Abandoned rail lines
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Its a sad situation. The hobos don't ride the train any more. Illegal besides.
The 18 wheelers, have took a lot of the small, and short runs.
The trains still run the big loads, long haul. Coal, special chemicals. Some gravel. Some new cars, to the dealerships. Some lumber.
The R/R ties have rotted. The bridges need repair. Expensive to fix.
I really miss them.
N
Its a sad situation. The hobos don't ride the train any more. Illegal besides.
The 18 wheelers, have took a lot of the small, and short runs.
The trains still run the big loads, long haul. Coal, special chemicals. Some gravel. Some new cars, to the dealerships. Some lumber.
The R/R ties have rotted. The bridges need repair. Expensive to fix.
I really miss them.
N
I think the Trucking Industry and their lobbyist have taken control. It's too bad, one train can easily pull 100 53' trailers. But I'm kind of a train dork..@azweig
I'm a train nut myself. And what happened to them is really complex and bewildering.
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Its a sad situation. The hobos don't ride the train any more. Illegal besides.
Always was illegal. I had a great uncle who told stories of getting caught and roughed up in the 1930's as he traveled around looking for work.
But the best story I remember was about the time the crew found him and his buddy, and instead of throwing them off, made them shovel coal for 24 hours straight. At each crew change the next fireman was told, "we got you some help". They ended up going far past their intended stop before getting kicked off, and had to find another way home.
He was a storyteller to rival Uncle Paden. He could stretch that story for 15 minutes and have you in tears with laughter. Wish I had a recording.
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In the Seattle metro area, there used to be all sorts of trains. There are lines everywhere. A lot of the lines were specifically for carrying people. They abandoned them, and then stole the land from the adjoiners and made them bike and hiking paths.?ÿ
Now we are condemning and grabbing land from people to make new train right-of-ways for our commuter train build-out. (Which is destined to be the biggest boondoggle in history.)
Do they go back and put rails on the bike trails...no.
Do they ask why and how all those RR ROW's came to be abandoned? Nope.
I know, it's a shame.
I can show you miles of abandoned rails whose title is still in some entity's inventory, but lays fallow and grows weeds.?ÿ Several of these are in perfect locations for light rail and commuter routes out to the rural areas, but no one sees a need for such.?ÿ I doubt I live long enough to see any resurgence of commuter rail service in central OK.?ÿ
I've always thought if I won a huge lottery I might at least try and get something going along those lines.?ÿ (intentional pun)?ÿ
My maternal Grandfather was a Conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad (my Uncle was a Brakeman). I have MANY memories of riding the UP around Utah & Wyoming in my youth. More recently, the Alaskan Railway from Seward to Fairbanks (2 different times), and the White Line from Skagway to White Pass. I have always wanted to ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Vladivostok (or Beijing), as well as the Canadian and/or Australian Railroads (coast to coast).
The town where I live originated as a Railroad Camp on the Original Transcontinental Railroad, and still has an active Rail Line (although no passenger service).
I love train travel, but there isn't much to be had other than Light/Commuter Rail in my neck of the woods, and all of that is down in the Salt Lake Valley.
Loyal?ÿ?ÿ
and sad. I love trains, so much so that in 60 years (54 legal) of driving I have never gotten pissed off waiting for a train to pass. ?????ÿ
@flga-2
Somehow in my lifetime I has always lived within a quarter mile of some tracks.?ÿ I'm listening now to a long southbound BNSF (average 23 trains a day) chug his way over the hump here in Norman.?ÿ As a boy I use to in Colorado.?ÿ We lived so close to the tracks that one could?ÿ(if one wanted to...) shoot the trains with a BB gun and listen to the "plink".
Back down here in OK I use to walk over the tracks everyday to get to school.?ÿ Laying pennies on the tracks AND retrieving them after they were flattened was a real art.?ÿ I traded one for a couple of marbles once at school and was questioned about the transaction by a teacher.?ÿ When I told her where I had obtained them she warned, "you could make the train jump the tracks with pennies".
I told her she was crazy.?ÿ I was sent to the principal's office.
I had to run down for him all that had transpired.?ÿ He reiterated, "you could make the train jump the tracks with pennies"...
I told HIM he was crazy.
For being forthright and honest I was beaten with a plank of oak.?ÿ And my parents wondered why I had a problem with "authority:....
I lived about 1200 feet from the RR tracks as a kid in Daytona Beach. It was a 2 tracker and busy. It was fun to watch the new cars (1960) being transported south from Jacksonville. Put 10 or 15 pennies down on the track and consider it lucky to find 2 cents. The best stuff I've ever seen on a freight train to this day was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was train after train loaded with guns on wheels, jeeps by the dozen and what looked like rockets with tarps over them. We had a path cut through the swamp we had to go through before getting to the tracks. I think I was 10 at the time and the municipal golf course lay on the other side of the tracks and was our goto money source after we "grew up" from squashing pennies. We used to go to the golf course at night, through the friggin swamp (not fun) with flippers mask and snorkel and "rescue" golf balls from the lakes that were always a fluorescent lime in color. During the day we would sneak behind a green so the ranger wouldn't see us. When golfers arrived at the green we would sell the things 3 for $.35 and you should have heard 'em bitch about the price like we were thugs forcing them to buy balls. Apparently word got back to the ranger that Hole 7 green had been seized by thug juvenile delinquents most likely escaped from a catholic prison of some sort. About this time and for god knows what reason (other than Northerners discovered how good fried frog legs are) frog legs became real popular. So we gave up diving and took up a bb guns, gigs, and flashlights duct taped to an old ball cap and went into the frog leg business. At the time B & B Fisheries was a market where local fishermen could either sell their catch or have them cooked to be eaten there. They paid us $.75/lb for fresh frog legs. It didn't take too long for us to realize we weren't into "big money" and it was more effort than it was worth. So we just went back to robbing poor boxes in the churches. ?????ÿ
General Jack Casement lead the rust eaters from Nebraska to Utah, building the Transcontinental Railroad, with his brother Dan.
John Stephan Casement and Daniel T Casement,?ÿwere my Great Grandpa's uncles.
In 1878, Casement bought Juniata farm, near Manhattan, Kansas which his son, Dan operated from 1889 until his death in 1953; maybe @holy-cow has run across this in his searches?
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Abandoned rail lines
Wow!
I also grew up about 3 blocks from the tracks. Spent many hours on them as a kid in the 70's. They always stopped next to the strip mall to send a guy into the liquor store for a brown bag.?ÿ
That would be the farm featured here.?ÿ Casement Road is a significant route running out the northeast corner of Manhattan.?ÿ Do a search for Casement Road, Manhattan, KS to see where it goes.?ÿ Never made the connection until now.
https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/img/20050869
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This includes a picture of Dan.
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If the dam ever breaks at Tuttle Creek Lake.................Juniata Farm would be the wrong place to be when that 30 foot wall of water comes roaring through headed down the Blue River valley to hit the Kansas River a few miles to the south.
Check out the information available here on the findagrave site.?ÿ I note that General Jack's wife was an outstanding individual as well.?ÿ I also noted that one son (Robert) of his brother, Daniel, got into surveying and assisted with the survey of the Muir glacier in Alaska.
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https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12537614/john-stephen-casement
