ownership question

i was wondering how much land does a railroad own around their track? I know this really probably depends but just in general. and how is the selling or buying price usually determined?

 

When the first transcontinental rr was built, Congress, USA, authorized the Espee and UP to own land like 10 miles either side of all the track they laid. (10 miles? Something outrageous like that.) At the end, after the golden spike was driven, they continued to lay track just to get the land. In later years, around 1900, Espee used this land and the mineral rights to drill for oil and power their engines with it. Espee was completely converted to oil by 1905. Signal Hill oil was discovered in California in 1903. Only the New Mexico sunset route did not convert to oil and that is because Espee had cheap coal there. The AC9s were especially made to burn New Mexico coal.

[edit] Also, in the aborted ATSF/SP merger, the ROW Espee land was one of the things that ATSF kept after the merger was called off. It was very valuable.

Also, Espee was the only major rr in the USA to not file bankruptcy during the great depression of the 1930s.

Also, IMHO, the only rr in the US richer and more powerful than the Espee was the Pennsylvania rr. In the 40 year decline of the two rr's, PRR shut down before the Espee probably because Espee owned all that land. It made about a 20 year difference. Of course, PRR never had a chance to acquire land in that manner.

Was that off topic? Too early here!

[ April 27, 2005, 04:09 AM: Message edited by: sapacif ]

 

Burlington Northern supposedly owned the Peak of Mt. St. Helens when it exploded. In fact they owned much of the devistated land and sold much of it to Weyerhauser (which is why on the road to the Volcano observatory you see trqact after tract of weyerhauser reforestion with post 1981 dates.