The Texas Central ran through many ranches in my area and owned their right-of-way. When the Katy abandoned the line in the 60's, the owners of the line tried to sell the ROW to all of us. One elderly landowner took the bait and paid their price. The rest told the railroad's landmen to take a hike. The salvage company took up the rails, rolled up the fence wire and removed all the t-post, turning everything back to pasture.

And they take it very seriously ...

Ole Feds

I work for one of the major railroads west of the Mississippi. In most cases the right of way is about 25 feet each direction from the center of the track. FWIW, they employ as many lawyers as mechanics and have their own police force with full authority and jurisdiction on railroad property.

I've done this a few times in the Sealy area years ago.

I am not saying what anyone "did as a kid" was wrong or doubting that the engineers and conductors did not think a thing about it

but these days are not "when we were kids" (sadly) and as stated before RRs have their own police with full state authority and I can just about guarantee you that if you are seen on their ROW even running in the middle of your property the conductor/engineer will be calling it in

trains carry mass amounts of hazardous cargo and they are subjected to highly organized theft along with gang stupidity and hobos and everything in between

the railroad of yesteryear with the engineer and conductors that will wave or blow the horn or otherwise see you as a friendly person (or kid) or hunter are LONG GONE

If the railroad owned the property or the easement, they can railbank the property as long as they want to. The property rights are not terminated unless the rail company sells the property.

This has been a good local coffee shop conversation for years. The original company went through several reorganizations, bankruptcies and eventually an abandonment filing. To complicate matters, my family has been paying the property taxes on the ROW for a century. If you know what to look for, you can find abandoned RR right-of-way locations all across the state.