Seriously dodgy permanent way!

[skinner75]

Came across these vids on a youtube session. Some seriously poor track conditions, on a most likely very lightly used branch line in the US. The line is the Maumee and Western Railroad in Cecil Ohio.

 

The first one looks like a derailment is inevitable! The Burma Road would be in better shape I reckon

 

 

update on the line above:

 

same line again:

[burnthebox]

I would be inclined to think that even taking photos / videos of those rail lines would be in itself dangerous, nay even suisdal, just go's to show, it seems that only the goods trains run ! creep along it, thanks for posting,

Edited July 15, 2017 by burnthebox

[DiveController]

It would not pay (nor would the passengers) to have passenger traffic on the line. Most rail in the US is freight as that is what is profitable given the geography of the country (seemingly even at those speeds, no perishables, mind)

[Mayner]

Interesting to see the traffic is mostly in box cars rather than covered hoppers which is pretty much the staple in grain growing area of the mid-West. A lot of the duplicate traffic that was spun off by the Class 1 was bought by the State or City Government (to maintain rail connections to local industries) and the operation contracted out to a shortline operator.

 

The Norfolk & Western absorbed the Nickel Plate and Wabash which served much the same area during the 1960s and used the best bits of the two systems to form a link from the East Coast to Chicago and St Louis.(The West). The whole dynamic in the North East change with the break up of Conrail between Norfolk Southern & CSX about 20 years ago resulting in both companies operating competing New York-Chicago routes a condition that hadn't existed since the mid 1960s.