Rail roads and their tracks.

[jyoutz]

I have a weird hobby of following live, dead, abandoned railroad grades across the country with Google Earth looking for signs of existing or long gone roundhouses. I have a couple thousand pinned on Google Earth. If I get much time off in the future, I'll compile them in a spreadsheet and share the locations.

In my region, there are lots of 1880-1940s era narrow gauge logging railroads in the forested areas. The rails are gone and most of the wood ties are rotted. All that remain are scattered spikes and the rock rail bed grades. Many forest roads were built on top of these old rail beds.

 

[MossRoad]

In my region, there are lots of 1880-1940s era narrow gauge logging railroads in the forested areas. The rails are gone and most of the wood ties are rotted. All that remain are scattered spikes and the rock rail bed grades. Many forest roads were built on top of these old rail beds.

Yep. Maybe 20-30 years ago I used to hike an abandoned railroad grade with my father in-law. We'd walk about 1/2 a mile down the grade, just ballast, no rails or ties. Then we'd veer off to the left on an old spur running into a swamp that still had the ties. Then the ties would be double stacked, then crib stacked, eventually getting to 5-6 ties high. Then the spur ended in a lake where we'd go ice fishing. There were trestle posts sticking up through the ice.

Some digging into history books found that the spur went into the swamp and tresteled out into the lake a bit. They'd dig peat out of the lake and load it onto RR cars.

RR history can be pretty interesting.

 

[BravoXray]

An article in today's paper about the problems that continued blocked railroad crossings are causing in Goshen. Emergency Services are being affected, as they have to alter their routes if they need to go to locations on the east side of the rail line and crossings are blocked. I sometimes travel US33 between Goshen and Elkhart on a daily basis, and for the last month or so I can't recall the Greene Road and CR28 crossings not being blocked. Lately, like Monday and Wednesday, the Beaver Lane crossing by Martin's has been blocked also. So, if you wanted to get across the tracks, it was 3 1/2 miles between unblocked crossings, either CR15 (Ox Bow Park crossing) or Indiana Avenue, by the sewage treatment plant.

Goshen News

If this link doesn't work, let me know.

 

[MossRoad]

An article in today's paper about the problems that continued blocked railroad crossings are causing in Goshen. Emergency Services are being affected, as they have to alter their routes if they need to go to locations on the east side of the rail line and crossings are blocked. I sometimes travel US33 between Goshen and Elkhart on a daily basis, and for the last month or so I can't recall the Greene Road and CR28 crossings not being blocked. Lately, like Monday and Wednesday, the Beaver Lane crossing by Martin's has been blocked also. So, if you wanted to get across the tracks, it was 3 1/2 miles between unblocked crossings, either CR15 (Ox Bow Park crossing) or Indiana Avenue, by the sewage treatment plant.

Goshen News

If this link doesn't work, let me know.

In 1986/87 I had a job with a wholesale florist delivering flowers from our South Bend warehouse to florist shops in Mishawaka, Elkhart, Bristol, Middlebury, Goshen, back to Elkhart, and home. So I had to drive that stretch of 33 daily back to Elkhart. 36 years ago, all of those crossing were frequently blocked. Other than the overpasses that weren't there back then, nothing much has changed.

 

[BravoXray]

In 2018, the Indiana Supreme Court invalidated the laws that gave cities/counties the authority to fine railroads that blocked crossings violating local laws. Since then, NS has blocked crossings pretty much at will, since they faced no penalties for doing so.

Indiana Supreme Court Sides With Railroads, Rules Blocked Crossing Ban Bad For Business

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I remember reading something like that.

I'm surprised they let South Bend put up a whistle ban.

Which reminded me that South Bend only put the whistle ban on the wealthy east side originally. It was years and years, around the time of the discussions to move the south shore station again, that some people petitioned the city and county to please do the same thing for the west side of South Bend. Living on the West Side for the past 37 years has really opened my eyes to how neglected that side of town, and the county for that matter, have been compared to the east side and Grainger.

Anyhow, off my soap box.

 

[BravoXray]

The NS line from Wabash comes into Goshen's south side before it ties into the main line at Lincoln Ave. There is a no whistle ordinance that runs from the south city limits to the main line tie in. Ninth Street runs right next to the tracks for several blocks, and some of the houses are only 50 to 75 feet from the tracks, so they don't blasted every time a train comes through. I think the speed limit on that stretch of track is 20 mph, so that would cut down on the noise also.

I'm no expert on railroads and their operations, but since NS has implemented PTS (precision train scheduling), I don't understand why trains are dispatched out of Toledo when they know they aren't going to be able to get into the yard in Elkhart when they arrive. It would appear to me that someone isn't doing their job, or doesn't give a damn about causing a lot of people a lot of extra driving to get around the trains blocking crossings.

 

[MossRoad]

Here's some interesting stuff (and a rabbit hole if you follow all the links) about NS and their Bellevue, OH yard. It's the largest in their system since they expanded that. Elkhart was their largest, now it's the 2nd largest NS yard.

Doubling up at Bellevue yard

www.nscorp.com

 

[BravoXray]

Apparently due to all the publicity in the papers and on TV about NS blocking crossings, when I traveled US33 to Elkhart today, only one crossing was blocked, and traines were broken at the Greene Road and CR15 (Ox Bow) crossings. Never saw that before. But the Elkhart/St. Joe county line crossing at the west end of the Elkhart yard was blocked, which I have seen quite a few times recently.
Also, the line of stored locomotives on the west end of the yard has dwindled to about 15 units, from more than 40 at one time.

 

[MossRoad]

Back in 1986/87 I briefly worked as a delivery driver for a wholesale florist in South Bend. Our owners were a garden center (no longer there) in Osceola, about 1/4 mile east of Ash on Lincolnway, just across from the west end of the yard. So I went there every morning on my way out and stopped there again in the afternoon on my way in to drop/receive cash and paper work. I got to see a LOT of trains!

It was Conrail back then. On the west end of the yard they had many slugs like this.

From here: https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/photos/cr-7585-at-elkhart-in



And I recall a lot of right of way maintenance equipment, several large snow plows, and even a rotary snowplow. And a ton of cabooses of various shapes and sizes. They were just on their way out about then, and about the only time you saw them was on maintenance trains and in the small yard on the west side of South Bend where they did some switching.

Oh, and Ash Rd crossing was frequently blocked.