FALLS ROAD BRANCH - Lockport Secondary

I have this posted other places, but I was wondering if anyone had some snapshots or other views of the Falls Road Line or industries from Niagara Falls to Rochester that they would be willing to share? I run the line weekly, and from what I understand, it is a shadow of it's former self.

I would love to see the 'former self' with 60-mph piggies in full bloom.

Hojack too.

Thanks very much.

WNYP431,

There are not a lot of great pictures available of railroad operations along this line. I have looked and they are scarce at best. I have only really looked for photos of the Lockport area, though.

There are pictures of building(industries) along the line and boxcars can be seen along the rail sidings, but that is about it.

The Niagara By Rail I, II, and III books by Peter V? has some shots of a train at the station in Lockport and on the "upside down" bridge.

I was hoping there might be some old-timer working the line who would remember the operations back in the 50s or 60s. It sounds like maybe you have tried this route. Nobody you work with has that much experience, huh?

Well it is an interesting line and I have found some interesting stuff about Lockport, but I know I'll never have all the pictures I'd like to have.

Two I would love are of a watchman's cabin at Hawley and Caledonia, and the West Lockort station at Green and Transit.

The Niagara County Historical society is working on a photo book for the 2008 Bicentenial which is supposed to have 200+ photos. Maybe that will have a few gems.

I keep looking...

t-croz

So, someone IS reading this thing.

There's a couple of guys I work with that have shots - stashed away. And you know the story - nobody working on the railroad wants their pitcher taken.

I am just hopeful that someone who ran it or lived by it and moved away in the 70's - like everybody else - would have some snap shots or old films. Even poor ones would suffice. I'm not looking to make a book, I just think that somewhere, there's got to be someone who was taking films of his kids birthday party as some Cigar Bands rolled through in the background at Orangeport or T-T-T-Telegraph Road.

Just like the Hojack, this history is not being told well enough. As the markers of these railroads and the men who worked them go rolling around the bend out of sight, we're losing ourselves in I-pods and Science Fiction.

Fisher Price at Medina - gone.
KleenBrite in Brockport - gone.
Track Brockport o Rochester - gone.
Lockport Station - looks like someone fixed the roof with a B-52.

Rolling through there each week, you can see how big it once was...I'd probably have a stroke to actually see what's gone. Marty Phelps has a real nice collection in the Medina Railroad Museum and is doing a helluva job, but there must be more.

The word I have from the men qualifying me on the line is that it once was a double-tracked secondary handling piggies to Detroit. You could hear a mouse fart out there now.

The good news, however, is that the mice will soon be farting Ethanol.

Pee.

I'm not sure when the double track was lifted, but even in the late 60's the Falls Road rated two locals out of Rochester - the Brockport and Middleport. Brockport served Brockport and I believe Holley, the MTA did Medina, Albion, etc. Although it was advertised as such, the MTA seldom if ever went that far. Both were called in early afternoon, I can't recall exactly but might have been 1PM and 3PM. Both returned to the yard after midnight.

Owens Illinois used to get sand in DTSL covered hoppers, soda ash, etc, and loaded out bottles in 40 foot boxcars. Fisher Price was a big user of 50 foot boxcars. In season, Fancher sometimes loaded sugar beets in TOC hoppers to send to Montezuma for processing.

There was a lot more which is gone - conductors like Cecil Merkley and Tom Kirby, and many others. The wooden cabooses, 19085 and 19639 on those locals.

And as has been noted here, the mainline trains coming through as well. WB5 and DRS7, and eastbounds as well, MC-NY4 if I'm correct, and others.

I recall a westbound piling them up just west of Long Pond Road. I went out to see the mess and was talking with the softheel guarding the scene. He was about sick - one of the derailed cars had a van of jelly-bean flavored liquor which had been all busted up. The sicky-sweet stench from that booze made you wonder how anybody could drink it! And he had to stay there smelling it his whole evening, LOL!

Now THAT'S the kind of picture that melts in your mouth. No photo, but the scene is still pasted there for all to see. Hope there are more stories and information like that to come about.

What did NYC & PC use for power? The standard GP40 sets?

From the PC timetable of 1974, I show a siding west of Brockport almost two miles long. That was taken out by Conrail when?

How many tracks in Lockport at the station in it's heyday? In the Yard? Any photos of the Erie connection east of Vine Street?

Brockport yard must have been something at one time also. The rotted ties in the ground are mute testament to that.

Excellent.

WNY: Photos that I took on the Falls branch in 1973 show the following power consists: EMD #8107-GE U series-Alco RS2/3m; EMD #3141+what appears to be the same type of unit; GE U series+EMD GP30 (on the "upside down" bridge). Do not own a Penn Central roster, so can not positively ID most of the units.

