Most of these abandonments were in the 60's into the 80's. Railroads are doing quite well now (except for Union Pacific, which f****ed up royally trying to merge computer systems from its too-many and too-fast acquisitions), and it's the trucking companies that are crying. Trivia: the first "rail-to-trail" conversion (dq's greenways with joggers) was here near Chicago -- the Illinois Prairie Path, which converted the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin interurban right-of-way, abandoned in 1961, into a bike path in the mid-1960's. (How --why?-- do I know this? My daughter is doing a school history fair project on it :-) ). There are some groups trying to revive the Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee r.o.w. as an alternative to a 3rd airport in Chicago. The idea is to build a high speed rail link from downtown Chicago to Mitchell Field in Milwaukee. Bob P.S. to Sridhar. How do you ship partial boxcars of goods? Easy, it's called "LCL" freight (less-than-car-load). -----Original Message----- From: Douglas Quebbeman [mailto:dhquebbeman@theestopinalgroup.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 9:05 AM To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' Subject: Shipping Big Iron & Rail Right-Of-Way Abandonment Of course, I'm aware of it primarily through local examples, but the local newspapers have run articles about how this is happening throughout the nation.... the midwest probably has more miles ot track to rip up, though... Recently, efforts have been underway to try to reclaim some abandoned right-of-way and use it to create light rail (i.e. trolley) lines... Once upon a time, there was a B&O spur that ran in front of the home I lived in as a child (not far from here)... Dad and I would walk one direction as far as the floodwall, and the other direction usually only as far as a small drug store that sold hot mixed nuts. Remember hot mixed nuts, hot peanuts, etc? Just a short walk further (which we never did) you'd find the coal company who used to deliver the coal by which we used to heat that house (did a natural gas conversion in '64 just before we moved out). But all that line is not greeway, replete with joggers... :( -dq