Have you ever seen this done?

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
I found this picture while searching for pictures of the Walthers lumber buildings. My question is, has anyone ever seen them just pave right over the rails like this? Don't they usally take the ties and cut the rails were the road is supposed to go if the track is no longer in use?​
 

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2-8-2

Member
Well...urban planning sometimes just plain doesn't make any sense. Here is a pic of a boxcar that is just sitting behind a building. You can see the bumpers, and the end of the track at bottom right. There are about 3 feet of tracks in front of this car. Basically, this thing is just sitting in the middle of nowhere, with no other tracks nearby.

wm26634tk9.jpg
 

COMBAT

Member
They did just that here in Phoenix. It cost more to remove it then to pave over it. They just pave it and keep on moving. Its always about the money! sign1
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
WOW, that is odd 2-8-2, I wonder why they didn't bother to take that boxcar, maybe it is used for storage? I see a mound of dirt built up by the door, must be. Cool pic.

Combat, I guess the saving money always comes before looks huh? LOL
 

2-8-2

Member
Yes, I'm thinking it's been (or maybe still) used for storage. The building in the background is an old feed store that has long since been out of business. It's hard to tell where the original tracks may have been. There's an old depot across the street, but no tracks there either.
 

Collyn

Member
They did that close to my house just paved right over. THey have done so me other even stanger things like they replace two crossings with some really nice ones, then they took out the track between the two crossings, the track goes nowhere to boot, to what is now residencial.
 

CCT70

Member
They do that all the time here in Northern California. In fact, you can see a lot of steel rails creeping up through the concrete in parts of San Francisco near Waterfront Park where the Freedom Train was exhibited in '76.
 

coaster

New Member
It happened quite a bit in the old industrial areas here in San Francisco, once the town pretty much quit being industrial (starting back in the mid-60s or so). A lot of the old trackage was simply paved over, and not very well at that.

-- Paul
 

Chessie6459

Gauge Oldtimer
Great Pictures Guys.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: That poor WM Boxcar. Only if there was a way to get it out of there and put in in a museum.
 

ejen34

Member
There is a fair amount of old Maine Central track up here that has been abandoned and backfilled or paved over. I have often thought I would go around and get photos to keep a record for study :thumb:
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Take a look at www.forgotten-ny.com. There is a whole section of subways and trains, including a lot of pictures of places where tracks are still in the street and/or otherwise abandoned.

Andrew
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
WOW, I guess I was the only one that hadn't seen this done before:eek:ops: that's ok, I enjoy seeing new things:D :D

BTW, Great link Andrew
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
The thing with that boxcar is that it may have actually been moved there and a section of track laid for it to sit on. There was a guy back in my hometown that had several old passenger cars. He sold them off and people converted them into mobile home type houses. (Only not quite so mobile. :D ) The only foundation suitable for them was a section of track.

I have seen tracks covered like that before. In the long run, it will end up costing them because eventually they will have to repave and likely as not, they will have to pull the tracks.
 

coaster

New Member
Cannonball said:
I have seen tracks covered like that before. In the long run, it will end up costing them because eventually they will have to repave and likely as not, they will have to pull the tracks.
Back in the early 40's, San Francisco's Market Street Railway discontinued its Castro Street cable car line, which terminated at 26th Street. I don't know how thorough they were about removing the tracks, but I do recall that a buddy of mine (who lived three doors down from 26th and Castro) was awakened one morning in about 1965 or so by vehement cursing in at least two languages. A work crew from the Water Department, excavating the intersection, had discovered the intact remains of the old turntable! Now that must have been a lot of fun to dig out after all those years . . .

Regards,
Paul
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
coaster said:
Back in the early 40's, San Francisco's Market Street Railway discontinued its Castro Street cable car line, which terminated at 26th Street. I don't know how thorough they were about removing the tracks, but I do recall that a buddy of mine (who lived three doors down from 26th and Castro) was awakened one morning in about 1965 or so by vehement cursing in at least two languages. A work crew from the Water Department, excavating the intersection, had discovered the intact remains of the old turntable! Now that must have been a lot of fun to dig out after all those years . . .

Regards,
Paul
Just add that to the bill, please, sir. :D
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
A few years back, our town was digging up the main drag for some watermain or sewer work and they unearthed tracks that had been part of an interurban line that last ran in the '20s or '30s.

Wayne
 

UP SD40-2

Senior Member
doctorwayne said:
A few years back, our town was digging up the main drag for some watermain or sewer work and they unearthed tracks that had been part of an interurban line that last ran in the '20s or '30s.

Wayne
Josh, my story is similar to Wayne's:thumb:. here we had interurbans, they ran all over town. just 2 blocks from my folks house you can still follow the old lines for close to a mile, its like that in a few sections of town:thumb:. funny thing is, they have paved over some of the streets a couple times, but the lines still show up. :D -Deano
 
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