Hello,
the majority -if not all- of this railroad right-of-way stretch you deleted is still perfectly visible, both on aerial imagery and USGS 3D elevation profile. 

Note that railway=abandoned is for an abandoned railroad right-of-way, (which is still visible, like here), while railway=disused is for "abandoned" out of service tracks.
railway=abandoned is the correct tagging here.

Therefore, I've restored the deleted way.