Working rail roads and their tracks.

[jjeff]

I have a question keep finding conflicting answers from 25-200'. what's the right of way for railroad grades in MI still being used? It borders my property.

 

[bcp]

Not necessarily conflicting. It varies. And the track may not be in the center of the right of way.

I would check with my county's mapping department, for my property and the railroad's property.

Bruce

 

[dodge man]

There is usually a deed recorded for the original ROW take from the railroad that will list the width. They list the width usually, but not always. They often don’t pin down where, maybe just “100 feet wide across the southeast quarter of section 3” will be the only description. I’ve also seen them say “150 feet wide starting in Kansas City and ending in Chicago”. With a single track it is normally centered in the ROW but not always. These deeds can also be old, well over a 150 years old.

 

[BravoXray]

btw, there's no such thing as an ugly train.

Maybe not, but the British and Europeans had some damn homely ones. And then those weird link and buffer coupler systems. Of course, they don't run trains anywhere near as long as the US railroads do.

 

[BravoXray]

I now wonder if these small articulated locomotives had the same spherical ball connections to move the steam pressure to the drive trucks like the B Boy did? As I understand it, these spherical ball connections were a special feature of them.

Don't know about the smaller ones, but the Yellowstone in Proctor, MN used spherical joints in the steam lines for the front engine.

 

[jjeff]

Speaking of railroads anyone ever hear of the railroad that never ran in the UP of MI? I found the 130 yr old 30 mile grade awhile back, when ATVing it is in the middle of nowhere and pretty amazing especially the "cut" with 50+ ft high canyon walls, and the huge trestle they made from the blasted rock from the cut. Cost over a million in those times. Supposedly lots of lives were lost due to unsanitary camp conditions. The grade ended up being to steep, first and only train to run it ended off the rails. Even put in a large ore dock that was never used. I'll post pictures if I can find them.

 

[Creamer]

Ok Moss! A compressed air locomotive - how far did any of those go? Did they have a power system to compress air?

 

[bcp]

Speaking of railroads anyone ever hear of the railroad that never ran in the UP of MI? I found the 130 yr old 30 mile grade awhile back, when ATVing it is in the middle of nowhere and pretty amazing especially the "cut" with 50+ ft high canyon walls, and the huge trestle they made from the blasted rock from the cut. Cost over a million in those times. Supposedly lots of lives were lost due to unsanitary camp conditions. The grade ended up being to steep, first and only train to run it ended off the rails. Even put in a large ore dock that was never used. I'll post pictures if I can find them.

Maybe this one.

Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bruce

 

[jjeff]

Maybe this one.

Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bruce

You are correct, it's really cool to see in person, it's hard to find and get to I've been there a half dozen times and I still turn down a wrong two track occasionally.

 

[jjeff]

In the cut a few rails and ties are still there.