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Old 02-28-2015, 07:46 AM
 
46 posts, read 58,502 times
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Originally Posted by MissMillyDee View Post
My husband and I are moving to the area this summer, so we are doing some preliminary house hunting online. On the Huntsville side, we are looking in the Grissom High School area. I have found three houses I would like to see in person in South East Huntsville between Green Cove and Mountain Gap, but they are really close to the railroad tracks. Is this a problem? How much traffic is there on the tracks that run parallel to 231? Also, how busy are the tracks in Madison parallel to 72? Is it a "deal breaker" in either case?
This track (through S. Huntsville) is just an old industrial spur. The only trains that run on that are short trains delivering to a few industries down by Ditto Landing. It is essentially a dead end track (it does not cross the river). I don't have an exact count but would be surprised if there were 2 trains a week that ran on that spur.

Back in 1984, the track was abandoned by the original rail line (L&N) because there wasn't enough traffic to justify the maintenance that was needed. At that time the Huntsville and Madison County Railroad Authority was formed to keep it open as an incentive for industrial development down there. You can see a few VERY old locomotives (switcher engines) in the small yard just off Memorial Parkway by I565. The engines are marked HMCR.

The main rail line through Huntsville runs east-west through from Decatur (where there is the bridge over the Tennessee River) to Madison to Huntsville and on through Scottsboro. That line sees a decent amount of traffic.

Last edited by PB4Y2; 02-28-2015 at 08:00 AM..
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Old 02-28-2015, 08:44 AM
 
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At one time, early 80's IIRC, there was a tourist steam train that ran from downtown to Ditto. Seems there were some legal issues with the railroad that owned the spur which resulted in the tourist train being shut down.
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Old 02-28-2015, 01:46 PM
 
396 posts, read 664,908 times
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Originally Posted by SarahBellum View Post
At one time, early 80's IIRC, there was a tourist steam train that ran from downtown to Ditto. Seems there were some legal issues with the railroad that owned the spur which resulted in the tourist train being shut down.
I did not know about the tourist train. Sorry it didn't last. It would have been a great asset to the Huntsville area.
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Old 02-28-2015, 02:35 PM
 
46 posts, read 58,502 times
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When this line was originally built about a hundred years ago, the line went down to Ditto Landing where railcars were loaded on to ferries and taken up river to Guntersville where they were unloaded to a rail going to Atlanta.
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Old 02-28-2015, 02:37 PM
 
46 posts, read 58,502 times
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Originally Posted by denofhc View Post
I did not know about the tourist train. Sorry it didn't last. It would have been a great asset to the Huntsville area.

There is still a tourist train but it doesn't run from downtown. It goes from Chase to somewhere around A&M and back.

North Alabama Railroad Museum, Huntsville, Alabama
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