Rediscovering our history with the land, settlements, and how we moved from place to place.
Most amusement park enthusiasts point toward the original Bat at King's Island as the world's first, permanent, suspended roller coaster. And in the modern era, this is true, as it ran from 1981-1983. But the world's first suspended roller coaster was actually built roughly 80 years before The Bat, at the Long Beach Pike in Long Beach, CA. Known as Bisby's Spiral Airship , it was built in 1910.…
It's been awhile since I've made a state level map of any of the US States, but I got a recent request to map the State of New Mexico, and figured it was time to put another feather in my cap! New Mexico's railroad history extends far beyond the busy mainlines that still cross the state today. From mining railroads in the mountains to agricultural branch lines on the plains, hundreds of miles of…
In 1902, the Manchester Dorset and Granville Railroad was chartered as a subsidiary of the Norcross‑West Marble Company to haul prized Dorset white marble to finishers in Manchester so it could be shipped on to major cities, most prominently New York City, roughly 200 miles south. From the Manchester, VT instagram page: " From 1904 to 1925, the Manchester, Dorset & Granville Railroad line,…
Almost eight (!) years ago, I came up with my own list of ideas for new rail trails in the Chicago area , that might piggyback off of the success that The 606 Trail has had with regards to community redevelopment, developing excellent bike infrastructure, and connecting neighborhoods across Chicago's North Side. One of the proposals at that time was just gaining steam, the Englewood Trail, which…
Block 61 at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie has a rare quality that I'm always seemingly chasing: the feeling that something important used to be here… and that the land is still deciding what to do with it. Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is a federally protected prairie reserve near Wilmington, Illinois, managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Established in 1996, it is the first national…
There are very few single lane bridges in northeast Illinois remaining, and for mostly good reasons, as the ones that remain are typically substandard and have a streak of being hit by box trucks . Nonetheless, one that I was very sad to see close was in the town adjacent to my hometown, Plainfield's truss bridge over the DuPage River. Roger McCredie, Photographer, December 1991 In a historical…
If you ever find yourself on a drive down Addison Road between North Avenue and Lake Street, you pass a strangely wide strip of land on the west side of the road - too broad for a sidewalk, too linear for a park, too empty to be accidental. That strip once carried a railroad. There were two Addison Railroads that operated in the United States, one in Illinois and one in Vermont, and each had no…
Across the American landscape, the physical remnants of infrastructure often outlast the memories of the people who built it. Rail alignments fade into forests, canals become property lines, and tunnels persist long after their original purpose is forgotten. Few sites better illustrate this imbalance between enduring infrastructure and erased labor than Hawks Nest, West Virginia , a place where…
Nestled along the eastern shore of Utah Lake, beneath the looming presence of the Wasatch Mountains, the Geneva Steel Plant in Vineyard, Utah stood for decades as one of the most consequential industrial sites in the American West. (Location on our Ghost Towns map) For much of the mid to late twentieth century, Geneva Steel was not just a factory. It was a place that reshaped landscapes,…
In the context of railway infrastructure, "Transcontinental" typically refers to the original Transcontinental Railroad , particularly in the United States. But very few pieces of infrastructure can truly be considered transcontinental. One that can be considered is Egypt's El Ferdan Railway Bridge ( Google Maps ), which is a dual swing bridge that spans the Suez Canal , connecting Africa with…
The Dodge City Montezuma & Trinidad Railway was a short-lived railroad operating between Dodge City and Montezuma, KS. ( Right of Way ) Looking at a modern rail map of southwest Kansas, one might reasonably assume that Dodge City and Montezuma have always been connected by the same railroad. After all, the two towns remain linked by rail today. Photo: City of Montezuma, KS But this apparent…
I try my best on this blog to stay out of current political matters and almost always stay out of social issues. That said, I cannot stay about the threats to the rails to trails movement as we know it. Across the United States, there are old rail corridors that never quite disappeared. We have visited many of them on this blog: lines where rusted steel and weed-choked ballast once marked an…
