Recently I was doing some rail mapping on google earth for some pipe dream railroad and if it could be feasible and part of it continues over what is now a well known trail but reconnects with active tracks again creating a belt line. Now I'm sure by now we have all heard about the "Rails to Trails" projects but has there ever been a time a scenic railroad or Class 1 actually purchased back a stretch of line back from the trails? or does whatever City/County strike the idea down without a thought? it's something that has struck me for the past few years and never really thought about asking until now.

Not a snowball's chance in heck.

Similar but not quite the same: The abandoned and removed Westland branch of the Montour RR was to be turned into a branch of the Montour Trail. Markwest built a fractionating plant at the old Westland mine site. A deal was made to rebuild the Westland branch but connecting to the W&LE and also include the not yet built trail adjacent to it.

When Ed Gardner was still the owner of the Wisconsin Southern, he floated plans to reopen the line from Monroe to Mineral Point Wisconsin. It had been converted to the Cheese Country Trail years previously. After Gardner sold the WSOR to Watco, the plans were dropped.

Didn't RJ cormann rebuild a section of trail to rail on their PA lines? Not sure how long it was or the details.

The Mineral point - Monroe line would have been something like 40 miles, which I think would have been unmatched by any other rebuild.

I can't recall any c1, or shortline ever rebuilding such as a stretch of track on old or new ROW in recent times of course barring Brightline, or double track projects etc.

The cost now has probably risen well beyond the "1 mil per mile" and I'd think in 90% of situations that level of investment just doesn't make financial sense. You'd need a significant amount of committed freight business to for that to pay off.

A long-running proposed restoration has been the idea that the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail, from Glen Burnie to outer Annapolis, Maryland, was preserved in large part to protect the potential expansion of the Central Light Rail Line southwards towards Annapolis.
We can reasonably debate forever whether it has been the lack of financial/political will by state officials or the "NIMBY" arguments of residents and trail users that has kept this from ever even being promoted for revival................

Small correction,

TrolleyGuy, the founder and past owner of the WSOR was Bill, not Ed, Gardner. He's happily enjoying retirement out west in AZ I think. See his travels on FB all the time. Seems like he was a great RR owner and person to work for.

Rob Gardner (sadly, no relation, lol)

Wasn't there a proposed tourist line use of the route, after the Severn bridge was condemned?
Which nimbys prevented

Has there been a case anywhere in the US where a rail trail was converted back to rail use?
We all know the purpose behind these is to preserve the rights of way for future rail use, but has it actually ever happened anywhere?

We've worked on two of these, one of which was built.

First one was the reconstruction of track to reach a coal loadout on the Kiski Jct. railroad where the track had been removed and it converted to trail use. It was far less painful in this situation because it had been a double track PRR mainline and we were putting one track back, still leaving room for the trail ROW.

This was the Kiski Jct. Railroad - Schenley north along the Allegheny river across from Cadoga, PA - for a coal loadout that is now closed (again). About 9 miles of track relaid on a trail conversion, to rail, and now probably going back to all trail again. But it did happen.

The second one was trying to put track back for the Resource Recovery proposed project along I-80 not far from Snow Shoe, PA on the abandoned corridor that had been converted to the Snow Shoe Trail along the Black Moshannon. This was an enormous proposed project as a combination recycling and landfill, in the middle of nowhere, that had originally been proposed to PADOT as access off of I-80 with it's own interchange. They thought the interchange impacts were too great and expensive, recommended restarting the railroad instead for the volumes involved. This put the trash and recycled materials rail moves right up through Phillipsburg, where the original ROW had turned into development, and while an alternate route existed, still wasn't popular. Project died a loud and painful death in a public hearing in Phillipsburg, PADOT reversed their pro-rail stance, and it never happened.

https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20 ... /307019988

Is that in reference to one of the RJ corman PA line's rebuild?

That's the one that was proposed to be reconnected to Corman, but it was not rebuilt.

ah gotcha, ya I remember seeing this post on TO
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/ ... ?2,2879118

Maybe not in the 21st century, but if you like board gaming you could try this out:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/672 ... ails-rails

"Settlers of America: Trails to Rails uses the familiar Catan hex-tile grid to present a map of the United States. Players collect and trade resources in order to purchase, migrate and build settlements, forge railroads, and acquire locomotives. Railroads are used to distribute goods to the interconnected cities. As westward locations are settled, old sources of resources deplete. The addition of gold adds to the depth of play and increases options for the players."

This idea likely could’ve occurred with the EBT had the previous organization that owns the northernmost 4 miles had their way.

Their plan was to restore service on the “valley” portion of line between Mt Union and Orbisonia, and the “mountain” portion between Orbisonia and Robertsdale was, for the time being, going to be converted for trail use, with eventual plans to restore service to that section funding and time permitting. There’s a couple of older videos from about 7 years ago that state this plan. Glad we got what we have now though.

Shame the H&BT got torn up though. Would’ve been a great line for servicing the nearby Raystown Lake.