railbank

plural railbanks

1. An embankment adjacent to a railroad track.

   This 200-mile long stretch of railbank property has four encampments of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

   1990, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, Department of the Interior and related agencies appropriations for, page 590

present singular third person railbanks · participle present railbanking · participle past railbanked · past railbanked

1. To hold a disused railroad right of way in reserve, saving it for future repurposing or sale; this may include converting it into a rail trail for public use either in the meantime or in perpetuity.

   [T]he municipal government moved ahead with plans to railbank the 5-mile segment between Astoria and Tongue Point under the guidelines of the National Trail Systems Act.

   2004, Joseph P. Schwieterman, When the Railroad Leaves Town, page 223