One of the memos linked through an early post in this string discussed (in somewhat broken language) the mixed collection of easements and other holdings in the Eel River Canyon. It's a real problem if the railroad is officially abandoned and somebody else wants to run something through there.

Another railroad that was erased due to r/w reversion was the P&SR. Where it wasn't next to the road (and of course absorbed for road widening and other fixes), when it was abandoned the property owners got it all back. There was serious talk (this was well before railbanking/rails-to-trails days at the STB, and pre-Prop 13) of the County using it for a trail, but they would have had to buy it (condemn much of it, actually, due to opposition to having "those trail users" in the backyards) and nobody was willing to spend the time and money. Instead, there was more effort made to add shoulders to some roads - a partial solution at best. Interestingly, it wasn't always the adjacent property owners that got the land; there had been so many subdivisions and other sales over the years that it was often hard to figure out exactly who it reverted to. Lawyers' full employment project...