Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Is railroading still a thing?
A railfan, rail buff, or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast or railway buff (Australian/British English), trainspotter or anorak (British English, usually derogatory) is a person interested, recreationally, in rail transport.[1][2] Railfans of many ages can be found worldwide. Railfans often combine their interest with other hobbies, especially photography and videography, radio scanning, model railroading, studying railroad history and participating in railway station and rolling stock preservation efforts. Magazines dedicated to railfanning include Trains and Railfan & Railroad.
While things might have seemed good on the surface, there were bad things in the progress of the railroad being finished. There were rises in drops in the progress of extending the railroad, and a telegraph was sent in 1907 saying that they weren't continuing the extension. This was because the workers believed that they were getting insufficient pay. With extension ground to a halt, the railroad was stuck being a 37.52-mile-long railroad from East Branch to Arkville, New York, where it met the Ulster & Delaware. There wasn't enough money being made from the passenger service in the small Delaware County towns, and the railroad was headed straight for bankruptcy. A wreck also took place in 1908. It took place in Arena, New York, where a train had collapsed on the weak rails and sent it into the river below. This cut into service on the line by holding up trains trying to go by. The railroad went bankrupt in 1911, when it had five locomotives, and it was re-organized later that year as the Delaware and Northern Railroad.
William T. Walters of Baltimore, Maryland formed a holding company, in 1889, later called the Atlantic Coast Line of five consecutive railroads starting with the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad and connecting all the way to Charleston, South Carolina. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad bought the Petersburg Railroad in 1893. In March 1898, the Petersburg Railroad was merged into the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, which was renamed to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad of Virginia. In 1900, all five railroads were merged to form the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad from Richmond all the way to Augusta, Georgia. This track is still used today by Amtrak and CSX.
In 1879, the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad was leased to the Old Colony Railroad, but on October 1 of that same year it still extended its lease of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad to 998 years. On September 10, 1881, the Framingham and Lowell Railroad was deeded on execution sale to the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg, and New Bedford Railroad and renamed to the Lowell and Framingham Railroad Company. The sale resulted in the railroad's largest network with 126.2 miles of track system-wide.
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad reached Neosho in 1870. The A& P eventually became the San Francisco and St Louis railroad. In 1878, Neosho was incorporated and the first permanent courthouse was constructed in the center of the town square. In 1887 the Kansas City-Fort Smith and Southern Railroad entered Neosho. The KCFS& S served the Neosho National Fish Hatchery, the oldest Federal Fish Hatchery still operating today, which was built the following year. This railroad was eventually sold to the Kansas City Southern Railroad which still operates and runs through Neosho today.
Lastly, Tera filled in the vocal. One thing that they never had suspected was that Tera's high pitched voice was actually too high the technology that time. Even when the microphone was a good quality one, and Tera had tried so hard to keep a proper distance during the recording, her vocal still off peak every time the songs got intensified. So she had to hold her vocal a little bit. In "Crossing the Railroad" album she put a lot of influence from Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and Alanis Morissette.
Today, remnants of the original Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad can still be found in and around Lubbock, Texas. Pieces of the main line to the West, once running to Crosbyton, can still be seen along East Municipal Drive in Lubbock. Main line track still exists, connecting to the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway lines running through Lubbock. Not much else is left of the original Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad.
Joplin is served by the mainline of the Kansas City Southern (KCS) railroad, as well as by branchlines of the BNSF Railway and Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad (MNA). The city was once a beehive of railroad activity; however, many of the original railroad lines serving Joplin, such as the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, were abandoned after the demise of the mining and industrial enterprises. The Missouri and North Arkansas had connected Joplin with Helena, Arkansas. Passenger trains have not served the city since the 1960s. The Joplin Union Depot is still intact along the KCS mainline, and efforts are underway to restore it. Despite the decline in some rail lines in and around Joplin during the past five decades, many of the original lines still remain. Aside from the former Frisco Railroad route from Joplin to Webb City and the Carthage to Wichita, Kansas, lines that have since been converted into bike/hike trails, most of the original routes still remain in place under the control of the BNSF, KCS, and M&NA railroad companies.
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad was responsible for the name of Ravenna, the building of the shops, yard, office building, passenger and freight station, and many other things that were built for the establishment of a railroad terminal in Estill County just east of the county seat, Irvine. After the completion of the terminal in 1915, the county decided it would call it "Ravenna", which stems from the word "ravine". It was reported by early railroad officials that an Italian foreman and interpreter, with a construction crew of approximately 60 Italian men building the railroad yards, requested that the railroad officials name the station in honor of his birthplace, Ravenna, Italy, and it was so granted by the railroad officials in charge of such matter.
