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Since this seems to be a place for wide knowlege of all things rail, I was wondering if someone could quench my curiosity.Last summer my wife and I were travelling through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and just east of the Wisconsin border (less than 100 miles?) We came upon a railline that had literally miles and miles of apparently parked (abandoned?) railcars. They seemed to be from all sorts of varied roads and consisted of mostly boxcars and hoppers. At first I thought it was a parked train but it soon became apparent that these cars were going nowhere soon as small trees could be seen growing up between them. The only breaks were for crossings. I thought some might be ready for scrapping as they were old old steel boxcars but then there were many much newer looking cars without a spot of rust.So, does anyone know what these cars were there for? Are they being stored as surplus or for scrap? I'm not even sure that they may be stranded there because much of what looks like the continuation of the tracks has been abandoned and the track pulled up.It's a curiosity to me as I've never seen the like anywhere else. It may indeed be common but I've never seen it in many trips across the continent.I wish I had taken pictures. I certainly will the next time I go through there. In the meantime if anyone has any info on this oddity (to me)I would be thankfulTrainfully YourBill
It is possible that they are a train. It's possible that they were part of a train headed to a location but something washed out and the train was just left there. That happens rarely.
Bill,The cars are probably in storage. There is a shortline in Texas west of Fort Worth going to a town called Commanche that has thousands of cars in storage. All types and mostly if not all privately owned. The road received a daily fee for each of the cars stored there. It is a good way to make money, if you have the needed sidings!I would expect that most cars that are being scrapped are just brought in and dismantled, not stored as it costs money. There is a place in Kansas City, Kansas a few miles west of the Argentine Yards (BNSF) that handles all sorts of surplus railroad equipment. They would be sent to such a facility for disposal.
