Saratoga & North Creek Railway (ex-UHRR) - 2011

I'm sure that Iowa Pacific -- which runs half a dozen other railroads-- went out of their way to find the ugliest engines they could find which had not be maintained or refurbished for several decades.

Certainly, the company wants its latest venture to fail and lose a lot of money !!

Tony

Albany Rider wrote:I'm sure that Iowa Pacific -- which runs half a dozen other railroads-- went out of their way to find the ugliest engines they could find which had not be maintained or refurbished for several decades.

Certainly, the company wants its latest venture to fail and lose a lot of money !!

Tony

That's why they are bringing in a pair of Sharks!

Nothing like spending three or four days disassembling a 24 automatic portion, cleaning then hand lapping all the valves, then hump the 94 pound portion up and into the locomotive, bolt every pipe back onto it with two bolts each, and then have it leak... Been there, done that. And Donald Duck is right, pulling apart a unitized pawer assembly piece by piece and lifting it out by hand isn't too joyful especially on a nice hot and humid summer day. Again, there are reasons these locomotive are rare, and the railroads back in the day understood this. Watch for those CPA24-5s.

A friend tells me that the rockfall part-way to Tahawus has been cleared. Here is the location pictured:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/47415725

From the PostStar in Glens Falls,


NORTH CREEK -- The start of service of the Saratoga-North Creek Railway has been pushed back a week.

The delay is being blamed on communication gaps along the more-than 40 miles of track and a few outstanding repairs to rusty rails.

"It's all minor stuff," said Ed Ellis, president of the rail line's operator, the Iowa Pacific Holdings. "After looking at everything, it became obvious we'd have to push the start of service back a week."

Service is now scheduled to begin Saturday, July 23. The line was going to begin running tourists between Saratoga and North Creek this coming weekend.


http://poststar.com/news/local/article_ ... 002e0.html

Should be in today's paper, Tuesday July 12, 2011.

Paul, Have you been sentenced by a judge to work on these BL-2's?. If not why belabor the point? You don't like them, we get it.

Russ,
Did your friend state why the rock fall was cleared. Was it for a possible inspectgion run from North Creek to Sanford Lake and return. Other folks are betting on this becoming a bike path.

Ed

Let's just say that i had first hand experience on BL2s many many moons ago. Rather work on a Baldwin, but only if I had enough coat hangers to change the water pump.Sorry. Inside joke.

Why would they want to make this a bike path now? After years of being dormant now they are talking of reusing the rails. Plus I do believe the line from north creek to tahawus is privately owned by nl.

Here is the groups face book page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Upper-Hud ... 37?sk=wall

[quote="Palmerfalls"]Here is the groups face book page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Upper-Hud ... 37?sk=wall[/quote]


and another

http://www.nyskiblog.com/p/harvey-road- ... -td1156259

That guy is a joke. They estimate cost at 150k per mile to make a bike trail. 4,350,000$ for all 29 miles. If they can afford to make it at their own expense and can acquire the tracks and land with their own funds they fine go ahead but I would have a big problem with tax dollars being spent on this project. Seems Iowa Pacific is trying to make talks with them to make a trail along the side but thats not good enough.
I would like to see how this is going to be a major attraction as they claim. I do not know more than 5 people personally who MIGHT make the trip there to ride this trail. Cant see most people riding more that a few miles anyway as I don't think a lot of people can mountain bike 29 miles one way and back.
This really gets under my skin as the tracks are in place and a railroad is expressing interest in using them but this group only cares about there own interest and does not care about anything except getting their trail.
They also say north river residents will just love hearing the train blow the horn at the crossings. Who cares if they love it or not. The tracks have been there for quite a while. Maybe they will love all the trucks hauling instead of the trains. Really how many people even live in north river.
They also claim the product in Tahawus is low in value. Why then is a for profit company interested in hauling it out? If they could not make money they would not pursue it. Then again what does this group know about business-they just use free state tax money.
This group is a joke and as much as I dont want to take them seriously I will be watching and voting on the railroad. Want to make a rail trail out of a rail line that no one is interested in that is fine with me but dont take away tracks where they are needed and wanted.
ps they only have a little over 200 likes on there facebook page. Not really that much for such an expensive project in my opinion.

Drove the route yesterday and was lucky enough to run into them doing time trials. Also noticed the new platforms being built at the 1000 acre ranch. Got my tickets! Can't wait for next weekend!

tahawus84 wrote:I do not know more than 5 people personally who MIGHT make the trip there to ride this trail.

6

I live in PA, and will be making a trip to Oneonta in the fall. I'll go the extra distance to make a trip on the S&NC, but I sure wouldn't do that for a bike trail.

Joshua