In 1872, the Coleman Brothers purchased the Buena Vista and Storms ranches, and other properties in the area, as they were developing the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, known affectionately as the "Never Come Never Go." Completed in 1876, the Railroad connected the area to the transcontinental railroad at Colfax, spurring its agricultural development. Among other things, the Colemans established a saw mill and cleared land of trees to build the Railroad and to feed the Railroad's steam locomotives. Stations in the area were established at Storms Ranch, just south of present Lakewood Lane; at Buena Vista, just south of the present intersection of You Bet Road and Highway 174; and at Peardale. The Railroad provided a good means of transporting agricultural products to market. Still standing at the intersection of Mount Olive and Lower Colfax Roads is the Pacific Fruit Packing Shed, built in 1930 alongside the railroad tracks, to replace an earlier shed which collapsed in a snowstorm.
Rapelje was originally called Lake Basin due to its geographical landscape, but in 1913 it was named after J.M. Rapelje, who was one of the heads of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Rapelje was first established as a town where local railroad workers of the Northern Pacific Railway would live in the late 1800s. As more people began to work at the railroad, the town grew bigger in both size and population. They had multiple establishments such as a hotel, a grocery store, 
a town hall, a K-12 school, and many other things. A post office was established in 1913, and the four grain towers (which are still there today) were put in business. A railroad destination point, Rapelje developed into a reasonable town with a number of grain elevators, its own school district, an evangelical church, a cafe, and later a violin shop and clothing business. In 1980, the railroad was taken out of Rapelje, and the population declined, as well as sales and business. Businesses and residents of Rapelje largely dispersed from the town over the following decades. The hotel burned down, the town hall was removed, and the grocery store was closed. However, some people stuck around and tried their hardest to keep the little town running. They relied on agriculture to keep the town alive, as well as the school and the sports they provided.
When the railroad bridge was completed, the town quickly died. The original railroad bridge was replaced in 1900 with a new bridge to carry heavier locomotives and cars. By 1903, the only thing remaining in the town was a Navajo trading post. A new double track railroad bridge was completed across the Canyon in 1947. What remains today at Canyon Diablo are a few building foundations, the grave marker and grave of Herman Wolfe, the ruins of the trading post, a railroad siding and a double track railroad bridge.
Much of the right-of-way graded and used by the California Southern is still in use. Several structures built for or by the railroad, or in some cases their remains, can still be seen. Some of the buildings that remain are still in use in their primary purposes.
The two ends of the former railroad are still in use as of 2013. The section between Barstow and Riverside through Cajon Pass, which includes the disputed crossing in Colton, remains one of the busiest rail freight corridors in the United States, seeing trains of BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad as well as Amtrak's daily "Southwest Chief" passenger train. At Cajon the concrete pads that served as the foundations for the railroad's station facilities and water tanks there remain long after the buildings atop them were removed. The Santa Fe realigned the track at several places during the 20th century to straighten curves along Cajon Creek (between Cajon and San Bernardino), lower grades for eastbound trains with the 1913 addition of a separate track through what has come to be known as Sullivan's Curve, and to reduce some curvature and lower the pass's summit elevation by 50 ft (15 m).
Hoopeston was laid out in 1871. It was named for Thomas Hoopes, one of the men who offered land for the crossing of two railroads: the Lafayette, Bloomington and Western Railroad and the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad. The two railroads separated the town into four sections. The latter railroad still exists and is now operated jointly by CSX Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad.
Railroad historian Herbert Harwood said, in his seminal history of the service, "First conceived in late Victorian times to promote a new railroad line ... it was indeed one of the most memorable images in the transportation business, an inspired blend of majesty and mystique ... Royal Blue Line ... Royal Blue Trains ... the "Royal Blue" all meant different things at different times. But essentially they all symbolized one thing: the B&O's regal route." Between the 1890s and World War I, the B&O's six daily "Royal Blue" trains providing service between New York and Washington were noted for their luxury, elegant appearance, and speed. The car interiors were paneled in mahogany, had fully enclosed vestibules (instead of open platforms, still widely in use at the time on U.S. railroads), then-modern heating and lighting, and leaded glass windows. The car exteriors were painted a deep "Royal Saxony blue" color with gold leaf trim.
