street running

Norfolk & Western excursion steam-engine 4-8-4 #611 on 19th St. in Erie. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the SpotMatic.)

The April 2008 issue of my Trains Magazine has an interesting article, a treatment of railroad street running, the operation of a railroad right in the street, sharing the street with automotive and pedestrian traffic. —Railroads normally have a separated right-of-way.
So far I have only seen one street railway operation: the old Nickel Plate mainline on 19th St. in Erie, PA (pictured above); where Norfolk Southern freight trains operated right down the street.
Norfolk & Western Railway bought the Nickel Plate, so their trains operated right in the street. —N&W since merged with giant Southern Railway to become Norfolk Southern.
The 19th St. mainline didn’t agree with Nickel Plate’s angle to offer high speed service.
It had to be operated at 10-15 mph.
New York Central had street-running long ago in Syracuse, and Pennsy originally had street-running in Lancaster, PA. Both were bypassed.
The 19th St. line is also gone.
Norfolk Southern managed to get trackage-rights on the old New York Central line through Erie — previously Michigan Central, then Conrail, now CSX.
Street-running is dreadful.
Trains are dodging automobiles. You can’t stop a train like a car.
You have to have faith the car-drivers will avoid the train. A train can’t take evasive action. It’s path is predetermined by the track, and it can’t stop.
At least on Delaware Ave. in Philly, which fronted the river, a train might only be a few cars. They were servicing the piers. (I drove Delaware Ave. long ago; it was back-and-forth across the tracks.)
But 19th St. in Erie was a long freight train.
The worst street-running operation is Jack London Square in the Embarcado in Oakland, CA, terminus of the old Western Pacific Railroad.
The original California Zephyr, which used the WP in Californy, loaded right in the street.
Freight trains still originate in the street — WP is now Union Pacific.
One common street-running challenge is cars parked too close to the tracks.
This ties up everything, although I’ve seen it on industrial spurs too.
The train can’t move until the car is moved, and the car’s driver is long-gone.
And sometimes the industry’s rail-siding is closed off by a gate, and no one is around to unlock the gate.
The railroad crew can’t place the freight car, and then, of course, the industry blames the railroad and switches to trucks.

“#611” has since been retired.

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the SpotMatic.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). The “Spotmatic” is my old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by a Nikon D100 digital camera.

“Nickel Plate” is the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, Buffalo to the midwest (it never actually served New York City). It was called “Nickel Plate” by a scion of the competing New York Central because it was so competitive. NC&STL was eventually renamed “Nickel Plate.”

“Pennsy” is the Pennsylvania Railroad, no longer in existence. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world.

“Philly” is Philadelphia.