What is the coolest abandoned equipment you have seen

[wagnew0923]

Ever see something interesting, exciting, or stange abandoned by a railroad. Maybe it is on a old spur long forgotten. Maybe an unused or abandoned rail line or an old semiphore standing along an old overgrown trail. Maybe while walking in the woods you stumbled upon an abandoned locomotive left behind, forgotten. Please share your stories and or post your pictures.

[Saturnalia]

Somewhere, JT has a picture of the old searchlight at Elmdale that was a WAS for the line from Lowell. All overgrown and such. I have not been able to find it on here...perhaps you could re-post it, Jim?

I also enjoy a few nuggets in Alpena. The old control? shack by the east leg that is falling down, and the abandoned D&M hopper on the end of the flyash track at Lafarge.

[AARR]

I enjoy seeing abandoned equipment but one of the coolest finds was the old watering pond/pump between Port Huron and Croswell. The pond was dug in late 1880's and all equipment installed. This line was abandoned around 1970ish but they hadn't used the pond since the 50's yet it is all still there. SW and MKT were there too

[Mr. Tops]

My favorite is the 10-track Hillery Yard in Danville, IL. CSX technically owns this former CR (P&E) yard but doesn't use it as the track west of there is gone. Yard tracks are quite long, close to a mile; yard office/tower still stand as well. I can't seem to find my photos at the moment and even though technically not abandoned, the yard is no longer used and looks cool/weird completely empty.

[AARR]

PM/C&O had a HUGE yard north of the MI/OH border on the Saginaw Sub that had not been used since their merger days yet many of the tracks were still in place albeit weed covered as late as the 1980's/90's. All the buildings were gone but the tracks were still there. I'm told they are gone now. but when I walked them back then it was amazing.

[Standard Railfan]

in the later part of the last century (man that sounds cool ) I was working on the Limestone quarry property near Gulliver. We were driving on the access road north from the plant along the rail line. Off to the east was a spur loaded with the old electric locomotives with dump boxes. On we drive to the north and later come across the MOW cars for overhead line maintenance. The whole day seemed like a trip into the past.

[CAT345C]

in the later part of the last century (man that sounds cool ) I was working on the Limestone quarry property near Gulliver. We were driving on the access road north from the plant along the rail line. Off to the east was a spur loaded with the old electric locomotives with dump boxes. On we drive to the north and later come across the MOW cars for overhead line maintenance. The whole day seemed like a trip into the past.

One of those is restored now and loaded with lime stone boulders along US2 at a long transload/ material supply yard. It's really sharp looking.

[wagnew0923]

YouTube videos I found

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLOiOTpLhZU

This looks cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyOTPknd8tc

[Todd Cline]

Just southwest of Butler Indiana, around 1983 or so, on the old "Wabash/PRR Eel river line.( abandoned grade). There was an old semaphore in the middle of a farmers field.... Still displaying "approach". I bet money it's gone now...

Todd

[SteveHiuzenga]

In Houghton, where the old Soo Line yard was along the river, has been turned into a nice subdivision, but on the east end of the old yard, in a lot that had been built on, i found two old wheel sets and old ties still in the ground.

[Standard Railfan]

In Houghton, where the old Soo Line yard was along the river, has been turned into a nice subdivision, but on the east end of the old yard, in a lot that had been built on, i found two old wheel sets and old ties still in the ground.

I remember walking around in that yard in the late 70s early 80s. There were still boxcars spotted in the yard. I was only there on weekends, never did see any movements. My friend that lived adjacent to the yard told me the train came by several times per week during daylight hours. All gone now.

[Mr. Tops]

Couldn't find my photos, so I went over to Danville Thursday to get some new shots of the Hillery Yard area. Some of my favorite abandoned "equipment".

Hillery Yard office




Hillary Yard office and east end of yard.


Middle of Hillery Yard looking east


Middle of yard looking east, zoomed in on yard office


Hillery Yard office northwest side


Conrail Approach Block Limit Sign along former P&E main through Hillery Yard


The Block Limit sign and station sign Hill for the previous ABL sign, just west of the yard and N. North Street. MP 3 on the CR Pekin Secondary.


Concrete arch bridge c. 1922 east of Muncie, IL along US-150 on the CR Pekin Secondary. Tracks are long gone but this bridge will be around for years to come.


Close-up

[railohio]

Here's a start:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/railohio/s ... 1483027604

[bctrainfan]

Interesting shots there, railohio! Thanks1

[tsinoms]

In Houghton, where the old Soo Line yard was along the river, has been turned into a nice subdivision, but on the east end of the old yard, in a lot that had been built on, i found two old wheel sets and old ties still in the ground.

I remember walking around in that yard in the late 70s early 80s. There were still boxcars spotted in the yard. I was only there on weekends, never did see any movements. My friend that lived adjacent to the yard told me the train came by several times per week during daylight hours. All gone now.

Some of the rail is actually still there! I know because I actually saw it. So much stuff up there I wish I could have seen. I did grab a spike and a tie plate from up there a couple of years ago.

[wagnew0923]

Has anyone ever found a train.

Here are some pictures of some
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannokabla ... otostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannokabla ... otostream/

http://thecityfix.com/blog/nyt-give-mas ... -deserves/

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/v ... A&fr=crmas#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellamike81/6430586847/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bvcphoto/3565684364/

[Ypsi]

I didn't look at all of those photos, but the Amtrak switcher appears to defiantly be in a scrap yard not "abandon", but also not necissarly wanted

[EWRice]

This is somewhat railroad related, but there is a junkyard in West Mi (not a scrap yard) that has some cool stuff hidden amongst the weeds. For as long as I can remember, there was a huge twin cylinder Dake steam hoisting engine in the weeds. This thing had to have an 18" or better bore on the cylinders. It was complete on its platform and still painted red with yellow pin stripping. Not far from it was a small (24-30" dia.) vertical boiler and a couple of decent size "Coke Bottle" steam engines. All kinds of other small items scattered about. Across the street was a Alco prime mover (still runnable I believe) a huge 4 cyl tugboat engine (direct reversing style) and some other railroad equipment buried in the dirt.

I will consider most of this stuff abandoned because I have talked to people that said it had been in the same spot for better than 30 years.

Also, and this is not railroad related, a trip to Isle Royal two years ago showed us some incredibly preserved abandoned and half sunken cabins, equipment and fishing boats. Very old stuff in excellent shape, and no vandalism because of the difficulty to get there.

[EWRice]

Almost forgot, just west of Ravenna on the old GR&I, there is a cool old culvert (big) with the equipment still along the banks of the creek for pumping water down to the water tank in front of the DPW building.

[PerRock]

Somewhere on the internet I have a listing of a bunch of location you can see 'abandoned' Amtrak content on Google Earth (and some Bing maps). I'll have to do more digging to find it however.

I have however found what I've been told is an old abandoned box car, no pics however. A long time ago an Annie train fell off the bridge over the Huron River at Argo, if you get a boat, you can go out and under the bridge I have been able to find a pair of trucks a few feet under the surface.

peter