In addition to the station, the yard also includes a freight station, some maintenance of way sheds, and a 4-stall roundhouse with an air-powered turntable, all of which are contemporary with the passenger depot. The roundhouse and turntable are still used by the Conway Scenic Railroad for maintenance and operations of their equipment, and the freight station houses a model railroad. There is also a baggage car that was converted by the Boston & Maine into a crew bunkhouse in 1949, and it too is still used for this purpose by the heritage railroad.
The Lehigh Line still exists and still serves as a major freight railroad line that operates in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The line is still owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway and the line still runs from Port Reading Junction in Manville, New Jersey to Penn Haven Junction in Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. 
The line connects with Conrail Shared Assets Operations's Lehigh Line (the new rail line) and CSX Transportation's Trenton Subdivision at Port Reading Junction in Manville, New Jersey and connects with the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad's Reading Division at Packerton, Pennsylvania and Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad's Lehigh Division at Lehighton, Pennsylvania (originally M&H Junction near Old Penn Haven, Pennsylvania).
In 1966, the track was taken up. The railroad is now completely gone. Several of the Smoky Mountain Railroad's former locomotives are still in existence. In 1961 steam locomotives #107, a 2-8-0; and #206, a 2-6-0; were sold to "Rebel Railroad", a narrow gauge tourist train line built at nearby Pigeon Forge for static display. Rebel Railroad changed ownership over the years and is today part of the Dollywood theme park. #107 is still displayed at the entrance to Dollywood, however #206 was sold to the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel" in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the early 1970s.
She was the fourth of six children of a railroad engineer father and a housewife mother. She began to steal smaller things while still a child; she attributed her kleptomania to meningitis she survived at the age of six. Later she studied in Kassa, when World War II broke out; it was stress that brought out her kleptomania again.
The railroad tracks are gone, but most of the ties of the former railroad grade are still intact. As for Hitchcock, many small foundations can be found where the camp once stood. The Depot in East Jordan also still stands.
Crestline, originally a railroad community, now thrives from the various businesses and industries located there. Crestline, however, is still considered a railroad community. The two crossing railroads that caused the beginning of the village still remain active there. Crestline really is "the hub of Ohio".
In 1848 the railroad built the Starrucca Viaduct, a stone railroad bridge over Starrucca Creek in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania which has survived and is still in use today. The viaduct is long, high and wide at the top. It is the oldest stone rail bridge in Pennsylvania still in use.
The Southern states, however, were still very prominent in keeping slavery running. Because of this, an informal network of safe houses and escape routes—called the Underground Railroad—developed across the United States to get enslaved people out of America and into Canada (British North America) or the free states. The Quakers were a very prominent force in the Underground Railroad, and their efforts helped free many slaves. Immediately north of the Mason-Dixon line, the Quaker settlement of Chester County, Pennsylvania—one of the early hubs of the Underground Railroad—was considered a "hotbed of abolition". However, not all Quakers were of the same opinion regarding the Underground Railroad: because slavery was still legal in many states, it was therefore illegal for anyone to help a slave escape and gain freedom. Many Quakers, who saw slaves as equals, felt it was proper to help free slaves and thought that it was unjust to keep someone as a slave; many Quakers would "lie" to slave hunters when asked if they were keeping slaves in their house, they would say "no" because in their mind there was no such thing as a slave. Other Quakers saw this as breaking the law and thereby disrupting the peace, both of which go against Quaker values thus breaking Quaker belief in being pacifistic. Furthermore, involvement with the law and the government was something from which the Quakers had tried to separate themselves. This divisiveness caused the formation of smaller, more independent branches of Quakers, who shared similar beliefs and views. 
One possible reason for this difference in design principles between American and European carbuilding practice could be the average distance between stations on the two continents. While most European railroads connected towns and villages that were still very closely spaced, American railroads had to travel over much greater distances to reach their destinations. Building passenger cars with a long passageway through the length of the car allowed the passengers easy access to the restroom, among other things, on longer journeys.
In spite of all the bad things that the RVRR was known for, the RVRR made the best of what little it had. For example, although the railroad never quite reached Morristown, New Jersey, it offered free freight shipping from its depot in Watnong, which was about 2 miles outside of town. This feature was unique to the RVRR. This proved to be a significant incentive and reportedly the railroad, for as long as it operated, was the predominant freight shipper in Morristown, besting the big railroad in town, the Lackawanna Railroad, by a significant margin.