abandoned trains?

I was watching a few videos on abandoned trains and such on you tube and it got me wondering... has a railroad ever abandoned (whether accidentaly or on purpose) a running locomotive? I notice alot of these videos people climbing into the cabs of old locos and if one was somehow still able to run... Well you get the idea.

very unlikely that they would abandon a running locomotive..because a running locomotive has value!
they would want it back..railroads often fish wrecked but salvageable locos out of rivers, etc..
depends on the value..sometimes they want it back, sometimes they dont..

and for the record, they are almost never actually "abandoned"..
*someone* owns them..and im willing to bet all the people in those youtube videos climbing on "abandoned" locomotives are in fact illegally trespassing.

Scot

I agree with your point, but if I see an old set of rails,or perhaps an old siding, overgrown with weeds and shrubs, or in the woods so to speak, and there's a boxcar or an old tank car, or perhaps even an engine, I would think that would be abandoned.

Even if it's not abandoned, it gives off the appearance as such. As an example there was a video of an old train depot in flemington, NJ that looked pretty big in it's day, that was filled with rusty old cars and loco's. Now while nothing looked in operating condition, save for a boxcar or two, the place looked as abandoned as it gets. If it is owned by someone and my guess it probably is owned by some entity, it doesn't show it. And so my thinking was that if by chance one of those old rusty loco's did perhaps accdentally still run and someone starting fiddling with the controls that could turn out to be quite a situation.

I also know from this site that sometimes old rail lines do get abandoned and so I imagine if there was one boxcar left sitting at the end of the line perhaps the railroad might not bother to go and get it, thereby making it abandoned.

Again forgive me, I could be wrong, please correct me if I'm mistaken on this.

Rail lines and equipment do not get abandoned, even if a railroad files for abandonment of service, they will retain ownership to line as long as they do pay taxes.
If they do not pay taxes the rail line reverts back to state, it never ends up to be no mans land.
99.9 % of all equipment you see, that is not in regular service is owned by either a historical society or museum.
entering is not only tresspassing, but any fresh damage can be blamed on the tresspasser, and can cost him/her dearly.
a true abandoned rail line will mostly be totally all rail and ties removed, scrap is money and ties are polution so they would be removed.

In fact, there is an STB procedure to formally abandon a railroad right-of-way.

There's an interesting article in the current Trains about railroads reactivating lines ... and the NIMBYs whining.

In Massachusetts rights-of-way up to 5 rods wide (82.5 ft) are exempt from property taxes. They remain with the railroad owner until the owner elects to dispose of them. Properties wider than 82.5 ft. are taxable, values established by the State, paid to the municipality where the properties are located. The State established values tended to be quite conservative. If a taxpayer is delinquent, the Massachusetts municipality can go to court to take the property in arrears on taxes. However, most communities are scared to take property that may have creosoted ties, spilled oil or chemicals, cinders or other materials that may be hazardous on them. They become liable for the clean-up.

airman00 wrote:I agree with your point, but if I see an old set of rails,or perhaps an old siding, overgrown with weeds and shrubs, or in the woods so to speak, and there's a boxcar or an old tank car, or perhaps even an engine, I would think that would be abandoned.

As noted, someone owns the equipment. It isn't really "free to a good home" abandoned. At minimum it just hasn't been scrapped out yet.

And so my thinking was that if by chance one of those old rusty loco's did perhaps accdentally still run and someone starting fiddling with the controls that could turn out to be quite a situation.

If any "stored" locomotives that appeared abandoned were in good enough condition to start without a lot of work it would surprise me.

well then I think that answers my question. Any railroad cars or rails/row, is/are owned by someone. If a boxcar is overgrown with weeds sitting on a rusty old siding in the woods, that just means whoever owns it, they just haven't gotten around to fixing it up, or scrapping it, whatever the case may be.

I have seen pictures of a couple of steam locomotives that are rusting way back in the woods of Maine. The story goes that a logging railroad abandoned operations in a hurry nad just left them there. This is not an urban legend, it is a popular spot to hike to. It surprises me because even back then (the 1920's, IIRC) they engines would have had at least scrap value..

v8interceptor wrote:I have seen pictures of a couple of steam locomotives that are rusting way back in the woods of Maine. The story goes that a logging railroad abandoned operations in a hurry nad just left them there. This is not an urban legend, it is a popular spot to hike to. It surprises me because even back then (the 1920's, IIRC) they engines would have had at least scrap value..

The railroad quit in 1933..most likely due to the Great Depression.
so even though they did have some scrap value, the company was probably broke, and the cost of dragging them back out of the wilderness was probably more than their scrap value..so in reality, in 1933 they had "no value"..due to their location, and the economic realities of the time.

but even though the railroad ceased to exist, the locomotives have always been owned by *someone*..
(probably the state of Maine)
So even those remote locomotives were never literally "abandoned" and owned by no one..
someone (or some "entity"..doesnt have to be an actual person) has always owned them.

http://parkengines.railfan.net/ME/content.shtml

Scot

This isn't the US, but apparently in Russia they just leave things where they are when the railroad shuts down!

http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007 ... oviet-era/

Boy that place looks like the land that time forgot. It looks like just out of the blue people just walked out and left everything just like that. That was one of my points that if by the slighest of chances one of those rusted loco's still ran that would be a problem. Although I don't know how a railroad depot can even function in that kind of condition.

Airman....Actually that place looks kinda creepy, like a scene out of a Twilight Zone episode. One would think that all that stuff would have some kind of value, even if only as scrap metal.

could this stuff be in a nuclear test area ?? or Chernobyl ??

It says it is in Abkhazia, which is in (i.i.r.c.) the Caucasus: far from Chernobyl or nuclear test sites. I suspect the "bomb" that hit it was politico-economic, not nuclear!