Discovered last Saturday. Shovel and some sweat today. Help from Shad and Bing. Future display.

Les

fantastic condition1

where and what line?

I hate to be a killjoy here, but disturbing a permanent survey monument, such as this one, is generally considered to be at least a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions. Restitution could include a fine plus the cost of having a licensed Professional Land Surveyor re-establish the monument. Even if the railroad line is abandoned and the tracks removed, deeds for adjoining properties will often make reference to the railroad right-of-way. By removing this monument, you've likely made it measurably more difficult for a land surveyor to retrace the boundaries of adjacent lands.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

Brother Lovejoy is right. We monitor corridor monuments for the Appalachian Trail to look for encroachment.

"The surveyed boundary itself must be kept clearly visible so that neighboring landowners know where it is, and the regular inspection of boundary line monuments helps to protect against a need for very expensive re-surveys that could be required if monuments are lost."

Please leave them in place.

Phil Mulligan

This old concrete C&O right-of-way post was located at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum site but buried in the trees that have grown up.

Les

Possibly the concrete post is not the actual survey point. The actual point might be on a monument set at ground level so a transit could be erected precisely over it for future measurements.

However, the post should not be disturbed.

Deuteronomy 19-14:

"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it."

As a registered land surveyor in 4 states, this is the most aggravating post I have seen on here in a while. No thanks to the OP.

Scroll up, man!



CD

I read that, but that does not establish whether the marker was still in it's intended position. If someone else relocated the monument previously, then that's another story.

I know where there are two "LS&MS LAND LINE" monuments, but some sixth sense told me not to tell anyone. Now I know why. Although one is in a public place and quite visible.

Aarne Frobom
On the Old Lake Shore

Original subject of this thread now on display at museum after painting today.


Les

I think I found the one you mention being in a "public place" several years ago.

I work for a class one.

I found some property line markers placed by the predecessor railroad my employer merged out of existence, that are remnants of a 1950/60's line relocation. These things are placed about every quarter of a mile, for about 10 miles, but out in the sticks in river bottoms where nobody but farmers who farm up to the right of way would ever see them. Stopped due to trains ahead one day, I got off the train one day to snoop around and came across one...then, after I got to keeping an eye out for them... discovered there were loads of them in underbrush along the RofW. This 10 mile stretch of the 180 mile division I ran was the only place that had any of these.

I told the local MofW employees about them, and next thing I know the supervisor at the top of the food chain was in on the secret and was inquiring after them.
That person made an inspection trip down the main line to see what I was talking about...was pleasantly surprised.. and then on a slow day, had aforementioned employees make a special trip down to the location to pluck some of the more accessible ones out for mementos for himself, one other MofW employee who indicated a desire for one, and myself as a reward for alerting them of their existence.


The predecessor road also had concrete markers designating the limits of different maintenance of way "sections"..indicating where one numbered section ended, and the next one started. They were place side by side at the end/start of these limits. Those things are obsolete and they've been dozed out of existence in right of way cleaning and clearing. For the division that I'd travel, there's only one left. There was one right here at the south edge of the yard I work, but it became a casualty when they cleared the right of way to lengthen a track.

There was also a concrete state line marker not far from here.. about 8 foot tall, with a 4 foot portion buried below ground level. It was set close enough to the main line that it suffered many collisions with ballast plows.. it was nearly chiseled apart at ground level.

They pulled it out with the section truck here 3 or 4 years ago and brought it to town and gave it to our railroad historical museum. I don't know if they even bothered to put anything back up in it's place, cause I haven't taken a train that direction since they did it. It didn't really serve any function.. the train doesn't care when it crosses the state line. It was a relic from the 1920's

This big, long winded story just to say that MofW doesn't rely on these obsolete relics to delineate their RofW any longer... they rely on military grade Global Positioning Satellite to do that.

There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start.

Leave the damn monuments alone!

In order of dignity of calls, coordinates are one of the lowest regardless of how expensive your military grade gps cost you. The first order of dignity is natural monuments, second is artificial or man-made (like the ROW monument). If we have a boundary disagreement, my recovered monument in original position beats your coordinates every day.

The monuments along the r.o.w. belong to the adjoiners as much as they do to the railroad. The monuments delineate the limits of ownership and rights and just because the rails are gone doesn't mean that the monuments aren't necessary to re-establish land boundaries.

I have a ton of projects in West Texas along the former Panhandle and Sante Fe Railroad which had its rails removed in the early 1990s and the monuments are still important for determining mineral interests, pipeline and telecom rights-of-way and even property subdivisions.

Hopefully the reset monument in the original post is far enough out of position that some future retracement surveyor will ignore it.