Have you ever seen this done?

[60103]

I think it comes down to how much the used rail is worth against the cost of digging the street up and repaving. I know lots of places where the crossing was left in the street but not even paved over.
I also remember seeing Bay street in Toronto having the street car tracks paved over -- it seemed that they were just putting tar over the rails, not doing a full job. The rails resurfaced in a few years.
I saw a crew in another street who had removed a couple of yards of girder rail from a line that had last run almost 20 years before.
In the short run, it probably comes down to "who has to pay for it?"

 

[Wabash Banks]

I too have an instance where they were doing some road work in my town and unearthed some interurban rail. Best part is besides the historical society and the mayor, no one was as quick about claiming it as I was. The company that was doing the work is just down the street from me. I got a nice 41/2 foot section of it. I still have to clean it up because there is a lot of rust and decay. I have some landscape timbers I am squaring up and I have acquired some old spikes. I am going to spike the rail to the timbers and use it as an edging to a flower bed. I will ballast the front of the track and ties in to make a border.
In case you hadn't guessed, I am a gardener as well. Eventuall a garden railroad will run in front of the flower bed.

 

[CCT70]

Hey Dan, I was recently given a section of 100 year old rail from the Central California Traction (old 75 pound stuff) that was cut into a 3' length with the original date and manufacture stamp centered on it by the GM of the CCT as a gift for designing their 100 year anniversary logo last year and designing the paint scheme on their new fleet of SW-1500's. I took it to a local sandblaster and had it blasted down to the point where it looks BRAND new and is all silver now. I then shellacked it so it wouldn't rust again, and epoxied a section of Code 83 HO flex track to it and have my CCT locomotive, caboose and a few freight cars on it as a display train on the credenza in my office. Turned out really nice. Might look in the phone book for sandblasters and try that.

 

[Colton_modeler]

I've seen this a lot of times in Southern California. I think the reason is that when the rails are removed from the line for scrapping, the crews don't want to go to the trouble of removing the rails in the crossing, as the spikes are below the paving (more so with older style crossings - the newer modular units are much more easily romoved and reused). Removing these rails would require more permits and coordination between the local transportation authority in charge of the road, and removal / replacement of the road at the crossing. I've seen crossings with the rails left where they extend beyond the crossing to the first joint, and also examples where the rails were torch-cut beyond the crossing.

 

[green_elite_cab]

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?​

nope. I did the very same thing on my layout.

I remember on another forum a man from Phildelphia was talking about how you can still see the old trolley rails (mounted on then the cobblestone street) that were paved over, and because of the summer heat the ground bulges. over the rails

another time when i was in Phildelphia, there was a random section of track in the side walk, with the flangeways filled in that went about 8-15 feet before dissappearing. In many cases, if tracks are abandoned, they are just left there, and if people don't feel like paying the money, they'll pour asphault right over them.

 

[green_elite_cab]

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.

look on the bright side. if it wasn't stranded, it may have been in the scrap heap already.

 

[green_elite_cab]

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

Yeah i love that site. LTV squad is pretty cool to, although their site is alittle more... mature in wording. I do like their section on the Abandoned northern section of the Staten Island railway.

 

[Wabash Banks]

I will have to do that Tom. My brother is a machinist and has access to a large sandblaster. It would be free.