The rail trail is a trail where trains once ran. Today, the rail trail no longer sees trains, but it sees hikers, walkers, runners, bicyclists, and the occasional horse rider.
As you travel on the trail, you may just see the scenery. You may feel the spirits of the trains that once were on this trail. What is blacktop or dirt was where wooden railroad ties and steel rails once where. If you walk or hike, you feel the old railroad bed with your feet. You feel the ground where people travel on, but then you feel the trains roll along.
Although the trains no longer run on the tracks that were once on the trail, if you are a railroad person, you will feel the trains that were once on the rail trail that you tread upon today.
John Cowgill: Stories of the Railroad 