"Peekskill Valley Railroad" 2-foot gauge - 1873

Hmmm. That goofy browser doesn't seem to support direct linking. Try searching on "Peekskill", "Cortlandt" pr "Westchester County" etc in the "keywords" search. Does that turn up anything?

I found the Peekskill Valley Railroad on Joseph R. Bien's 1893 Cortlandt town map. It's much more detailed than the 1881 Bromley. If it's to be believed, then the bridge in the center of this map:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=41.31849,-73.91632&z=19&t=S
is in the exact same location as the railroad bridge. Southwest, it goes through the landfill, is probably underneath the modern road, and any remains of the trestle crossing Peeks Kill is probably underneath the fill they dumped into the wetland. Northeast of that you have houses built up to the creek, so if there remains any trace, it's just a bit of flatness here and there. Then you get up to the Cortlandt Lake dam, and after that, you're off the 1893 map.

Found a picture of the Peekskill valley railroad.
http://digital.hagley.org/cdm4/item_vie ... X=1&REC=14
Cheers

BHubbell wrote:Found a picture of the Peekskill valley railroad.
http://digital.hagley.org/cdm4/item_vie ... X=1&REC=14
Cheers

A great find! Thanks for sharing. Iron was lucrative in this area until the discovery of the vast reserves in Minnesota that were far easier to mine and get to port on a massive scale.

I know this is an old posting that I stubmled upon while try to find historical info and maps from where I grew up.. but I found a picture for you guys.. I grew up a few miles from where this picture was taken and my house would have been only a hundred yards or so from the track further up the line from the site if the pic. There is now a lake that was created along the brook in continental village, and on the north side there is the remains of the old mine.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?f ... =3&theater

Here is the map:
http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet ... ighted-by-

Much better map; thanks CarterB. http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/150294597

A few years ago when I was in the Boy Scouts, we camped at Fahnestock State Park. I don't remember the specifics, but the water tap at our site was disconnected, so we had to fill our jugs at the ranger station. In the fenced off backyard, i recall seeing the steel ramains of either a mine cart or an extremely small narrow gauge car (probably interchangebale in the case of these mines, since they didn't connect with any other rail lines). It was extremely corroded, any wood was long gone, and it only had one axel left, which i remember being completely rusted solid. Now that i remember it, I'm extremely tempted to see if its still there (this was sometime between 2000 and 2004)

hondajohn wrote:A few years ago when I was in the Boy Scouts, we camped at Fahnestock State Park. I don't remember the specifics, but the water tap at our site was disconnected, so we had to fill our jugs at the ranger station. In the fenced off backyard, i recall seeing the steel ramains of either a mine cart or an extremely small narrow gauge car (probably interchangebale in the case of these mines, since they didn't connect with any other rail lines). It was extremely corroded, any wood was long gone, and it only had one axel left, which i remember being completely rusted solid. Now that i remember it, I'm extremely tempted to see if its still there (this was sometime between 2000 and 2004)

What troop were you in? I planned the 2005 Fall Camporee "Climb to Sunken Mine" at Fahenstock Park... Some of the event took place near the long-abandoned Denny Mine. Tracks for this mine show up on USGS maps of the 1890s, but the track did not connect to any other railroad or go any great distance, seems like it went from the mine mouth to a processor/crusher?

I would like to know where the remains of the freight car you found was? I'd like to hike in there myself to see it!

=otto=

I was in Troop 382 out of Hicksville, Long Island, but I never went to a camporee at Fahnestock. I believe I went there earlier than '05, perhaps '02. I tried to lead a hike to the mines, but my compasss got screwed up by the iron ore in the area and we never made it. I called the main park office today to ask about the car, and they tell me its still there, exactly as I remember it, and its in storage. I'm a member of the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association, so I think i will contact them and see if they would want to try and have it donated for the mining museum. Apparently, since its an artifact, they will only consider donating it to a museum or historical society.

Gee, I went camping at Fahnestock park with the Boy Scouts, too. I think it was 1971 or thereabouts. At the time, I didn't know about the iron mines, but we did do a bit of crawling around in crevices in the hillside.

hondajohn wrote:I was in Troop 382 out of Hicksville, Long Island, but I never went to a camporee at Fahnestock.

Ah! So you were visiting from out of district! Our council (Westchester-Putnam Council BSA) has a Scout Camp that butts up to Fahnestock. The event I put together used both properties.

I called the main park office today to ask about the car, and they tell me its still there, exactly as I remember it, and its in storage. I'm a member of the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association, so I think i will contact them and see if they would want to try and have it donated for the mining museum. Apparently, since its an artifact, they will only consider donating it to a museum or historical society.

I think that's a good way to go! I need to get up to Kent sometime...

-otto-

RussNelson wrote:Much better map; thanks CarterB. http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/150294597

Not sure if that's the actual terminus or not...

Me neither. I just added it to my spring shopping list.

Too funny..My wife grew up on Wallace Pond.Never knew that a narrow gauge railway went so close to her house.