Re: NNG. Railroad trenches

This kind of grade-crossing elimination is rather commonplace on urban railroads in the northeastern US, but most of the work was done 100 years ago or more. Several examples that come to mind: the NYC Harlem Division in the Bronx, NY; the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch (originally part of the New York & Manhattan Beach narrow gauge) in Brooklyn, NY; the NYNH&H in New Haven, CT; and the NYNH&H in Boston, MA. (In the latter case, the railroad was first elevated on masonry embankment to eliminate grade crossings in the 1890s, then sunk into a trench in the 1980s as part of the Boston "Southwest Corridor Project", one of the more recent projects of its kind in the region.)

-Philip Marshall