Re: Bits and pieces of property

John West Wrote:
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> I would guess that railroads today have thousands
> of small bits and pieces of unused propety like we
> are discussing here, much of which is of little
> value and/or hard to sell. The tax bills
> individually may be small, but in the aggregate it
> is probably a substantial amount of money, perhaps
> enough to get some management attention. I wonder
> if what we are seeing is the tax billed, but not
> necessarily paid. Railroads are bureaucracies,
> but even bureaucracies can take action when
> somebody kicks them in the ass. But I have no idea
> if that has happened, just an interesting issue.
>
> JBWX

Interesting indeed. The parcel we've been discussing appears to be off the original ROW, evidenced by the orientation of the parcel that touches it at the north corner, which apparently was ROW (its legal description includes the phrase, "D&RGRR ROW ABANDONED - NOT DEEDED FEE SIMPLE". So, what, the process of abandonment only applies to proper ROW?

The owner of the southwest-adjacent parcel could easily petition the UP for something like a $1 sale to take it off their property tax burden, looks like they already plow it as part of their larger parcel. The only reason I can posit that the UP would consciously want to hold on to parcels like this would be the potential mineral/oil rights...