Former General Motors Sidings

Been seeing some news on this: River Journal Online

There have been previous articles on this; I never got around to posting them. MNRR has been using the siding; at one point they stopped I believe, until this new lease was concluded.

Does anyone have any background on the sidings? The operation thereof when GM was still open, who serviced it (assume ConRail), MNRR (or MNCR given the era) accommodated it, etc.? How did they assume control of it?

Whatever the case, it looks like barring any technicalities raised in the article, the siding is being leased and operated, and may be acquired.

Off the Rails… Sleepy Hollow’s Local Development Corporation
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The LDC parcel is east of the railroad tracks and known to house brownfields in need of environmental remediation. Early in 2016 the LDC sent out a press release announcing a licensing agreement with Metro-North Railroad on its east parcel. The first paragraph began with, “The Sleepy Hollow Local Development Corporation (SHLDC) announced that it has licensed approximately 2 acres of track siding to Metro-North Railroad, effective immediately. The agreement, with a potential value of more than $1.8 million, was approved at a separate meeting of the MTA Metro-North Railroad Board and the SHLDC Board in recent weeks.”

In what appears to be a festive announcement, questions arise as to how the SHLDC is operating within the Village of Sleepy Hollow guidelines, laws and protocols. For clarity purposes, the approximate 2 acres of railroad siding that Metro North originally used was for shipping and receiving when General Motors was in operation. That use terminated with the closing of the General Motors Plant, even though Metro North continued moving railroad cars in and out of the location.
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Of note regarding the SHLDC and Metro-North Railroad agreement is that there is an option for the railroad to purchase the siding tracks before the end of 2016 for $1,573,155. If so, they would “continue its current use of sidings to stage equipment clear of the Hudson Line Tracks for construction and maintenance work in the Mid-Hudson region, including the ongoing Sandy Remediation Project,” according the press release.
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IIRC, the trackage on the land side opposite the GM Tarrytown plant was put in c. mid-1980's as part of the Lower Hudson Line clearance project to enable outbound shipment of loaded tri-levels from the plant.

I was aboard the special train from Selkirk with the Conrail engineering people which verified the measurements at all of the clearance changes SK to OW.