Conrail's GR to Jackson Line

[MQT1223]

Max, Railroads own land all over the country that haven't had active rail lines in years.

True. CN still owned the former GTW main into Flint well beyond where the tracks ended by McLaren Hospital until the county/city bought it a few years ago and turned it into a train. Any other examples.

[Standard Railfan]

BNSF, and other railroads, probably still owns millions of acres in parcels assigned to them under the various land grants issued to fund construction. I say probably because I am not privy to BNSF real estate transactions under Berkshire Hathaway.

Most railroads own parcels that came from a variety of sources that the companies held/hold for future railroad use or sale/lease to what hopefully would be an online customer.

[CAT345C]

NS is getting the tax bill so I assume they own it and are paying the taxes. Makes sense since it ia portion of Conrail that NS acquired.

Why would NS still own a piece of right of way that doesn't have rail that at the max is a 1/4 to 3/4 of a mile in length? Seems kind of silly if you ask me. The way things are going with the Thornapple Trail and no possible rail interest being explored there again its likely that it will never see rail again. I'm under the impression that the ROW's that are turned into trails are the ones that people see the most possible of being returned to service again if ever needed. My example would be the PM Rail Trail/State Trail.

When you have a large company the size of NS, CSX or BNSF, you have an office staff of literally thousands and thousands of desk workers, those people have no idea what the anything is. You would be amazed at what railroads pay for, don't pay for etc... I watched a dumpster sit at a road crossing CSX rebuilt for almost 3 years before it was finally picked up.

[MQT1223]

NS is getting the tax bill so I assume they own it and are paying the taxes. Makes sense since it ia portion of Conrail that NS acquired.

Why would NS still own a piece of right of way that doesn't have rail that at the max is a 1/4 to 3/4 of a mile in length? Seems kind of silly if you ask me. The way things are going with the Thornapple Trail and no possible rail interest being explored there again its likely that it will never see rail again. I'm under the impression that the ROW's that are turned into trails are the ones that people see the most possible of being returned to service again if ever needed. My example would be the PM Rail Trail/State Trail.

When you have a large company the size of NS, CSX or BNSF, you have an office staff of literally thousands and thousands of desk workers, those people have no idea what the anything is. You would be amazed at what railroads pay for, don't pay for etc... I watched a dumpster sit at a road crossing CSX rebuilt for almost 3 years before it was finally picked up.

Oh the joys of CSX...

[Saturnalia]

Quite frankly, it isn't just CSX. Any company that large and that widespread is just going to have stuff like that. I'm sure airlines, trucking companies, DOTs, etc, etc all have the same issues. Spread over thousands of miles, thousands of employees, thousands of pieces of equipment. One or two things left behind is pretty darn good.

[Standard Railfan]

GM used to regularly send out company wide memoranda entitled "Has Anyone Seen The Following Cars?"