BR&P wrote:And as has been noted here, the mainline trains coming through as well. WB5 and DRS7, and eastbounds as well, MC-NY4 if I'm correct, and others.

ML-9 was another- autoracks between Little Ferry and Detroit (via Canada).

BR&P wrote:I recall a westbound piling them up just west of Long Pond Road. I went out to see the mess and was talking with the softheel guarding the scene. He was about sick - one of the derailed cars had a van of jelly-bean flavored liquor which had been all busted up. The sicky-sweet stench from that booze made you wonder how anybody could drink it! And he had to stay there smelling it his whole evening, LOL!

...sounds like a key ingredient in Sambuka or Peppermint Schnapps. Yuck!

Power on the locals was whatever the prevailing Rochester locos were at the time - RS1s, RS3s, and later on RS11's (7600 series) and RS32s (2034, etc)

A few tidbits from 1967 - nothing amazing, just odds and ends.

June 5th, MTA made up on track 2 in the North yard, included 6 ACL boxcars, loaded. There was a regular move of these but darned if I remember who they were for, or what they carried.

Same day, Brockport was made up on 4 North, 24 cars including some empty NYC 40 foot boxcars, NYC loaded covered hoppers, loaded CG boxcar, DTSL 2215 car of sand, empty boxcar MSTL 4626, and a loaded box LNE 8718. You don't see those initials any more!

June 15th the MTA had 10 cars - NRC 19483, FGEX 38547, and PFE 2271 (those may have been ice reefers) and 7 empty boxcars - 3 NYC, 2 SSW, 1 SAL and 1 CG.

If I recall, the Brockport went out first. They therefore had to clear up while the MTA went by. I can't recall why, you would think send the MTA first and have the Bkpt follow.

Empty(or full) boxcars in 1967 could certainly could have been for GM's Harrison Radiator Division in Lockport. Today they all come and go from CSX in Niagara Falls, but back then, some could have been handled from the east.

Harrison (now Delphi Thermal) builts its "west" plant in 1948 along the Falls Road. They have shipped boxcars ever since. Prior to mid 80s they received plastic resin in covered hoppers pretty regularly. Rolls of aluminum must have come by rail for many years before trucks took this over. Even today they ship about a dozen 60 footers a day. Many more than that in the past.

Their old plant on Walnut Street was serviced by rail back when trolleys traversed the Lockport Streets. IRC may have handled these and handed them off to the NYC - but I am not sure.

I have seen old Sanborn Insurance Maps that show several tracks in front of the Lockport Station. There was a siding to the Dussault Foundry, which is just across the tracks from the Station. I have a picture of the Dussault that shows three tracks in the foreground(1950s) not including Dussaults siding.

I have a 1973 map that shows three tracks coming into Lockport from the East, double tracked the rest of the way through town, except across the Upside Down bridge.

t-croz

No, in the time frame I mention anything for Lockport went Bridge (Niagara Falls) and came east out of there on a local which served Lockport. Rochester jobs did not go that far.

Bringing back an old thread.........being that I live near the Falls Road now, I have done a little exploring. I see concrete bases here and there where signals used to be. When were signals removed? And were they semaphores or were search-light signals ever used?

Thanks in advance........

Charlie

charlie6017 wrote:Bringing back an old thread.........being that I live near the Falls Road now, I have done a little exploring. I see concrete bases here and there where signals used to be. When were signals removed? And were they semaphores or were search-light signals ever used?

Thanks in advance........

Charlie

I suspect they were searchlight signals but I never worked that line. I will have to check and determine just when it was cut
just west of Rochester but it was fairly early in Conrail.
Noel Weaver

Search -light signals were used on the line. In the early 80's I remember that the signals were still up, but the heads were turned.
In the mid 70's before Conrail came on the scene, I remember listening to my scanner and heard that there was a derailment on the main, just east of the present Depew Amtrak station. All traffic was re-routed over the Falls Road. One eastbound Amtrak train after leaving Central Term. was routed up the Belt to the Niagara Branch, back to the falls and east on the Falls Road.

Howiew wrote:Search -light signals were used on the line. In the early 80's I remember that the signals were still up, but the heads were turned.
In the mid 70's before Conrail came on the scene, I remember listening to my scanner and heard that there was a derailment on the main, just east of the present Depew Amtrak station. All traffic was re-routed over the Falls Road. One eastbound Amtrak train after leaving Central Term. was routed up the Belt to the Niagara Branch, back to the falls and east on the Falls Road.

Thanks for the info---much appreciated. Seeing an Amtrak on the Falls line must have been a sight to see!

Interesting conductor's receipts... including an example from the Falls Road.

http://rochnrhs.blogspot.com/2009/10/th ... ester.html