Farming on the railroad

Anonymous-0 · Mar 12, 2015

Sum time in the past I read an article about the railroads abandoning some of their right a ways and farmers were plowing them up and planting corn,etc. Of course they did it after the rails and cross tyes were taken up. The field might be two miles long and only 100 feet wide.
Do any of yo'all know of anyone that has done this of farming? If so how did it turn uot?

Dick2 · Mar 12, 2015

Knew a guy that worked for the railroad; he was the lease agent to rent right of way land to farmers in the North Dakota and Montana.

Once the railroad right of way is abandoned, normally the land would return to the current landowner. I would be concerned about the rock/gravel used for the track ballast; might be had on farm implements.

Bob Collins · Mar 12, 2015

Just a half mile down the road from me the RR was taken out about 20 years ago. The farmer who owns on each side of the right-of-way spent LOTS of time with a D-8 and lots of other construction machinery over a couple of years removing trees and grading the land back to original, hard to tell now that there was a track there. Except for the ease of farming across it and allowing the center pivot access, I can't see it was profit making to do it.

Dean · Mar 12, 2015

Land disposition depends upon the type of right of way that the railroad holds, whether they legally abandon it, and state law.

Situations will vary.

Dean

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Mar 12, 2015

Also, do not overlook the amount of creosote in the soil that has seeped out from the ties, chemicals that have been sprayed for weed and brush control over the years, and depending on what the tracks were used for various material or chemicals that have leaked out form carelessly secured cars. Many of the companies that load the cars are very careless about securing hoppers, valves, caps, etc.

old-9 · Mar 12, 2015

Several years ago a local RR was abandoned, I don't know about the land part but the ballast was auctioned off. Local contractors bought it and trucked it off. I got a few loads for my lane, cheap gravel. joe

Arnold Layne · Mar 12, 2015

The vast majority of railroads here have been pulled out and farmed over, no real ill affects that I know of, some have been gone ten years and some one hundred. The only one I have actually farmed was one of the 100 years gone models.

Brendon Warren · Mar 12, 2015

My dads farm was cut in two by a railroad track. He dug it out and used the fill for roads on the farm. We now have 80 acres in one piece. The railroad was then sold to a local cable company to run fiber optic line. The were sure surprised when they got to our place and the railroad was gone. The DEC police were called. I remember the conversation he had with dad. "Gordie, you can't do that." My dad simply replied " Well, I already did" We never heard another peep about it. The railroad trestle is still on our farm but the bridge is gone. It has some beautiful stonework. We spent countless hours fishing and playing there when we were kids. I'll have to get some pictures for you guys this spring.

BANDITFARMER · Mar 12, 2015

My cousin had a rail run threw his place that they abandoned, It was a single track so the right of way was only 75 feet. As in most lines that are abandoned they were not maintained and overgrown with trees and brush and wildlife called it home. He cleared the old fence lines trees and brush off and leveled off part of the old line two make 2 fields into one again. His yields went up and the ground was dryer as the dam had been removed and the natural drainage resumed. No more ground hogs and no more deer hiding spots and no more trees sucking up the moisture from his crops.

Other sections were cleared off re-graded and he now stores round bales on the old gravel road bed and says he looses very little hay because it keeps the water away from the hay. Other parts of the old line became short cuts to other fields. There was a lot of gravel rock and cinders we moved and used else ware on the farm.

There are companies that will buy right of ways from the rail roads simply to strip them. More scrap metal there than you would think, There maybe timber to sell, large building stones from old culverts and tons of stone and gravel to be sold. Its cheaper to take an end loader and scrap up gravel than it is to dig it out of the ground. How many tons of gravel do you think are in a mile? More than you think. And when there done they can sell it to adjoining property owner for what they gave for it or more. Bandit

hd6gtom · Mar 12, 2015

rr was abandoned here, track, ties and ballast were removed. The law here says the Land reverted to the farm that it came from. If the farmer wanted to clear it that was up to him. Some of it was stolen from the surrounding land owners and made into bike trails. Some of the farmers that had the money to fight this were able to take possession of the ground that was legally theirs.

