Abandoned lines on layouts

[UP2CSX]

Larry, thanks for the kind words. The switch would have taken off to the right just beyond the CSX locomotive in the picture down a street that's hard to see from the picture. Those tracks are the last remnants of an old interurban line so the switch would have been a typical sharp radius traction switch. That street it one of the most narrow in downtown and, the more I think about, the more I realized that a concrete strip running down the middle of it would have only left about 10 courses of bricks on either side, which kind of defeats the idea of having a brick street to begin with. So, I guess that'll just go in the idea bin for now. However, there is a concrete alley that come out near the end of the spur and leads to a concrete road going out of town. I could set that up with a lot less work and it might still look good....hmmmm....

 

[Bread&steel]

Bricks and stuff

JIM !

Before you give up on that brick street...I have an idea. Say there was a track there at one time and it was all removed including the concrete. New brick was layed to fill in the gap. This gap, where the concrete was, doesn't have to be as wide as the strip on your main street. NOW... You would have and all brick street but the new brick would not match the old stuff so a different shade of brick color would show where the road bed used to be. This would be as easy as masking the street and covering everything around it to protect from over spray. What do you think ???

Larry

 

[UP2CSX]

Larry, creative idea and I'm not saying there wouldn't be a prototype somewhere but what you're describing is the opposite of what would usually happen. The concrete strip was most often laid either when the street was unpaved or when brick paving was being out down. Streetcar tracks were often laid right in the brick but freight handling tracks were almost always laid in concrete to resist the lateral forces of heavy freight cars, which would easily fracture brick.

If the street was unpaved, many areas would use more concrete to complete the paving of the street but the Midwest and South often used bricks because they were cheap and plentiful. If the whole street was concrete, your idea would work great because all you'd have to do is simulate the paved over rails.

A track abandoned in a concrete right of way in a brick street would rarely have had the concrete torn up and new brick laid. It would cost way more money than just removing the rails and paving over the rail and flangeway gap with asphalt. In addition, most tracks like this were abandoned from the 1950's on, when the art of laying brick streets had almost vanished. If they were going to do anything, they would tear up the whole street and repave it in asphalt or concrete. This did happen occasionally when the concrete right of way and the brick street had both deteriorated at about the same rate and repaving was needed anyway.

The main problem with the idea is that I'd have a street with weathered brick with a strip of different colored new brick. While it would show something had been done to the street, it would be hard to make it stand out as an abandoned spur. It could just as easily have been that the street was dug up for a sewer repair and it would look exactly the same.

Nice idea but I don't see a way to make it work.

 

[OldGettysk]

Hey Jim I ilve in an area that still has brick streets . These streets have been paved or fixed in a variety of ways . Concrete patch , asphalt , and just a few years ago as part of our historical path along the Erie Canal they hand laid a new brick street in our down town !!!! Nowadays some people realize the value of some things old !!!!

 

[Dragon Breath]

Trainman1980 I've tried posting pics on your link you provided. But it says I need to log in and when I do it says I've enter an incorrect item. Any idea what's up?

 

[trainman1980]

Trainman1980 I've tried posting pics on your link you provided. But it says I need to log in and when I do it says I've enter an incorrect item. Any idea what's up?

You have to register on railroadforums.com.

 

[trainman1980]

Jos, using some kind of putty might work if I get it thin enough and sraight enough so it looks like where the tracks ran.

B&S, I'm out of commision with a badly infected left hand and I have a hard enough time taking a decent picture when both hands are working. This is a picture of a portion of the current street trackage:

I'd like to model a spur running off to the right down Central Avenue that would have served a warehouse down there but it's no longer in use. What I envision is the same type of concrete strip in the middle of the street but with the tracks paved over with asphalt. I'm just trying to figure out a way to do this without tearing up the existing brick steet but still make it look like an old street running spur.

Has anyone seen a crossbuck mounted on a wire in real life?In Akron,OH,they have crossing signals mounted on wires.

 

[UP2CSX]

Boy, this was great thread that I had forgotten all about. Those abandoned right of way and station photo links were outstanding.

Trainman, the crossbuck mounted on wire strung between poles was fairly common when you had a a private ROW merging into a public street. This picture gives you a better concept as to why the hanging crossbuck:

The track runs hard on the edge of the road so there's no room for a post mounted crossbuck before the track enters the street. Since this is just a little-used industrial spur, the crossbuck suffices but I have seen flashing warning lights combined with the crossbuck on through tracks in the same situation. I'm from Cleveland originally and these hanging crossbucks were common in an area called the Flats, where most of the steel production used to be, back in the good old days. There were many warehouses that were served by rail and some of them were approached by private ROW but then had to swing into the street for a few hundred yards because they were hemmed in by hills on one side and the Cuyahoga River on the other. They'd hang a crossbuck across the street just before the rail line entered the street to warn drivers. I have no idea if it's prototypical for my fictitious small Alabama town but I remembered them from my youth and I have to keep the drivers in Hillside safe.

 

[trainman1980]

Here's another discussion about abandoned lines.
http://cs.trains.com/forums/1416880/ShowPost.aspx

 

[River Run]

How about a new alignment or spur being laid instead of an abandoned line?

 

[V&AL]

On my N scale layout i have under construction there is an Alleghenny Midland branch line that has been abandoned. The V&AL turned the interchange into an acess track to continue to serve the industries of Coffeeville:

A V&AL RS-3 has crossed the old AM line (center track) and is about to retrieve a loaded box car.

Lookign straight down the old AM right of way. Track work is temporary while I'm working it. When I scenic the town, the AM tracks will be cut at the V&AL interchange, but will remain in place but overgrown elsewhere.

 

[UP2CSX]

Hmmm...if I'm looking at your layout correctly, I can't see how you'd be able to cut any track at the interchange. You need the track beyond the switch as a tail track to have enough room for the engine and loaded cars to clear the switch. Or am I not looking at it right?

Randy, use Google Earth and look at the Cajon Pass area. You'll be able to see three different alignments that were added then abandoned over the years as the ability to lower the grade and increase the curve radius improved. I think it would be a great scene, if you have the space, to show something like a 22" radius curved section still in use while crews laid a new 26" curve. Or, show the abandoned grade of the older, sharper curve next to the new alignment. I don't think this gets done very often on layouts.

 

[V&AL]

UP2CSX:

The center track is the old AM branch line. It has been cut out of the equation and the V&AL now serves the industries on either side of the old branch line. the industrial sidings will be slightly longer... i'm using selective compression and temporary trackage to get a feel for things before I glue down road bed. also the challenge of only 1 car plus switcher on the switch back will be a challange.

 

[UP2CSX]

OK, I get it now. That center track will be the track to nowhere that will represent the abandoned line. I'd still try to increase the tail track length though, since it looks ike it serves two industries and it looks like you plan to put in street crossings that the city fathers will have a fit about if you block them too, long.

 

[V&AL]

i'm gonna stretch it to the inner loop but not so close there's a conflict. probabyl leav 1/2 a car length incase someone pushes a car over the stopper.