Railroad Crossings

[dperry]

Hello all, first-time poster. :) Planning on section-hiking the AT for about 20 or so years, but will need to wait for a year or two to start due to extreme poverty.:( I'm sure I'll drive you all crazy with questions when the time comes. In the meantime, I still have lots of maps to look at and dream about. I read the book on the web in PDF format where the couple drove to all the interstate crossings, river crossings, etc. Being a train fan, I thought I'd compile a list of all of the railroad crossings as well. Here it is (each entry has location, current owner, and previous owners from the "classic" age of railroading):


Wesser, NC--Great Smoky Mountains RR (tourist railroad--ex-Southern/Norfolk Southern)
Hot Springs, NC--Norfolk Southern (ex-Southern)
Chestoa/Erwin, TN--CSX (ex-Clinchfield)
Between Groseclose and Atkins, VA--NS (ex-Norfolk & Western)
Pearisburg, VA--Two NS lines, (first ex-N&W, second ex-Virginian)
Between Daleville and Troutville, VA--NS (ex-N&W)
The James River, VA--CSX (ex-Chesapeake & Ohio)
Waynesboro, VA--CSX (ex C&O)
Linden, VA--NS (ex-Southern)
Harpers Ferry, WV--Two CSX lines (both ex-B&O); the bigger one is also the MARC Brunswick Line
Pen Mar, MD--CSX (ex-Western Maryland)
South of Mt. Holly Springs, PA--Gettysburg & Northern (ex-Reading)
Boiling Springs, PA--NS (ex-Reading)
New Kingstown, PA--NS (ex-Pennsylvania Railroad)
Duncannon/Susquehanna River, PA--Two NS lines (both ex-PRR, the first the famous Main Line)
Port Clinton, PA--Reading & Northern (ex-Reading)
Palmerton/Lehigh Gap, PA--NS (ex-Central of New Jersey)
Delaware Water Gap, PA--NS (ex-Delaware, Lackawanna & Western/Erie-Lackawanna)
North of Vernon, NJ--New York, Susquehanna & Western (ex-Lehigh & Hudson Valley)
Arden, NY--NS (ex-Erie/Erie-Lackawanna); this is also the Metro-North Port Jervis Line (operated by NJ Transit)
Hudson River, NY--west side, CSX (ex-New York Central), east side, Metro-North Hudson Line (ex-NYC)
Between Poughquag and West Pawling, NY--Metro-North/Housatonic Railroad (ex-New York, New Haven & Hartford)
Between Wingdale and Pawling, NY--Metro-North Harlem Line (ex-NYC)
Between Great Barrington and Sheffield, MA--Housatonic Railroad (ex-New Haven)
Dalton, MA--CSX (ex-Boston & Albany/NYC)
North Adams, MA--Guilford (ex-Boston & Maine)
East Clarendon, VT--Green Mountain Railroad (part of Vermont Railway--ex-Rutland)
West Hartford, VT--New England Central (ex-Central Vermont)
Norwich, VT--Washington County Railroad (also part of Vermont Railway--ex-B&M)
Crawford Notch, NH--Conway Scenic Railroad (tourist railroad--ex-Maine Central)
Mt. Washington Cog Railway (to be completely technical about it)
Gorham, NH--St. Lawrence & Atlantic (ex-Canadian National)
North of Monson, ME--Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (ex-Canadian Pacific)

Corrections, additions, etc. welcome. Also, I would be interested in knowing how many of these are at grade, and how many are by bridge/underpass. I know the two at Duncannon and the two at the Hudson are all crossed by bridge, as well as the two at Harpers Ferry. I'm assuming the one in Maine is at-grade, 'cause they don't build bridges in Maine. :D Any info any others could give would be welcome. Thanks.

[Alligator]

Groseclose and Atkins-grade. It's the only one of the first seven I remember distinctly. There's a rail bridge over the James with a separate footbridge and I think you walk under the rail line.

[bobgessner57]

Dperry:
Just north of Harpers Ferry proper you cross the mainline coming up from DC at Weaverton.
The trail crossing is at grade and it can present a problem because it is not uncommon for trains to be parked there while waiting to enter the yards. I believe a couple of river rats were run over when they tried to cross under a parked train a few years back.

Hot Springs is a grade crossing. Nothing prettier than when a steam excursion train runs through. Folks turn out to watch because you can hear it coming up the river and the whistle echoes up the valley.

Don't forget all the logging railroads. Parts of the trail are old roadbed and the cross beds are too numerous to mention. The old decks and spur sites are clearly visible. Some of the cuts and places that had to be built up with stone or trestle are pretty amazing given the tools those old guys had to work with.

PenMar park has a small museum a few hundred feet off the trail that has a lot of railroad memorabilia from that area.

[dperry]

Don't forget all the logging railroads.
Hi, Bob,

Yeah, my maps don't show all the abandoned railroads, not to mention if I had included all of those the list would probably have been 300 rather than 30 and you all would have died of boredom. :D So I limited it to active lines only.

[Brushy Sage]

As I approached the rail crossing near Atkins, VA, I could hear a train coming near. We arrived at the crossing at virtually the same time. It was a strange, though neat experience for me -- to be standing on the Appalachian Trail while a train crossed in front of me.

[TankHiker]

Interesting. I don't remember crossing a whole lot of them. I think most of the crossings were at grade. The only ones that weren't were on road-walks (when the trail dipped into town to cross a river on a bridge, like Duncannon).

For some reason, my favorite was north of Monson, where Wingfoot warns: "Caution, fast trains!"

-Tank