I just watched the animated film “Cars”, which is set in a dusty, old, forgotten town that once thrived before the Interstate System diverted the once bountiful traffic.
Did any towns significantly dry up or turn to ghost towns due to the introduction of the Interstate System?
A lot of businesses went under when Route 66 was bypassed, though since interstate highways have kept to a fairly similar route, I don’t believe any towns have died as a result of that particular change.
Ah, but here’s something that did. Sorry for the double post.
Google Maps shows the location of the railroad through SW Utah with watering towns every 30 miles. The railroad was built on the flatter land needed for trains, instead of the population centers in the valleys to the east. With the advent of diesel locomotives, watering towns were no longer needed, and cars don’t have to worry so much about flat land, so the interstate (I-15) was built to the east, leaving the railroad towns to dry up and die out.
Um, you need to check out the town of Amboy, California. You can see what happened easily enough on this map.
By comparison, it appears that the towns of Hackberry, Valentine and Truxton along old 66 in Arizona, between Kingman and Seligman have managed to survive, perhaps due to their proximity to the Grand Cañon National Park.
Cars, by the way, is based largely on Amboy in concept.
Did old steam engines need to stop every 30 miles for water?
According to the Seagoing Steam Engines thread, it was usually easier to just keep providing fresh water to a steam locomotive then to deal with the technical hassles of recycling the steam.
If the train needed to stop at a station anyway, it could take on water from a water crane, but if not, it could take a drink from a track pan without needing to stop.