by FLRailFan1
GE45tonner wrote:Really want to check out this railroad when I'm in the area. Love the motive power.Is the B&ML offically abandoned??
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GE45tonner wrote:Really want to check out this railroad when I'm in the area. Love the motive power.Is the B&ML offically abandoned??
thebigham wrote:The portion of the B&ML grade from Pierce Street (at the Footbridge) in Belfast to the turn out at the City Point Central Railroad Museum (MP 2.5) is now closed and will soon be railbanked and torn up to be converted to a pedestrian and bike rail trail.I used to think "railbanking" was preserving a right-of-way so that it might once again be used for railroad traffic. Even the term "rail trail" suggests that some day it might allow railroad operations again, probably together with an adjacent foot/bike path. Now those terms seem to mean using "the iron" someplace else, and converting the r-o-w to a totally different use that will probably keep the route from ever again being used as a railroad. "Not nobody, not no how."
Watchman318 wrote:I used to think "railbanking" was preserving a right-of-way so that it might once again be used for railroad traffic. Even the term "rail trail" suggests that some day it might allow railroad operations again, probably together with an adjacent foot/bike path. Now those terms seem to mean using "the iron" someplace else, and converting the r-o-w to a totally different use that will probably keep the route from ever again being used as a railroad. "Not nobody, not no how."I was always under the impression that "railbanked" meant the rails were still in place but the track was abandoned, and "landbanked" meant the rails were removed and the line converted to a trail, either paved, cinder, etc.
conductorvern wrote:ok for starters my name is Vernon I worked 45 years on the bar I retired in 96 and am 80 my daughters husband's relatives owned the main portion of the public stocks the railroad had. And now I am sadden with the crossing in Burnham being removed for no reason, the steam loco gone, the yard in unity ripped up, the Belfast yard being removed, and finally the dreaded rail trail.I did not know so much had been torn up around Burnham and Unity.
conductorvern wrote:I am sadden with the crossing in Burnham being removed for no reason, the steam loco gone, the yard in unity ripped up, the Belfast yard being removed, and finally the dreaded rail trail.Greetings, Vernon.
Cosmo wrote:I did not know so much had been torn up around Burnham and Unity.That's the first I've heard of it, too. The most recent satellite imagery is 08/2013 (Street View 08/2011), and shows the tracks around the Unity depot pretty much full of cars. Apparently there's no turntable, just the filled-in pit, but that could have been gone for awhile.
Can anyone else confirm? Pictures?