Bob · Mar 12, 2015

"Once the railroad right of way is abandoned, normally the land would return to the current landowner."

DOESN'T work that way in North Dakota.

BNSF abandoned 19 miles of line here, which passes though 2 quarters of land I own.

Steel and ties were sold and salvaged.

Sheriff was asked to watch for anyone taking crushed rock/ballast, as it will be salvaged.

Then, land is offered to local govt. entities for public use (example bike or horseback trail), THEN (eventually), we adjoining landowners will get first chance to BUY it at "fair market value".

This has been going on for YEARS, and has become a noxious weed infested abandoned wasteland that we are not allowed to use with NO indication as to when we get to BUY it!

paul · Mar 12, 2015

Don't know if the link works, they limit you to 3 per whatever views.... Search for 'farm show worlds longest cornfield' if the link doesn't work.

That is a relative of mine. Son runs it now.

Paul

Part of the story:

Leo Scherer can drive for 20 miles and never lose sight of his crops but the Evan, Minn., farmer's field is just 32 rows, or 96 ft., wide.
Scherer's stretched-out field is actually an old railroad right-of-way that's being converted back to farmland. He leases the land from a company that bought it and plans to eventually sell it back to the farmers whose land borders on it. But first it has to be brought back into farming shape.
Farming the field, which runs from near Evan to Redwood Falls, Minn., demands planning and patience. Scherer says the ground is full of junk ù spikes, wires, planks, and other stuff. Some of it damages his equipment, such as one large creosoted board that did $250 worth of damage to his plow.
Longest corn field

WAYNE-N-TX · Mar 12, 2015

There's RR ROW between my home and the high way. If I want it, I have to buy it, they want more for the ROW than I paid for the place per acre and they keep the minerals rights. They own most of it and have right to over & out (called a easement now) for the rest. You have to pay the same amount for all of it. Union Pacific claims they have the right to sell the easement part, even though someone actually owns the land already. I know, it don't make sense. It would wear out a D7 just get it where it would be usable.

Tim(nj) · Mar 12, 2015

It also depends on how the RR acquired the right of way originally. 'Here' we had lines that were built on an easement, where the RR paid for the right to cross the property. When those tracks were abandoned, the ROW went back to said property. Then there were lines where the RR bought the ROW outright and had a deed of ownership. When those were abandoned, they were sold just like any other property subdivision, although the property owners adjacent were given right of first refusal. If the ROW was acquired by government land grant (unaware of any of those in NJ), then after abandonment, the land belongs to the government entity that granted the ROW to the RR.

Ray · Mar 12, 2015

The railroads sprayed the right of way for years with stuff to kill anything that grows,some of it lasting for years.Not to mention all the oil from trains and soil compaction.I doubt they are
abandoned,the railroad still holds ownership.

mtny · Mar 12, 2015

Our farm was cut in two by a railroad until 1982 or so. They came through and offered it to adjoining landowners first . It was 4 acres for $1800. Gave us 165 acres contiguous. We gave some of the gravel to the town , sold some also . It will grow corn and alfalfa but you can see a difference . I built my house on part of it also. My neighbor in pa , right on the border, got screwed they auctioned it off by townships . Guy that bought thinks it's worth a fortune , asks unrealistic price for it so they just cross it because they have an easement .

redforlife · Mar 12, 2015

Local railroad line where I live was taken out. For the most part, just about the whole way the strip of property reverted back to the owner of the adjoining property. Not sure if they had to pay for it or not, but thats how it pretty much turned out. Never a completely new owner that didn't own the property the RR went through. Alot of ballast had to be removed, and alot of trees needed cut before most of it could be farmed again. Even after that, most had to be leveled up with a bulldozer. Anyone that turned it back into farmland probly pretty much earned it without having to pay anything for it.

Eldon (WA) · Mar 12, 2015

(quoted from post at 06:43:39 03/12/15) "Once the railroad right of way is abandoned, normally the land would return to the current landowner."

DOESN'T work that way in North Dakota.

