How many feet is a railroad right of way?

Question

There is a railway through my back yard. This week they did some maintenance and threw rocks and spikes 40 feet from the tracks into my? yard. Where is the boundary between they're right of way and my property?

Answer 1

Derail is quite right.  If you are unsure about this, I would suggest that you head down to your county office and have a look at your land deed.  

This will tell you where your property ends and theirs begins.  

In some cases you might be suprised where the plots were designated.  You never know, if you bought an older piece of property, the previous owner could have encroached on the Railroad Property.  By the same token, it could be vice-versa, and they may owe you some land.  

The way to tell for sure is to have the property properly surveyed according to the original title deed for that particular plot.  You might even find your neighbors on either side, might have to relocate their fences too.

My family just got done with just such a case.  We found that according to the county records, the East neighbor was 6 feet to our property boundary.  We found this out because the survey stake that was still in the ground was not properly aligned with the fence lines.  We found this out when we installed a new driveway and found the stake.

So we had the county come out and re-survey the property, and the neighbors got to move their fence.  Needless to say they were not happy.  But to be nice to them, we paid to have the fence relocated, and their yard repaird after the construction.  

Anyhow, I hope that helps you out.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

They are all different and again different in various areas. There is no set standard or measurement for right of way width. Over the last hundred years or so, railroads have sold lands, leased them, acquired properties, etcetera. I know the line I work for owns 25 feet from the center of the track on either side in some areas. In other cases, they own 80 percent of the land a small town now occupies.

When ever there's a question about land ownership and usage, I'll see our Operations Manager dig out hundred year old maps, from a collection of several hundred, to find out for sure who owns what.

Just the same, even if a railroad owns land into your yard, it's too bad those guys threw debris on a place where you need to mow grass.

Answer 3

That most likely depends on the region in which you live. Different areas have different laws.