OLD CONCRETE TRESTLE AT PORT HENRY

[DonPevsner]

(1)I rode AMTRAK #69 from New York Penn-Montreal on November 23, and noticed a derelict concrete trestle just north of Port Henry station, between the track and the Lake Champlain shoreline. There was room for several tracks as well, in what is now bare ground with weeds. Can anyone identify what used to be on this site?

(2)Just north of Fort Edward, also east of the track, is an impressive set of three new tracks; perfect ballast; fenced-in. The rails are still rusty, meaning that they have not even been used yet. Who is the new customer for the D&H/CPR?

[Mem160]

It used to be Port Henry freight yard, until I guess the '70's or '80's. The old concrete trestle, I believe was once an ore trestle, out into the lake. This was part of the Lake Champlain and Moriah RR which interchanged with the D&H just North of there. I think it was gone by the early '70's. LC&M may have been D&H owned at once time.

At Ft. Edward, I think what you saw is the new, small yard for dredging the Hudson River.

- Mark

[ChiefTroll]

The concrete trestle at Port Henry was used for dumping ore cars from the Lake Champlain and Mineville Railroad into a blast furnace that was owned by Witherbee-Sherman Company. Some ore might have gone into barges on Lake Champlain, but I'm not aware of that. The LC&M was also owned by Witherbee-Sherman, and was never part of the D&H. Witherbee-Sherman was later bought by Republic Steel Corporation, which operated the mines and the LC&M into the 1970's. The name of the LC&M had been changed to the Lake Champlain and Moriah somewhere in there, but I don't know just when.

The LC&M originally crossed over the D&H on a bridge that led to the ore trestle and their yard south of the D&H station on the lake side. The D&H owned a connection to the LC&M that ran from a point north of Port Henry south on top of the rock cliffs to connect with the LC&M on the land side. When the blast furnace shut down, the LC&M bridge over the D&H was removed, and the LC&M crews used the D&H main and connecting track to reach their railroad. At that time, also, Republic Steel built a sintering plant at Mineville, on the LC&M.

When the sintering plant was operating, the LC&M crew would leave Port Henry light with caboose, and just move ore from the mine to the sintering plant. The D&H Port Henry Yard Engine went up the LC&M and brought down the sintered ore to Port Henry.

When the D&H installed TCS on the Champlain Division in 1965, they placed a controlled signal north of Port Henry, HS Cabin, to permit the LC&M and the yard engine to pull north of the connection and then reverse to go up the hill. That permitted advancing a southbound train from WD Cabin at Wadhams to HS without having to wait for the Port Henry job to clear the main track.

Gordon Davids

[Mem160]

Are there any books on this Railroad? I have seen pictures in the past, somewhere, maybe on the web, but it was a pretty impressive yard when all this was active, from what I've seen in those pictures; I wish I could remember where I saw them. If you go to the D&H Yahoo Group, I posted the train set that is currently in Port Henry. If you go by the Station you can see right behind it, there is an LC&M RS-18(I think) and an ore car and the LC&M Caboose (made from an old ore car) that is in I think the D&H Paint and Color Guide to Equipment from Morning Sun Books from about ten years ago. There is also some kind of a plate girder there if I recall correctly, either from a turntable or a bridge, I don't remember what.

Not great Pictures but here are some:

http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/article.php?article=5558

http://flickr.com/photos/swampgoddess/2 ... 6/sizes/l/

--Mark

[lvrr325]

Per linked page, LC&M had EMD switchers, but the display engine might not necessarily be an actual LC&M engine, too.

[Steve Wagner]

The diesel-electric road switcher on display at Port Henry was built for the Canadian Pacific by Montreal Locomotive Works. I don't believe it ever actually worked on the LC&M.

[Engineer Spike]

The RS 18 was donated by the CP. I was qualifying on the Champlain Sub in the summer of 2000. Over that year's Labor Day weekend I went through. They were painting the engine then.

[RussNelson]

Are there any books on this Railroad?

