Tracks through a backyard

Ive seen two picture of it so far but I can assume there are more right???
Two examples:
From the EBT:
http://www.totalracing.com/ebt/large/P8110033.JPG
and from somewhere else:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 23#p800391

There's also the Poughkeepsie State Hospital. The coal power plant tracks are still in place ... and they nearly go through someone's backyard. There's about 500' worth of tracks there. Be plenty of fun to cut away the brush and run a railcar or handcar back and forth.

The former DSS&A Calumet branch (abandoned ~1980) ran through several vacation home back- and front yards between Chassell and Houghton, MI.

The WAG had a side track serving, if recall is correct, a feed mill in Knoxville, PA. The track went right across a front yard almost close enough to the front steps of the house for someone to simply step right off the loco onto the steps.

The Willamette Shores Trolley (former SP Jefferson Street Branch) between Lake Oswego and downtown Portland (OR) doesn't just go through backyards - it goes through FRONT yards.

There is a residential condo complex in John's Landing where the condo passes through the greenspace within the complex, within feet of several condos' patios.

Further south in the Dunthorpe neighborhood, the Streetcar tracks pass within feet of several homes' front doors, and through several driveways with barely enough room to park a car between the rails and the garage door.

However, in all fairness, most of the homes were built after SP freight operations ended in the late '70s/early '80s.

The Oregon Electric Railway's route through northeast Salem also takes it pretty close to quite a few homes, and I'd qualify some as "backyard railroads"; along with the P&W's Toledo District wye in Albany passing through, or alongside, at least one home's side yard. However there is usually some distinction between "yard" and "railroad", but not much.

Sorry, don't have pics, but I remember the Flemington branch of the CNJ running through back yards in Flagtown and Neshanic.

Also the Bel-Del of the PRR stills runs through front yards in Miford, NJ(currently OOS).

on the nysw the branch to garden state paper ran through backyards, and i was invited to stop, on more than one occasion, to have a hotdog and soda, at a backyard barbque. on the rvrr the monsanto branch did the same thing, running through the neighborhood, in the backyards. that p&w toledo branch wye at albany slices through a guys yard, close enough that when a less than intelligent crew attempted to drag a train around the wye, with no air flowing to the rear of the train, it stringlined, and hit the house, knocking in a wall, and moving it off of the foundation, as well as crushing a minivan parked out front. the oregon elctric line as it snakes through salem, as mentioned, winds its way through the backyards, allowing all sorts of "behind the scenes" glimpses, into the real lives of salems citizens..... in some yards, the cab of the engine is less than 10 feet from parts of houses and/or garages.

In Framingham,Mass. Cushing Hospital was constructed early in World War II to handle burn cases and soldiers with mental problems. There was a power plant and a double track station with high-level platforms so that patients could be rolled out of hospital cars onto the platform. The hospital closed late 1940s, was reactivated for Korea, closed mid-1950s for good and used as a state geriatric hosptial until early 1990s. Part sold off, balance is a town park. At the southwest corneer not too far off Winter St. you can spot the rails in a grade crossing in the park. You can also find the foundation for the coal trestle. These probably will remain for some time as Town of Framingham has no money to make any big changes in this park. Park near the chapel and go to the diagonally opposite corner of the park. In Ashand until early 1960s people and business on Main Street had a track in their front yards. A track led about a quarter of a mile from Boston & Albany main near original Ashland station location northerly along Main to Lombard Governor Corp. Lombard was in the fortress like stone building where the road abruptly curves.

I just happened upon this topic, and how cool it is!! I sure wish I had tracks in my back yard! I also saw the link to another topic similiar to this and saw the tracks along with even a bridge, again all really cool stuff. Goes to show you just how much railroad was "king" at one point in this country. Kinda sad those days are long over.

Hey just curious, what "develepor" would build a house so close to tracks, abandoned or not? I mean let's assume whatever line in question is built near, could possibly one day be reactivated and bear in mind, in many cases the railroad was there first. If you ask me, not much foresight building so close to rail. And just curious any backyard rails in Northern bergen county?

Wow, this thread brought back an old memory. Growing up in Clifton Heights, PA, a friend of mine had tracks poking through the grass in his yard, which sat about 2 blocks off the former PRR-West Chester line/ now SEPTA Media line. I never saw any map that had it on there. Perhaps it was a siding that went over to a mill way back. Interesting topic!

Up until (IIRC) the 1980s, the PRR had a line down from Plymouth, IN that ran right on the shoreline front yards of VERY ritzy homes on the west shore of Lake Maxinkukee. These homes were and are very expensive lakefront property. If I understand correctly, when the Pennsy abandoned the line, the lakefront ROW reverted back to each owner.

Some of the rail line along the cape cod canal in mass. run in the backyards of some ritzy homes. I can picture some rich guy sitting on his deck with a beautiful view of the canal being disrupted when a stinking trash train rumbles by.

The B&M's Greenville Branch (Peterboro & Shirley R.R.). passed through a few backyards in Townsend, Ma.'s "Harbor" area. Some is still visible today.

The trolley line in Long Branch NJ ran north of and parallel to Broadway, through easements on private property. The line was not allowed to run down the middle of Broadway when built.

The CNJ line that ran from Atlantic Highlands east to the oceanfront ran in front of some ritzy homes on Raritan Bay, on property which I'm sure belonged to those houses before the railroad came along.