I just had to chime in on this thread!
I just biked a full round trip on the
entire length of the Cape Cod Rail Trail, including the relatively new Chatham branch, about 2 weeks ago - a 60-mile ride!
Took me
5 hours, 21 minutes of "actual" ride time
, at an average speed a bit of around 11.3 MPH. (Not counting a 2 food stops - one for ice cream, another for a burger & fries, & a few quick "pit stops"/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif along the trail).
I also bike the East Bay Bike Trail in Rhode Island (it's 10 miles from my home town of Fall River, MA.) once or twice a week; I'll do up to about 18.5 miles on a workday (which means riding
FAST - to get to work on time, I have to average at least
13 MPH (I'm doing sprints over 20)/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif
I know I've seen a lot of "fuss"/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif over rail-to-trail conversions in the railfan community; here's a bit of my "2 cents worth"

...
Here in Fall River, they just converted 3/4 of a mile of the former New Haven RR "Watuppa Branch" (whose name inspired my free-lance, narrow-gauge, steam-powered "Watuppa Railway" as a garden RR roadname

). Here's some of the
present-day condition of another part of the branch slated for eventual bike trail conversion:/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif:
The last freight rumbled over these rails something like
30 years ago;/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif a grade crossing was pulled over a busy city street a few hundred feet beyond the end of the rails in the last photo a few years later, isolating these
VERY well-worn rails (Note that in the first 2 photos, one rail is starting to partially turn over, having long ago pulled loose from the rotted ties/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sick.gif ).
Although as a railfan I
hate/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif to see the rails come up, bike trail conversion has it's
GOOD POINTS
from a railfan's point-of-view as well:
1.) The right-of way is (mostly) PRESERVED.
(In some cases, bridges are long-gone, bike & pedestrian traffic needs to be safely routed over, under, or around busy street grade crossings for safety).
2.) You get to see what it was like to ride along that right-of-way./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif Passenger service was abandoned on the Watuppa Branch in the 1920's/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif; the Chatham branch of the Cape Cod Rail Trail was pulled up about 1937/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/ermm.gif; the rest of the CCRT was abandoned mostly by the early 1960's, long before the Penn Central takeover of the New Haven/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sick.gif.
3.) Railroad structures (bridges, tunnels, & stations) are often preserved as part of the rail-trail conversion process /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif - & if not, you often get to see some "railroad archeology"./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif Here's some examples from the Cape Cod Rail Trail:/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif
- Here's the trail map to start; the
dark red line is the main portion of the CCRT (22 miles from South Dennis to Wellfleet);: the lighter pink line branching off is the Chatham branch, which was completed @ 2 years ago:
Just over a mile from the start of the trail on Rt 134A in South Dennis is a large bike shop (called the "Bike Depot"/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif ); just past it (heading east) is a former grade crossing. Just 100 feet or so past the crossing, there is a depression to the right side of the ROW: down in there are the
rotting timbers of a collapsed coal trestle: /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif
(How do I know this? The trestle was recognizable as such until it collapsed after one of our more severe New England winters/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif a few years back). There are also some newer (well-preserved)

concrete coal trestle piers a bit further back, but they were too obscured by underbrush for me to photograph this time around./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/plain.gif
The CCRT is one of the oldest rail-trails (just over 25 years old) in the area, & was
completely re-paved over the last 2 years; as part of the trail upgrade, these nice granite mile-markers were installed (this is mile marker 3, coming into Harwich):
- and just beyond this marker, on the left, are the sad remains of a former railroad customer, Harwich Lumber Company /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif :
There was a yard at this point; Harwich was an important junction with the Chatham branch just beyond here. Since the original highway overpass bridge just beyond had lone since been replaced by a fill after the line's abandonment, a low culvert takes the bike path under the road. Where that dump trailer is parked behind the fence was the original site of the Harwich passenger station:
On the other side, a rarity -
a bike path rotary!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif This is the former location of a wye where the Chatham branch joined.
- & if you look carefully in the underbrush to the right of that "Yield" sign entering the rotary; you'll find a forlorn /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif hunk of rusted, curved rail, probably tossed there when the Chatham branch was pulled up:
Here's the start of the Chatham branch:
- and a view of the center of the rotary (& what's that
WIERD-LOOKING BIKE???/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif ):
That's
MY ride
- my
$2000, /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif 27-speed Cannondale "recumbent"!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif
(In terms of the ride it gives - this is the bicycle equivalent of a
luxury sports car!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif ).
That's all I have time to post tonight, I have plenty MORE pictures as well!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif Tom