High Bridge Yard in the Bronx

I am interested in modelling the NYC in n scale and would like to include High Bridge yard. I am interested in the era around 1959-1965 prior to the Penn Central merger. Can somebody give me some specifics about the function and operation of High Bridge yard. I know that it was used as an "overflow" for passenger equipment but was it also used as a freight yard? How was it laid out: were the tracks used as classification tracks? Was freight equipment separated from passenger equipment? Were local industries serviced from the drill tracks? Does anyone have a track chart from that era that I can look at?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

The Putnam Division station was up top, by the Deegan Expressway overhang, and I would LOVE to see some PICTURES of it in it's final years.

Down on the level part to the west of the tracks today, was the PASSENGER CAR WASHING complex. Cars were brought out of Mott Haven and washed at Highbridge. Where those apartments are on stilts on the north end of Mott Haven, was once the LARGEST passenger car yard in the United States. Mott Haven and Highbridge were integrally the same facility, just split by spitting distance. Mott Haven was where the linens were changed on the sleepers, and the cars were vaccumed out. I'm not sure but I think the commisary where they loaded the food into the diners was also at that location.

59-65, Highbridge was past it's zenith for sure.

D/

Thanks for your response Dieter! I actually have a picture of the area in a book I have called "The New York Central: Gone but Not Forgotten." I am at work now and can't tell you who wrote the book. Do you know if the actual yard itself was used to store both passenger equipment and freight trains? Did they have a switcher onsite that sorted and blocked freight cars into through freights? I know that the Central did have freight activity in the Bronx and was wondering if High Bridge was actually considered a freight classification yard. I would like to model that section on a N scale layout I am designing and want to be as accurrate as I can with regard to operations.

Thanks again for your response!

Jeremy

Having been qualified and worked both areas I do not think Mott Haven Yard was nearly as big as the Pennsylvania Railroad
Sunnyside Yard in Queens.
Noel Weaver

New York Central's Staff/Official photographer ED NOWAK had three books published about ten years ago, filled with color photographs. I recall a healthy amount of shots of both Mott Haven operations as well as Highbridge, if you can find copies.

D/

Not to jump in with a non sequitur, but I’m still looking for pictures of the Port Morris facility. So far I haven’t found anything in books or on the net. Any suggestions?

They're all interconnected in the same General Neighbourhood; Da South Bronks!

Did you ask on the NEW HAVEN board?

D?

JCMDFCCP wrote:Thanks for your response Dieter! I actually have a picture of the area in a book I have called "The New York Central: Gone but Not Forgotten."

Great book. It was written by Harold F. "Casey" Cavanaugh. It was published 1983 and is certainly out of print. However, that doesn't mean you can't find one as there are plenty of used book dealers out there,

Let me also direct you to two recent books that I'm sure you can get: The Old Put by Joe Schiavone (2007) and Forgotten Railroads through Westchester County by Robert A Bang , also 2007 . Both are extremely well done and contain everything you could want.

Let me recommend that you not think about sniffing around the site of Put Sedgwick Ave. station area under the Major Deegan overhang. This area, while not as bad as it used to be, is probably not safe. While in college in the city in the mid 60s a friend and I did sniff around there. I'm sure it wasn't safe then either, but when you're 19 you think you're invincible! . I believe some organization has sponsored at least one organized walking tour of that area --- the Putnam remains, as well as the remnants of the old "Polo Grounds spur" off the Jerome Ave. El. That must have been incredibly fascinating.

That area is pretty well fenced off, and you would have to be in the shape of an Army Ranger just to get over the fence. Satisfy your curiosity with Google Earth, and if you're in the area, a few rides through from a secure seat where you don't have to worry about nails going through your boots. Besides, if you poked around there, chances these days are you would be arrested by MN Police.

D/

Hi Dieter

I’m specifically interested in the New York Central’s yard at Port Morris.
The New Haven’s Oak Point is of interest to me too, but I've posted a similar question before on the NH board, without much success.

Dieter wrote:They're all interconnected in the same General Neighbourhood; Da South Bronks!

Did you ask on the NEW HAVEN board?

D?

Sunday, February 6, 1916, take a look at this early article mentioning the rail scene in that area of Da Bronks;

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 946796D6CF

Here's a link about Bronx Terminal RR with a map showing the Central's yard;

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/crrnjbxt.html

Here's the latest on the line leading to the yard, avec PICTURES; the line was abandoned by CSX in 2004, the tracks are under water and it's called THE BRONX SWAMP;
"The swamp is actually the old New York Central( Later Penn Central/Conrail/CSX) Port Morris branch. It was used by freight trains from the Hudson Line to acess the yards down near Port Morris and Oak Point on the East River. It was abandoned c.2004 when a direct connector was opened from near Yankee Stadium along the Harlem River towards the Port Morris/Oak Point yards."

http://kensinger.blogspot.com/2009/08/bronx-swamp.html

Only in DA BRONKS!

D