Mileposts question.

I don't know if Mr. Davids still looks here, but I have a question about the 4th. Sub. First, someone told me that the bridge over the South Bay, Lake Champlain was once a drawbridge. Any truth?

I'm back.

It was a swing bridge. The drawtender's house and the interlocking were removed in 1924.

The second is about pre-TCS sidings. It looks like one may have been around MP 81-82. Another looks to have been south of Monkey St., around MP 182. Any other ghosts besides post TCS ones removed, like Port Henry, and W. Chazy?

Lots of them. I don't know about 82, but Dresden was 127 cars at 87.3. Chazy siding held 80 cars. Plenty more, like Putnam, Cummings, Howards, and so on.

There was another post about doing a survey about closing crossings. There are 3-4 which come to mind near Chazy. When was this done?

We did the survey in October, 1966 and the crossings were closed in early 1967, IIRC.

- Gordon Davids

Howard's is back. In about 2002 they put in a 8000' siding g there. At the time, Ticonderoga was 4900', and Wadhams had been extended to 5800'. Prior to Howard's, if two long trains were to meet, either one would wait for hours at Whitehall, or the other at Bluff Point. From what I've heard, they really wanted it through Port Henry. This would have had Bulwagga crossing in the middle. Cutting trains would have been impractical, and a bridge was out of the budget.

Howards is on the side of a hill, and runs from just north of MP 123, to just south of Naper Road. Now most trains can fit here. The only problem has been the fill used around MP124.3. It has been sinking for the whole time. In 2014 it was really bad, and they widened the slope of the bank. Since then, the grade has been stable, and 25mph has been maintained for several months.

Rockland has been relaid also. It goes from MP 148.6, to MP 150.6. This has really helped the fluidity of the operation.

There was talk about extending Ticonderoga, but I wonder how practical this would be. There are two private crossings near MP 99, and one at MP 100.3. I suppose that they could buy out the homeowners. I think that somewhere near Putnam would be better.