As housing costs in some of North America's most desirable areas continue to skyrocket, enterprising vagrants have discovered a somewhat innovative solution in the form of taking over disused railroad relay bungalows. The problem of the homeless setting up camp in rail related buildings such as stations and interlocking towers has existed for some time with the resulting fires used for heat and cooking inevitably leading to destructive fires such as those at SO and SHORE. However over the last year I have encountered multiple instances of persons living in disused metal interlocking bungalows which, as primitive as they are, can keep out the wind and rain.
The fist was on a disused rail line in Colorado where between spring 2021 and winter 2022, someone moved in, ripped out all the relays and set up a cot on the old CTC relay cabinets. The second was in New Hampshire where the residents were at least thoughtful enough to lay in a supply of Narcan for their overdosing needs.
Now, these locations had been out of service for years, but it shows the lengths that the unhoused will go to. For the signal enthusiast there is always the slight risk of running into a disagreeable resident while out on a documentation exercise, however the more pressing risk is that these actions create a persistent nuisance that will prompt railroads to remove out of service bungalows that may have otherwise been abandoned in place, potentially full of vintage relays and other goodies.
My only suggestions for the enthusiast to err on the side of salvaging historic materials before they are broken up and dumped outside.
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