There's always Kudish's _Railroads of the Adirondacks_, Chapter 16. It's out of print and expensive and will stay that way at least until Kudish publishes his third in the Mountain Railroads of NY, which covers the Eastern Adirondacks -- and should cover the LC&M.

[greenwichlirr]

Are there any books on this Railroad?

There's always Kudish's _Railroads of the Adirondacks_, Chapter 16. It's out of print and expensive and will stay that way at least until Kudish publishes his third in the Mountain Railroads of NY, which covers the Eastern Adirondacks -- and should cover the LC&M.

The third volume of his updated set of books, which will be covering the D&H Champlain division, will be published sometime this month.

[TB Diamond]

Became interested in the LC&M and the mines it served several years ago. Visited the remains near Mineville in the summer of 1986. In 1989 a rail historian sent me some information on the operations in the Mineville/Port Henry area:

Mines closed:

1.) Fisher Hill Mine 30 June 1966. Pumps shut down 01 Feb 1976.

2.) Old Bed Mine 23 July 1971. Pumps shut down Summer, 1979.

3.) Harmony Mine 23 July 1971. Pumps shut down Summer, 1979.

The LC&M was converted to a interplant operation by Republic Steel in 1968. It is believed that at this time the D&H began to haul sinter out of Plant No. 7 themselves, the arrangement with Republic Steel unknown. The LC&M continued to haul ore from the crushing plants at Mineville and Fisher Hill (when operating) to No. 7 mill for processing. The D&H delivered culm to No. 7 Mill as well as hauling both rock and sinter out of the plant.

The LC&M took delivery of a 1000 hp 125-ton diesel electric locomotive in 1940. A second unit was purchased prior to November 1943. The make was not mentioned, but the description basically fits a EMD NW2, ALCO S2 or Baldwin VO1000.

The LC&M last operated on 23 July 1971. The D&H purchased the LC&M from Port Henry to Switchback in 1972 and, at the same time, obtained trackage rights to Plant No. 7 from the Republic Steel Corp. The rails were pulled up in 1987 after the D&H had hauled out scrap from the demolition of the various mine structures.

No. 7 Concentrating building was sold to Williams Strategic Metals, Inc. then to Rhone-Poulenc, Inc. in 1986. At the time there were plans to extract some rare earth elements plus yttrium from the gigantic tailings pile by running the tailings back through the mill. The annual amount projected, 100 tons, did not call for rail service to the mill.

Information: E. Baumgardner; MINING AND METALLURGY, Nov. 1943

[ChiefTroll]

The LC&M was converted to a interplant operation by Republic Steel in 1968. It is believed that at this time the D&H began to haul sinter out of Plant No. 7 themselves, the arrangement with Republic Steel unknown. The LC&M continued to haul ore from the crushing plants at Mineville and Fisher Hill (when operating) to No. 7 mill for processing. The D&H delivered culm to No. 7 Mill as well as hauling both rock and sinter out of the plant.

When I arrived on the Champlain Subdivision in late 1966, the D&H was already handling all of the material from Plant 7 to Port Henry, and that had been going on for quite a while. The LC&M crew just took their engine and caboose up the railroad, then handled ore to from the mines to Plant 7. A heavy run of culm began in the summer of 1968, and the D&H Port Henry Yard crew started using two units (4000's) to handle the extra tonnage up the hill to the plant.

There was an arrangement between the D&H and the LC&M where the LC&M serviced the engines for the Port Henry Yard Crew at the LC&M engine house. The LC&M had a mechanic, but when he wasn't around the job fell to the Superintendent of the LC&M. I remember several times going to see the Supt., John Murphy, and finding him hostling the D&H engine, sanding it and sweeping out the cab.

John always delighted in making the point that the LC&M was a completely separate corporation from Republic Steel. He had a ledger book dating to the 1870's that listed all of the original subscribers to the stock of the Lake Champlain and Mineville Railway. The distinction between Mineville and Moriah was lost in the abbreviation LC&M, but that was good enough for John.

Gordon Davids