OT: RE: Shipping Big Iron & Rail Right-Of-Way Abandonment

From: Feldman, Robert <Robert_Feldman_at_jdedwards.com>
Date: Tue Mar 5 09:41:51 2002

Most of these abandonments were in the 60's into the 80's. Railroads are
doing quite well now (except for Union Pacific, which f****ed up royally
trying to merge computer systems from its too-many and too-fast
acquisitions), and it's the trucking companies that are crying.

Trivia: the first "rail-to-trail" conversion (dq's greenways with joggers)
was here near Chicago -- the Illinois Prairie Path, which converted the
Chicago, Aurora and Elgin interurban right-of-way, abandoned in 1961, into a
bike path in the mid-1960's. (How --why?-- do I know this? My daughter is
doing a school history fair project on it :-) ).

There are some groups trying to revive the Chicago, North Shore, and
Milwaukee r.o.w. as an alternative to a 3rd airport in Chicago. The idea is
to build a high speed rail link from downtown Chicago to Mitchell Field in
Milwaukee.

Bob

P.S. to Sridhar.
How do you ship partial boxcars of goods? Easy, it's called "LCL" freight
(less-than-car-load).

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Quebbeman [mailto:dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 9:05 AM
To: 'classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org'
Subject: Shipping Big Iron & Rail Right-Of-Way Abandonment


> Where has rail been ripped up? I've never heard of that
> happening. Is it a national trend?

Of course, I'm aware of it primarily through local examples,
but the local newspapers have run articles about how this is
happening throughout the nation.... the midwest probably has
more miles ot track to rip up, though...

Recently, efforts have been underway to try to reclaim some
abandoned right-of-way and use it to create light rail (i.e.
trolley) lines...

Once upon a time, there was a B&O spur that ran in front of the
home I lived in as a child (not far from here)... Dad and I would
walk one direction as far as the floodwall, and the other direction
usually only as far as a small drug store that sold hot mixed nuts.
Remember hot mixed nuts, hot peanuts, etc?

Just a short walk further (which we never did) you'd find the
coal company who used to deliver the coal by which we used to
heat that house (did a natural gas conversion in '64 just before
we moved out).

But all that line is not greeway, replete with joggers...

:(

-dq
Received on Tue Mar 05 2002 - 09:41:51 GMT