At first glance, there is nothing remarkable about Roy Hoppy Hopkins Drive. It cuts a clean arc through southern De Soto Parish, Louisiana, serving industrial traffic that moves between the parish’s plants and the industrial park. Or at least, it would if there was any actual activity in the Ward II Industrial Park , which as of late 2025, appears completely barren. Yet this road surrounds a much…
Tucked off a narrow, unpaved dead-end road just south of the hamlet of Dover Plains in Dutchess County, New York , lies a place that seems suspended in time, and drenched in myth. That place is Oniontown . Despite being only roughly 1½ hours by car from the bright lights of New York City , it sits in what feels like a remote no-man’s-land of folklore, suspicion, and social neglect. Richard Wilcox…
If you zoom far enough into Cook County’s parcel data , you’ll find something strange. Beneath the steady roar of the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) under the lanes of traffic, the CTA Blue Line tracks, and the median embankments, lies a full grid of property parcels. Every one has a unique PIN, neat cyan lines drawn as though the houses, alleys, and corner lots were still there. To the eye, it’s…
The Hanford Site , also referred to as Hanford Engineer Works or Site W, is a decommissioned nuclear production complex located along the Columbia River in Benton County, Washington. Established in 1943, it was a secret facility of the Manhattan Project , selected for its abundant river water, hydroelectric power, mild climate, strong transport links, and remote location. Image: United States…
Do you want to run a railway, but can't afford a steam engine? Do you have 4 horses? Well, have we got a solution for you! The Impulsoria was a locomotive constructed in 1850 that was powered by horses on a treadmill following a design by Clemente Masserano . The locomotive came at a time when steam engines had been state-of-the-art technology for at least two decades, but when some railways still…
I have once again received more information on this line thanks to the generous help of Brisan Comstock! If anyone has more information on some of our other articles, we are always accepting help towards making each post as accurate as possible! The Missouri Southern Railroad ran an approximately 53 mile line between Bunker, MO, and Leeper, MO, where it connected with the St. Louis Iron Mountain &…
Several years ago, our friend and occasional guest-blogger JetLaggedJaff made a visit to Toronto and the CN Tower , which he was kind enough to share with us. Recently, we made the trip down to downtown Toronto to visit the Toronto Railway Museum ourselves, which is nestled in the heart of the former Railway Lands , adjacent to the aforementioned CN Tower. For any fan of railway history or urban…
It's been almost eight years since I began tracing the tracks of railroad corridors across Illinois, the United States, and the rest of the world, after having first notices the numerous rights of way while not working and browsing aerial images on Google Maps. A lot has changed over that time, some things have been obvious; others, such as the development of artificial intelligence, have been…
Just outside the desert frontier town of Uyuni, Bolivia—a gateway to the world’s largest salt flats—lies a surreal tableau frozen in time. Strewn across a barren, wind-scoured plain, dozens of steam locomotives and railcars slump in an eternal repose. This is the * Cementerio de Trenes *, the Locomotive Graveyard in English, a haunting monument to ambition, industry, and the relentless march of…
The Division Street Bridge in Lockport, IL is currently closed to all traffic (including pedestrian traffic) and hidden behind growth. It once carried traffic across the Des Plaines River, although lost importance once the IL 7 bridge was completed. Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit photo (Jan. 2025) The bridge approach is only accessible via IL 53 on the west side of the Des Plaines…
Across the rolling hills and rugged landscapes of western Ireland, one can find peculiar relics of a dark chapter in the island’s history. These are the Famine Roads - routes that climb into the hills, twist through valleys, and often end abruptly, leading nowhere. Their haunting presence is a testament to the desperation and suffering endured by countless Irish peasants during the Great Famine of…
In addition to the abandoned railroad , Route 66, and its two interstate highways, my hometown of Bolingbrook has (had) another gem that piqued my interest as a kid, one that I never got to see, Old Chicago Amusement Park. Today's blog represents the culmination of the most research and work I've done on anything on this website, mostly because I was attempting to make a book out of this, but I…
The Puerto Deseado Railway ran from Puerto Deseado north to Las Heras in Argentina's Santa Cruz Province until 1978. ( Right of way ) It was intended to spur development into the sparsely populated Patagonia region, but was never extended past its western terminus at Las Heras, and thus had little success in this regard. Even 40 years after the railway was built, it served a population of only…