Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodsy
I think the issue with Alton is not with the railroad... those tracks are long gone and replacing them would be extremely expensive. However the right of way remains and belongs to the State of NH. Now the fight begins with all those people who over the passage of time encroached on the ROW. Especially if the rail trail people are eyeing it....
Woodsy
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It depends on how the charter for the railroad was written, some right of ways are owned outright by the railroad, others are just easements. Now, I have no proof in front of me, so take it for what it's worth but most of the rail lines in NH were owned or are still owned by the railroads. What's the difference, well when a railroad petitions to abandon a rail line, if they own the property, they will continue to own it after abandonment but if it's just and easement, the easement disappears since its purpose is removed and the property reverts back to the previous landowners. In the case of Alton, that particular section was abandoned in the 1920 but it was railroad property, not an easement, the railroad could have retained ownership for years after until someone offered to buy it, in this case it was the state. The question is where the property lines existed for the railroad, a tax map from the late 1800's or early 1900's will tell you and that's the baseline to work off of, because clearly the newer tax maps were incorrect. It is quite possible the railroad owned right to the water's edge in some areas and if the state bought up the property, then it belongs to the state. It sounds like easements were granted by the railroad for homeowners to cross the tracks to access the lake and when the railroad was abandoned, someone somewhere thought the land reverted to the owners, but it never did. So, over the course of time, and unchecked error has snowballed into a major issue of people thinking they owned land along the lake and were paying taxes on, It's a big mess and a major headache for all involved.