in the WB&A.

Indeed the post about the WB&A was quite informative!!
I vaguely remember riding the B&A when my father was posted at Camp Meade during WWII.

How about Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway, in particular that 150 mile portion running south from Miami to Key West. The road was completed in 1912 and was regarded at the time as the eighth wonder of the world. Following a massive hurricane in 1935 all but a short section of track was washed away and the railroad folded. As a late New Deal effort, the Federal government decided to extend US 1 south from Miami to Key West using the ROW and bridges constructed for Flagler's road.

Although the highway was completely rebuilt in the late 1970's and 1990's, almost all of the original highway-RR ROW is intact, including the famous Seven Mile Bridge. One of my favorite relics is the bridge going south from Marathon that had traffic running one direction on the deck proper and the other direction across the top of the bridge. That had to have been quite an experience when a tractor trailer was involved.

Although access to most of the original bridges has been cut off, a portion of Flagler's Seven Mile Bridge is still used to allow access to a small key perhaps a mile or so south from the northern end of the bridge.

How about the Rockaway Valley Line? It connected with the CNJ at White House, ran through Old Wick, above Gladstone, Ralston (down the hill from Mendham) and ended without ever connecting with the DL&W near Morristown. It folded up some time around 1913.