Where Did Kirksville’s Abandoned Railroad Tracks Go?

Kirksville once had two major railroad corridors crossing the city in different directions.

City planning records describe:

• an east-west CB&Q/Burlington Northern route;
• a north-south Wabash/Norfolk & Western route.

The rails are gone, but the corridors did not simply vanish.

They survive in street geometry, property boundaries, a historic depot and new trail planning.

The east-west line lasted into the early 1980s

Kirksville's comprehensive planning history says the former CB&Q route later became part of Burlington Northern and was decommissioned in 1982.

The surviving depot at 904 N. Elson St. remains one of the most obvious physical reminders of that railroad.

Elsewhere, portions of the old corridor have become candidates for public trail reuse.

The north-south line survived longer

City planning material places closure of the former Wabash/Norfolk & Western route in 1992, with rails removed in 1995.

Removal of track did not automatically erase the right-of-way or reconnect every street the railroad had interrupted.

That is visible in later City property and street-vacation records.

Why some streets still stop strangely

A City record concerning West Porter Street gives a useful example.

The street had dead-ended at the former Norfolk & Western right-of-way.

When the railroad was active, lower-volume streets were cut off at the tracks.

After railroad use ended, later residential development around Centennial made simple reconnection impractical.

That is the kind of urban footprint an abandoned railroad can leave long after the rails are removed.

Part of the former BNSF corridor is becoming trail infrastructure

Recent City capital planning identifies BNSF Railway Trail phases using abandoned railroad corridor.

City documents describe work intended to improve connections among areas near schools, Moberly Area Community College, the library, the Aquatic Center and North Baltimore.

Kirksville also pursued acquisition of former railroad property for trail development, including corridor in the Cottonwood-to-Jamison area.

Planned does not mean open

The City's 2026 budget describes completion of BNSF Railway Trail phases as a project goal or highlight.

That is not the same thing as proving every planned segment is open to the public today.

Kirksville's current trail map itself distinguishes completed and proposed trail infrastructure.

Until a specific segment is confirmed as complete, it should be treated as planned or developing rather than a public route.

Not every former railroad parcel is public land

An abandoned or removed railroad line can pass through land with complicated ownership history.

Some corridor can become:

• trail;
• street or utility space;
• private property;
• residential development;
• parking;
• undeveloped strips;
• surviving transportation structures.

That means an old railroad alignment on a historic map is not permission to walk it.

Current parcel ownership and public access must be checked before entering former right-of-way.

How to spot the old corridors

The most reliable clues are not random paths through vegetation.

Look for documented features such as:

• the surviving N. Elson depot;
• City trail projects explicitly tied to former BNSF property;
• streets that terminate at former rail alignments;
• long narrow parcel patterns;
• historic maps showing the former routes.

The tracks disappeared; the geometry did not

Kirksville's abandoned railroads still influence the city.

One former corridor is being reused in part for trails.

Another can still be read through street interruptions and redevelopment patterns.

The right question is therefore not simply "Where were the tracks?"

It is:

What did each piece of railroad land become after the trains left?

That answer varies block by block, and any claim about public access has to be made just as carefully.