Bristol's Mendota trail project bogged down in litigation

On the model of the wildly popular Virginia Creeper Trail between Abingdon and Damascus, the City of Bristol, Virginia has been pursuing a rails-to-trails project called the Mendota trail. The City has sued all the landowners who won't cooperate. The landowners (who number 180 or more) have two legal arguments, as reported here: (1) that the railroad's title contained a reversionary clause, revesting title in the landowners when the use of the property as a railroad ceased, and (2) adverse possession, since the railroad stopped using the property in the 1970s.