How can I find out if railroad tracks are still in use?

Question

---and no, i will not stand on or near them and wait.

Answer 1

Tie you dog to the tracks, give him some food to munch on and come back a day or two later. If he is still alive, then the tracks aren't in use anymore.

Answer 2

Find a road crossing, on the back of the RR X sign there will be a smaller sign or sticker listing the crossing name and/or number and a phone number.  Call that number and ask.  

Ask people who live near the tracks or in the closest town, call the local law enforcement, mayor , fire dept, newspaper, or your local state rep's office, etc.  You could also call the FRA if none of those are helpful and ask them how you could find out, and it would be helpful if you knew the GPS co-ordinates of the track area you are inquiring about.

Good luck in your curious endeavor.

Answer 3

Whine Whine Whine... not even willing to LOOK at the tracks ?

Contact the railroad and ASK... if you have a logical and LEGAL reason to know, they might answer.

Good Luck

Answer 4

lay your head on the rail and wait.

Answer 5

Look at the rails. If they are really rusty on top, then a train hasn't been along in awhile. Trust me. I live right beside railroad tracks. Or you could find out which railroad used to run on the bed and contact them. Most likely on the East Coast it would be CSX. West Coat would be alot of Union Pacific, Santa Fe, etc.

Answer 6

If trains regularly pass over rails, they scrape the rust off. So if they are rusty, its fairly certain that they are out of use.

Edit: Well, if you can't be bothered...

And I don't know why people give this answer thumbs-down:

Superglue a penny on top of the rail. Check it occasionally. If it grows to the size of a silver dollar, a train has been there ;-)

That's perfectly sensible!

Answer 7

If you look at the condition of the track, it ought to tell you if the track is used.  Unless you know its been abandoned you still need to expect a train in either direction at any time.

That is right out of the GCOR book. ( General Class of Operating Rules ) .  If its a section of track that has been cut, has no access to switches leading to a track in service - is there in no way for a train to GET there, then its safe to say its out of service.  Disabled or removed switches and severed rail are a good indication - but on a longer stretch of track, there is no way to be sure just by looking.

You could have track with rotted ties, missing spikes, and bent rails and still have a 10MPH speed restriction for a train that may spot a car there once a month.

Until the FRA announces it is officially abandoned - its safe to expect trains.

Answer 8

You could try abandonedrailroads.com .  I contribute to it every once in a while.  This would show you the lines that are definatly not in use but all of them.  

Some of the other answers given are good clues, rusty rails, lots of vegitation,  and paved over rails at crossings can be good indicators. Sometimes railroad crossing signs will note that the tracks are not in service,  see Greenville and Northern in the SC section of the abandonedrailroads web site.

Answer 9

Well, while effective sometimes, especially with rail lines that see lots of use, looking at the rails alone to see how rusty or "clean" they are is not a great means of determining if they are still used, as some see very little traffic/trains and thus can stay rusty almost all of the time.

If you don't know how or don't have any way in contacting the railroad, probably the best way to determine if they are still in use, or at the very least still owned by the railroad, is to check your local courthouse to see if property taxes are still being paid on the right-of-way (and, of course, if they are then the railroad at least still owns the tracks).

Answer 10

Look very closely at the top of the rail.  If it has marks of recent trains it is being used on some sort of regular basis.

If the rails are in good repair and the crossties are in good shape, and there isn't an inordinate amount of rust, chances are the tracks are in use.

Also, look for sidings where freight cars may be parked.  If there are quite a few of them the tracks are probably in use.  If the tracks have been abandoned most if not all cars will have been removed.

Answer 11

Superglue a penny on top of the rail. Check it occasionally. If it grows to the size of a silver dollar, a train has been there ;-)