Railroads ever reaquire adandoned lines?

[aikorob]

Have any railroads ever "reclaimed" abandoned right of way?
At work today, one of the guys was telling me about a new gun shop; I wasn't understanding his directions very well, so we opened Google Earth to look for it. It was easy to find, as was the abandoned line nearby.
So I then started following that path back to see where it ran, which showed some chicken houses built directly on it. I found that the rails were pulled in the early 90's.
Is there some sort of covenant or easement covering abandoned rail lines?

[John]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandoned_railway

Google

[nkalanaga]

If they are legally abandoned, they revert to the landowner.  Unless the railroad owns the land itself, which is rare, they would have to start from scratch to acquire right of way for the rebuilt line.  Part of the "fun" with the Milwaukee Road abandoning their Pacific Extension was that they HAD purchased most of their ROW, and had to try to sell a piece of land 100 ft wide and hundreds of miles long, much of it with utility line easements on it.

In some case, where the company owns the land, and didn't sell it, people have built on it anyway, and years later, been forced to move.

A line can be closed and "embargoed", but that's used where the railroad thinks they might want it later, and the tracks are left in place.  It may look abandoned, and sit there for decades (the East Broad Top, or the NP/BN Homestake Pass line), but it isn't legally abandoned.

[keeper]

I'm not sure if this line was abandoned but the rails were pulled a long time ago and now the line was opened again - new rails were laid - although by another company.
Look for Mineral Range RR and Humboldt Mill in the U.P.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mackinacmark/15374485908/

[learmoia]

I'm not sure if this line was abandoned but the rails were pulled a long time ago and now the line was opened again - new rails were laid - although by another company.
Look for Mineral Range RR and Humboldt Mill in the U.P.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mackinacmark/15374485908/

To rebuild on an abandoned (and torn up) ROW is unusual but it happens..

East of Niagara Falls, Somerset Railroad built from (I think International Traction's) line around Lockport to Newfane, then NYC 's Line to Barker, NY to reach a new Power plant on the Lake.

Much more common for a short line to pickup an existing line abandoned by a class 1. 

~Ian

[mu26aeh]

Maryland Midland had considered this in the mid 90's when the thought of reconnecting a line that went from Hanover, PA to Taneytown, MD.  Much of the ROW is still there, though some has been built up.  This idea was abandoned due to the high cost of reacquiring the land and rebuilding the line itself.  Perhaps now that MMID is owned by Genesee and Wyoming and have deeper pockets, someone will revisit this

[FrankCampagna]

Metro North tried to re-open part of the Harlem line in the1990's. They found that for about 10 miles of track that had been converted to rail-trail, they would have had to do battle with at least 14 different agencies, all ready to defend their turf. Any wonder rail trails are so popular? Lots of job creation for agencies there.  The Housatonic railroad line below Canaan was rail banked in the early seventies, and re-opened after more than a decade.

[conrail98]

I believe portion of the Grafton and Upton was also rebuilt after most of it's line was abandoned, unused. I know rails to trails can make things difficult, but I'm noticing more of them are created from "leases", i.e., the owning railroad or agency leases the right-of-way to a parks department or city for the conversion to a trail but by leasing, they can revert back without having to reacquire the right of way,

Phil

[dougnelson]

Under federal law, abandoned rail line ROWs can be preserved through rail banking to prevent reversion to adjacent landowners. This is how many rail trails have been created. The legal theory is that rail banking preserves the ROW for potential future rail use and the trails are considered an interim use.