Abandoned & Out of Service Railroad Lines Map

Abandoned Railroad Tracks Map

Explore Abandoned Railroad Tracks

Looking for abandoned railroad tracks near you? Discover history hiding in plain sight with our map of abandoned and out-of-service railroad lines. It’s most accurate in North America, and we’re adding new lines across the world every day. Know of a line we’re missing? Submit a line to help complete our map!

If you find this resource valuable, please consider a one-time, monthly, or yearly contribution to support this website. Your generosity helps sustain the visibility of this and other maps. Thank you!

Abandoned Railroad Map Preview

Click to load the interactive map
Open map directly in Google Maps (mobile)

About the Map

The abandoned railroad map is a valuable resource for history enthusiasts interested in the evolution of transportation. This crowd-sourced map is regularly updated with abandoned, disused, and out-of-service railroads worldwide, including many that have been converted into hiking and biking trails.

Legal classifications of railroad property (e.g., rail-banked, out-of-service, disused, mothballed, or abandoned) are not used here. Our goal is to show where trains no longer run, regardless of the legal status. If you're interested in active heritage or tourist trains, check out our Heritage Trains Map.

Using Map Data

This map is owned and maintained by Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit. Any data gathered from this map should provide a link and citation. It is available for free; commercial use requires prior approval. For inquiries, email railtrace91@gmail.com.

© Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit, 2024

Popular posts from this blog

The Underwater Water Slide: Fly Over at Durinrell TikiBad

Image
Have you ever wished to experience being transferred from one pool of liquid to another via a pipe? Had you visited the Dutch water park known as Durinrell , also known as Tikibad before 2010, you would have had the chance. Half water slide, half war crime, this was a unique water slide that was filled to the brim with water, leaving riders completely submerged throughout the journey. Image:  XtremeRidesNL Known as the Fly Over was an underwater water slide, which is exactly how it sounds, and transported riders from one pool to another using the water as propulsion. Built in 1994, riders dove underwater to access the slide, using gravity to transport them upwards via the Communicating Vessels Principle . Riders would be completely underwater for about 15-20 seconds. This is how I imagine those 15-20 seconds felt like while riding the slide. The slide was built to drain water in five seconds or less in case a rider got stuck in the slide or had a medical emergency, but the threat tha
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i
Read more

The Abandoned Route 66 in McCook, IL

Image
Route 66, the iconic "Main Street of America," weaves through the heart of the United States, connecting communities and embodying the spirit of adventure. However, not all sections of this historic highway have stood the test of time. While much of the former US 66 is drivable in one way or another, especially in Illinois, there are some parts are not.  One of the first such roadblocks for would-be travelers heading from Chicago to Los Angeles via the Mother Road, now known as Joliet Road, comes just outside of Chicago in McCook, IL, where the former highway is closed between 55th St and East Ave, and has been for over two decades. (Link to the location on our Ghost Towns Map ) Image: Google Maps at 55th and Joliet Rd in McCook, IL The land that the quarry would eventually take over was part of Stinson Airport in the early days of Route 66, dating back to before 1930. ( Abandoned Airports map ). 1938 USGS Aerial Imagery The quarrying on the south side of the road would
Read more