Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1911 — THEIR LIVES SHORT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THEIR LIVES SHORT

MANY ABANDONED RAILROADS IN UNITED STATES. Records Show 81 Steel Highways Whose Use Has Been Discontinued—Reasons Ascribed for ' Their Being Given Up. Records for 1910 show that in the United States there are 81 abandoned

railroads. From 18 the rails have been removed and 34 are described as “not in operation” or "operation suspended.” In regard to the first class, the franchises seem to have expired by disuse, but the tracks are Still in evidence; tn the second .class the company has pulled up stakes and quit, in. the third a variety of causes may have contributed to the stopping of wheels.

says the Railroad Man’s Magazine. The shutting down of the railroad may simply mean that it has outlived its usefulness. The neighborhood served by the line may have developin a fashion that the builders hardly contemplated and with which the rails and rolling stock are incapable of dealing. , Along comes capitaland either gobbles up the little road altogether or puts It out of businessby offering the traveling public facilities and accommodations that it can-, not attempt to rival. It is really prosperity that shuts down such a road. Then there have been roads built on the basis of the anticipated boom of a resort, a town or a section. The hope of the boomers not being realized the line goes into the discard. Again, the initial promises of a mining district are such that a line, is built for its benefit. The district doesn’t pan out or -goes barren after a time, and in consequence the road is abandoned. The same is true of regions in. which the natural resources are many or enticing, notably in those that yield oil. The disuse of lumber road* is inevitable also. The timber states are jotted with the remains of rusty rights of way, and almost every year adds to their number. In many cases electricity has taken the place of steam where the line is a short one and used chiefly for pas- 1 senger traffic. Sometimes where this has happened it has been found cheaper to build a new road than to tinker with the old one ,and so the latter is ticketed “abandoned.” One of the smallest and perhaps most unprofitable railroads in the United States was the abandoned Kentucky Northern that ran from Slncoe, Ky., to a junction with the Louisville & Atlantic railroad, a distance of eight miles. It was incorporated in May 1992. From the first it proved to be a drain on The pocketbooks of the stockholders. The but-. rounding population seems to have i. disliked the line. Not enough passenger tickets were sold and not enough freight was shipped to pay for the keeping of one locomotive, its lone passenger coach or its solitary flat car. ,In the year ended June, 1908,. its operating expenses were >12,333 and its net earnings >697. About this time it was concluded that the wisest, plan would be to abandon the road. A whole group of railroads that| once had their termini tn Cincinnatihave either had 'their rails taken up or are not in operation, the reason being their practical absorption by near-by large railroad interests.