LAST TRAIN: Locomotive ride on the Newport East Track

LAST TRAIN
On June 15, 2021 the Old Colony & Newport Railway operated the last train over the "East Track" in Newport, RI. Today, June 21, the track south of the "Van Zandt" bridge was removed to make room for a rail trail. The silver lining of this project is that the adjacent West Track will now be the new access track into Newport and will be restored for future train operation after the bike path project is done.
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©2021 South Coast Rail Videos

[@danielgannon9502]

The track removal at the end was brutally hard to watch.

[@williammorse8330]

to me it's like seeing someone's house bulldozed............ yeah, I know, that's a bit over the top.

[@Galaxy2517]

Me too... I watched them tear out the old B&O main line near my house and it was heartbreaking... So much history and community character just wiped away.Thank you CSX.

[@danielgannon9502]

@@Galaxy2517 Very well said. Torn up and just tossed aside like it never really mattered.

[@TrainMike2013]

Bets on the track restoration gets put off indefinitely through various excuses. :(

[@daltondick5223]

We really don’t need more trails.

[@gnrrailroad1531]

They really could have had both, rails and bike path.

[@a-lineaficionado1000]

Very saddened to hear about this.

[@williammorse8330]

don't worry, DC says bike paths are part of the new green deal !

[@kennyspry5189]

SAD!!! Just So SAD to see removable of Rail that will Never be used again. I Hate seeing Railroad taking Rail out of service it's like loosing a part of your soul. SAD to see...

[@rrad8106]

Ah! I was going to ask. Saw the short video of them demolishing this track. Thanks!

[@dekon70]

Hate to say it, but the west track will never be restored. They'll say there is no money for it, it is the Rhode Island. Make promises but don't make good on that promise.

[@ok4todd]

I gave a Thumbs Up, but I really wanted to click Sad.

[@williammorse8330]

so....... the track in service gets ripped up while the out of service adjacent track gets rehabbed at some future date? does someone have this in writing? does not make sense to me, an outsider....... so there will be a fence between the two? would rather the money get put towards fixing the bridge connection and getting some of that Biden infrastructure money to restore rail service, freight and passenger.. otherwise this is a toonerville trolley op..... thank you for posting

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

The in service track was removed to fit the bike path between a cemetery and the active rail line without removing both tracks. It makes sense to an extent but at the same time I understand it is a confusing project. I believe the bike path will be elevated above the rail line so there will be a fence alongside the bike path so bikers don't go off the path and onto the tracks down below.

[@williammorse8330]

@@SouthCoastRailVideos understood and thank you for the response..... now seems to be the time to push on re-establishing a rail link with the outside world.... you can bike to Providence, but you can't take the train or ship freight?

[@Fiendstein]

0:00 Every town has an ELM STREET ;)

[@danielunger9340]

A would love ta see updates n how far they got n the new rail line n the bike path

[@jamesburnside3023]

Great video

[@K5LA]

The track that they tore out looked 10 times better than the track they left in. Wonder who made that call?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

The ROW abuts a cemetery so unfortunately the east track had to go or else they would’ve had to move graves.

[@414RadioTech]

They should have used a rail train to pull the rails up‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[@xCandieAndiex]

But, if the west line is in disrepair, and the east line is still useable, why not put the bike path on the west line?

[@johnsmart964]

Why was the other railtrack not restored before they closed and lifted this line?

[@lorknozzel11]

is it funny that the county i live in is over 4 times bigger in square miles than Rhode Island?

[@TheIronweed-vx5lg]

Railroading in New England has been D.O.A. for decades.

[@ernestpassaro9663]

Damn shame !

[@mollycaz1]

Did this line every have regular passenger service or freight? When was the last train in regular service to run on this line ?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Last time regularly scheduled trains operated out of Newport was in 2016. It is tourist trains only. Since 2016 a number of trains per year operate in and out of Newport but they are as needed runs.

[@mollycaz1]

@@SouthCoastRailVideos with the track being taken out will Newport have any rail service.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

@@mollycaz1 The west track will be used to access Newport so yes we will still have rail service going to the station post construction.