BNSF abandoned 19 miles of line here, which passes though 2 quarters of land I own.

Steel and ties were sold and salvaged.

Sheriff was asked to watch for anyone taking crushed rock/ballast, as it will be salvaged.

Then, land is offered to local govt. entities for public use (example bike or horseback trail), THEN (eventually), we adjoining landowners will get first chance to BUY it at "fair market value".

This has been going on for YEARS, and has become a noxious weed infested abandoned wasteland that we are not allowed to use with NO indication as to when we get to BUY it!

I think it is/was the same way in South Dakota. I have a quarter of land next to an old rr right of way in SD that was abandoned probably 40 years ago. I didn't own the land at the time, and a neighbor bought up the right of way. It was a pretty good chunk of land and I think he got it for pennies. It might have been offered to the landowner, but he lived in CA and probably had no interest in buying it.

sms · Mar 12, 2015

We drove across Canada in 1974 and saw farmers cutting and baleing the hay from the medians and shoulders of the highway, thought it was a great idea.

C. Amick · Mar 12, 2015

They do the same thing in Europe including spreading manure on the shoulders and median of highways. I've also seen grassed areas fenced off in rest areas with animals grazing. They don't have as much grass available as we do.

Frank 41 · Mar 12, 2015

The city folks around here are trying to take them over for bike paths. There was a local lawyer that got some, as it was to have been, reclaimed back to the original owner, the city. Trying to get other locations reclaimed would go back to the government so that is hopeless.

Eldon (WA) · Mar 12, 2015

(quoted from post at 18:14:22 03/12/15) They do the same thing in Europe including spreading manure on the shoulders and median of highways. I've also seen grassed areas fenced off in rest areas with animals grazing. They don't have as much grass available as we do.

Farmers have always been allowed to cut the ditches in South Dakota....

JMS/.MN · Mar 12, 2015

In MN, seems like they all go to bike paths. Adjoining owners complain about litter, defecating, noise from users. County just north of me put in a walking path.....tore out the existing bridge that carried trains for years, and spent over a million Legacy bucks for a ridiculously heavy steel bridge, to carry the weight of the walkers. Legacy money is an additional 3/8ths of one percent sales tax that idiots voted in.

ss55 · Mar 13, 2015

MN is rebuilding old railroad lines as state multi-use trails: snowmobiles, bikes, horses, and running on a common trail. Cross country skiing is also allowed, but in reality it's not too safe around speeding snowmobiles. Bridges are rated 15 tons to support trail grooming and maintenance equipment. Iowa is doing similar. Less cost and fewer hassles than using eminent domain to build new trails parallel to roads and highways.

In the 60's the county straightened a road through dad's farm. They stripped off the gravel and leveled the old roadbed and ditches, but you can still see the soil and yield differences. The county agent jokingly classified it as "man-made soil".

Weldcase · Mar 13, 2015

I know a farmer in Holland, who in the '80s had hay fields in between the runways at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. When he needed to cross the runway, he had to ask clearance from the tower.
He also was required to paint all his tractor canopies with red and white stripes on there.

Bret4207 · Mar 13, 2015

(quoted from post at 10:26:58 03/12/15) My dads farm was cut in two by a railroad track. He dug it out and used the fill for roads on the farm. We now have 80 acres in one piece. The railroad was then sold to a local cable company to run fiber optic line. The were sure surprised when they got to our place and the railroad was gone. The DEC police were called. I remember the conversation he had with dad. "Gordie, you can't do that." My dad simply replied " Well, I already did" We never heard another peep about it. The railroad trestle is still on our farm but the bridge is gone. It has some beautiful stonework. We spent countless hours fishing and playing there when we were kids. I'll have to get some pictures for you guys this spring.

Any idea exactly why DEC told Gordie he wasn't supposed to do that? You remember Gary Crowe over in Heuvelton? He bought Cecil Wells farms and removed all the ballast and not a word was said by any one. Lots of that done around Heuvelton. I can't imagine why DEC would get involved at all.

Farming on the railroad

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