Abandoned railroad lines

steve in so la

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Here's a link to a site showing lots of abandoned RR lines in all US states. Check out your satate and consider finding some. There are lots more than this site shows also.
We have specialized in old RR lines, detecting & dump digging them for many years. It can be very rewarding at times. Along most rail lines they had maintence houses every 7-8 miles. These places frequently had families living there, to lose things and sometimes other houses showed up also. If it got popular a little town formed. Now, most buildings are gone but the goodies remain. Good luck, Steve in so az



http://www.abandonedrailroads.com/
 
Great Info Steve. Been reading forum for a while first time reply. Do you need permission to md? I would guess the abandoned lines belong to the landowners now.
 
Oh boy. Does this evoke a bad memory! We have an abandoned line here, and there haven't been rails on it in decades. But its easy to spot if you just follow the railroad bed 'hump' in the landscape.

One day a couple years ago my sister and I were looking for an old family plot, supposedly in a certain area as indicated on a cemetery map. We found the old railroad bed -- flanked by very thick trees and underbrush on either side -- and walked along it looking for the cemetery. It was hot out and I told Beth I had walked enough and was going back to the car. She decided to keep walking along the rr bed - about another 100 feet. Then stopped where a thorny blackberry bush had grown over the path, and there was a cement pad under the bush. Athletic as they come, she would to take a running jump over the bush. But just before she did she realized the car was no longer in sight, and decided to come back and join me. We got back onto the road and drove around to where the rr bed was again. Only to realize we were at the base of a 40 foot conctrete train tressle. Beth looked shocked and turned white-- saying "Oh, my God. Oh my God." It was then she realized had she taken that leap over the blackberry bush, she probably would have fallen to her death.
 
As to permission - the rail lines that are still in use = the workers have told me just to stay off them but ok to go along the lines.
As to the long gone ones - I suspect they have gone to the landowner. But out here the area is many miles wide so we ask if someone's living there - not if it's empty forever in the landscape. Steve
 
Many of our old rail ways are now walking / jogging paths. One is about a 1/4 mile from me and I have yet to try it out.

Has anyone found anything good "on" the beds?
 
We have found lots on the beds - just not on popular ones. I look for those that are hard to get to. By good finds I refer to old date nails back to 1906, old keys from the Rr, etc. As I specialize in date nails they are the best thing to find for me. Steve in so az
 
I have found a few cool items from railbeds. I dug up(it was barely sticking out of the ground) a brake lever from an area where there was a train derailment back in the early 1900's.

Normally I would have been out already by this time of the year but being a female alone I'm feeling kind of leery. Unfortunately a lunatic camper in the national forest strangled a poor girl to death up here a couple of weeks ago. I have never minded going out into the forest alone until now. I'm waiting until I can get some company to go hiking with me. Until then I'm sticking to detecting in populated areas.

I'm seriously considering buying some mace(or a gun?) and it makes me extremely angry that I have to think of such a thing.
 
hidin - Don't blame you one bit ! I have a friend who goes jogging. As she lives on the edge of the desert she wears a gun. What a world. My friend & I both wear a gun when we go out along the old lines.
Unfortunately for you, the best places to find old relics like this are out in the lonely spots. Keep looking for a friend who has a gun to take along. Steve in so az
 
RR Research

Been researching an old place that was located down the coast, and the only access is an abandoned RR line grown over with sawgrass and cane. Have yet to get permission to hike in, but I'm intrigued by these date nails. The RR was only going to be access, but how can I learn more about these nails, when they were in use, and how common? Can you point me to a website? Thanks,
Ben
 
Thanks for the tips. I also dug back through the forum and found a lot of info on some old posts that I had missed. This line isn't well marked, (typically, thy're on levees down here) wasn't noted in the abandoned railroads website, so I'm hoping to find something different. Don't know how they would look after a lot of years in a salt marsh, but I'll post anything good. Thanks again,
Ben
 
bent - here's a great book for finding out what RR lines ran where - like along your levees. Look for it in the library, in map stores, online ,etc. The books cover different areas of the US - find yours and you are set, Steve in so az
 

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