[@ckapp8126]

We so enjoyed this train shame shame on whoever did not plan just messed life for many

[@Milepost1965]

Very sad..

[@erichguenther4486]

Outside of a financially shakey tourist operation the line has no revenue. If it showed more promise the state would probably take it more seriously and invest in it. Won't happen unless you have shippers promising expansion of jobs based on rail access. So you would have to really get a serious group together to work with businesses to support that. Otherwise it is probably cheaper to truck to the nearest railhead in Providence and do a transfer or unload a container. I used to work for a company in Newport, RI. The city is more concerned about tourism and recreation than it is about attracting industry or manufacturing. So the sustenence of the rail line has slowly withered away to nothing beyond a tourist operation. Even when the bridge went out of commission severing the rail line from the national rail network, not many people really cared. When you see a Bike Trail development take priority over a railroad......it tells you where priorities lie. Happy my home state of Wisconsin has an active program to invest in rail freight lines and many secondary lines of the Milwaukee Road were rehabbed and went from 5-10 mph decrepit branch lines to 40-45 mph secondary mainlines. RI could do similar but the people that live there just do not care about blue collar jobs or supporting the infrastructure that supports blue collar jobs. They would rather have lower paying tourist jobs and perhaps a sprinkling of white collar jobs BUT not much of those in Newport either. Newport = Tourist Town and increasingly so.

[@WHJeffB]

So you are aware that there's no physical connection between this line and the "mainland"... Right? Without that connection, there's not going to be any business returning to the RR. To make matters worse, the ROW on the other side of the long gone bridge is disjointed due to private encroachment. So again, nothing is going to happen to this line other than Rail Riders, and a few second rate excursion outfits. And I say this as a lifelong fan of model trains and 1:1 railroads...

[@deirdrekiely6187]

@Ann Hanover Can you shut up?

[@dennisrichardville4988]

@@deirdrekiely6187 freedom of speech.

[@quinnwhite2648]

@@dennisrichardville4988 I love it when people say that, but fail to realize it only protects government entities from silencing you...

[@ernestpassaro9663]

@@quinnwhite2648 yes freight is where the moneys at not passenger

[@alexmodern6667]

This sounds great.

[@robertnielsen2461]

I wonder if property tax was still being charged on this track??

[@joshbenton4080]

Did this ROW originally have two tracks?

[@erichguenther4486]

Looking at it from Satellite view yes, double tracked former New Haven Branch, later Penn Central and then Conrail. Wikipedia stated that New Haven never made a lot of money on this branch so it was primarily passenger. You can see some sidings to former freight customers and there is still at least one active freight customer before the line gets to Newport but none in Newport itself.

[@timpriddy349]

Progress......pffft

[@carlfalt174]

What was on this last train for cars?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

We had two wood passenger cars. One 1884 Parlor and a 1904 Coach

[@Galaxy2517]

Sad!

[@step2191]

Sure hope those bikers love fending off the homeless!

[@cadespencer6320]

I hate rail trails

[@leecornwell1062]

Adleast you don't have to worry about the rails anymore they will make a bike trailer just like the Putnam trailer.

[@leecornwell1062]

I have a spiritual feeling that if they make a bike trailer they are going to have trains running a long side trailer I'm telling you. Right now money is kind of tight right now things will pick back up. Maybe they would have other trains run in your town when they finish the bike trailer . The Putnam train stop running in 1958 and the last fraigt trains ran in 1982 on the Putnam line and now it's a trailer. The old vancortlant park Putnam train station is still there and the trestle is still up for a special reason.

[@leecornwell1062]

You just have to have the faith. Maybe that they will have the rail road trains running again in the future. You don't know what's gonna happen next.

[@quinnwhite2648]

Same here, I can understand converting branches/spurs in areas which are developed to the point where its all residential housing and no business, but some of these groups are trying to remove active lines. And for how much is spent to build these trails, the return for the community is very low. Ideally rail with trail is the best option, which looks to be the case here.

[@cmphighpower]

Hate rail traps stupid idea