Amtrak on Buffalo Belt Line?

With the Niagara Branch closed due to the large fire on Buffalo's west side since Thursday, I would assume that Amtrak has been using the Buffalo Belt Line trackage to reach Niagara Falls from the mainline.

I see that there have been delays to all of the effected trains...

Anyone have any pictures?

The fire started yesterday (Monday) morning, not Thursday.

Jim

The FX Matts brewery in Utica burned Thursday, I got to drive through some of the smoke. That's right next to the NYS&W/DL&W Utica street trackage, though, not in Buffalo.

What structures were destroyed by the Buffalo west side fire? Was this along Niagara? Am wondering about the old GLF/Agway seed warehouse.

I wondered the same thing (about the belt line usage).

Funny thing is...if you track the trains on amtrak.com, you can see that an arrival time is given for Buffalo Exchange and also for Niagara Falls. Did they pull into exchange and then back out for a couple miles to meet up at the central terminal belt line?

TB Diamond wrote:What structures were destroyed by the Buffalo west side fire? Was this along Niagara? Am wondering about the old GLF/Agway seed warehouse.

The building that was destroyed was the Leisure Living Pool Supply Company's warehouse which I believe was the former Curtis Screw Plant located on Niagara Street next to Rich's Products. The Niagara Branch runs behind the warehouse. That section is single track and I believe that only Amtrak uses it. I used to see some freight on it up to the time Conrail single tracked it up to where the belt come in.

CSX has an agreement with Amtrak not to run any freight up the Niagara branch to protect Amtrak service. If they do, CSX has to pay a fine to Amtrak.
Now, thats not to say that they never have...



More on the fire:
http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/19525519.html

Mike S. wrote:I wondered the same thing (about the belt line usage).

Funny thing is...if you track the trains on amtrak.com, you can see that an arrival time is given for Buffalo Exchange and also for Niagara Falls. Did they pull into exchange and then back out for a couple miles to meet up at the central terminal belt line?

I work right next to the Exchange St crossing just short of the station. I saw the last couple mornings at about 7:45am that Amtrak was running back-up moves TO the station, then departing heading back to the Chicago/Belt line

CSX has an agreement with Amtrak not to run any freight up the Niagara branch to protect Amtrak service. If they do, CSX has to pay a fine to Amtrak.
Now, thats not to say that they never have...



That's interesting. CSX owns the line. I know that there are no sidings on that section of track and there is a height restriction regarding the tunnel under Main St.

SimTrains wrote:CSX has an agreement with Amtrak not to run any freight up the Niagara branch to protect Amtrak service. If they do, CSX has to pay a fine to Amtrak.
Now, thats not to say that they never have...

I've never seen anything other than locals

I dunno about that whole "CSX - Amtrak agreement". The small buisness located off the Niagara Branch, just East of Amtrack along Exchange St. (the old "ERIE" freight/passenger building) still has a siding with hoppers and box cars there every once in a while. I can't remember the current name but it used to be called "Stetsons". There's one siding going in to the Buffalo News but I don't know if they still get carloads or not. The Chicago St. Runner/Yard is also located off the Niagara Branch and they park the Circus train there all the time.

-B in B

I'm just telling ya what has been relayed to me by local CSX management. Do what you will with it.

Typical management problem, s**t floats to the top. If they'd get off their rear and out into the real world maybe they would actually know what's going on. Maybe they're just misinformed, or maybe I'm misinformed. But anyway, from being an outsider looking in on things, just this observation: I've seen those two sidings I was talking about with cars on them as recently as last summer. No idea how frequently the RR uses them, Just thought I'd drop that info in there for everyone to kick around and see if anyone else knows anything.

-B in B

Due to the amount of water used in the fire department operations and it's inpact on the stability on the roadbed, CSX imposed a slow order in the area of the former warehouse.
I don't know if it's still in effect or if they (CSX) preformed any work in the area.

SimTrains wrote:CSX has an agreement with Amtrak not to run any freight up the Niagara branch to protect Amtrak service. If they do, CSX has to pay a fine to Amtrak.

I call Bravo Sierra on this one. We're talking about a handful of Amtrak trains each day and they're willing to abolish freight on this line to protect the passenger train schedules?

With that logic, CSX may as well agree to abolishing freight trains on the entire mainlne.