Railroad Forums 

  • New York & Lake Erie Railroad (NY&LE) Discussion

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1037368  by mowingman
 
All this upgrading brings up this question. What freight customers does this railroad still have? I have looked at the entire line using the Bing Live Search air photos and I can see nothing in the way of active industries along this line. Looks like there may be a small feed mill or two, that appears to be it.
So, does anyone have a list of current customers?
Thanks,
Jeff
 #1049010  by BSOR Patarak
 
Cherry Creek Wood Crafters at South Dayton - They bring in "boards" and make trophy plaques. They have begun shipping again after a long hiatus.
Stored Railcars have filled sidings and parts of the line for quite sometime. Rental income is common for such light usage lines
 #1058521  by chrisnewhaven
 
July issue of Model Railroad Craftsman has an article on sound decoders, FPA-4's 6758 and 6761 were used for the Alco 251 recordings for Rapido Trains models. Apparently they ran the locomotives up and down the line several times in May to get all the recordings, nice to see these units still operational and in good enough condition to get recordings from!
C.J.V.
 #1079511  by map193
 
Hi guys I’m a newbie,
I walked a portion of this line going out of Cattaraugus towards Dayton recently to see how bad the damage was from the floods of 2009 and if there was any progress being made towards rehabbing this line. Surprisingly a lot if not most of what I walked was in decent shape with the exception of a few rotted out ties. There were many spots that had newer ballast and new ties but I am unsure how long they have been there for. I came across and took several pictures of the first washout which is about 250 yards ahead of mile post 430, about twenty feet wide, it only washed out about half way under the track. From what I saw there have been bigger washouts in the past that have been filled in. I also believe that this area has been prone to washouts in the past before and there was a more permanent attempt made to keep them from happening. I didn’t get any pictures of how they attempted to fix these slides, but that they did was take three cut up rails and drive them into the ground then put two rails across them in hopes of keeping the hill from sliding down into Skinner Hollow. As I walked down about half a mile from this first washout I came across two areas about fifteen feet apart that I would call a “half washout” because they only had a little bit of bed washed out from under them, but if the correct ballast was put under them instead of cinders they would be easily fixed. It took me a while to walk the next section of the r.o.w because the tall weeds were growing in. I came across the next spot which appeared to be severely washed out at one time, probably after the 2009 floods but was since filled in. The picture from Google maps shows how big the washout was. When they fixed it they put a two foot wide culvert in that goes under the r.ow. and is used for a runoff for the pond that borders the tracks. This is as far as I went before I turned back, and I am unsure what kind of condition the rest of the tracks are in from this spot on to Dayton, they may be in bad shape for all I know but I always figured that the Skinner Hollow section was the section that would have the worst track conditions with the most washouts.
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... shout2.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... shout1.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... ashout.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... ashout.jpg
 #1116937  by thebigham
 
From the NY&LE Facebook page:

CHRISTMAS TRAIN RIDES!!!

One day only, December 15 we will be giving train rides. Trains depart Gowanda Depot, 50 Commercial Street starting at 11:00am and will run on the hour. (11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 3:00pm, 4:00pm)

We will be running the train back and forth in the Gowanda rail-yard and out over the Cattaraugus Creek Bridge for photo opportunities.

Tickets are only $2.00 per person. A portion of the proceeds will be going to benefit the Gowanda Food Pantry. Merry Christmas To All!!
 #1117300  by Flat-Wheeler
 
map193 wrote:Hi guys I’m a newbie,
I walked a portion of this line going out of Cattaraugus towards Dayton recently to see how bad the damage was from the floods of 2009 and if there was any progress being made towards rehabbing this line. Surprisingly a lot if not most of what I walked was in decent shape with the exception of a few rotted out ties.
........
I always figured that the Skinner Hollow section was the section that would have the worst track conditions with the most washouts.

http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... shout2.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... shout1.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... ashout.jpg
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/m ... ashout.jpg
Hello Map193... welcome aboard our forums !!! Thanks for the pictures.

Between 2003 and 2005, I used to hike that portion of the NYLE either side of Persia Rd crossing, towards Dayton or Cattaraugus. Once hiked all the way to the first crossing in Cattaraugus, and then back to Persia Rd.. Even in the dead of the summer, the roadbed had water drainage issues growing in spots.
Also I bushwacked the torn up railbed between Salamanca and Little Valley. Hiked around the Cherry Creek station area a bit too. I think the track was in use to Cherry Creek at the time.
Used to keep an eye peeled for evidence of the old 1854 telegraph line alongside the original wide gauge Erie RR.. Found a few old iron wires and rotted pole pieces here an there. Found two 1870's era glass insulators, fully intact, sticking out of the ground, and of course several smashed insulators in pieces most of the time. I cannot imagine what the water runoff and washouts have uncovered from the 1800's layers of soil either side of the roadbed.
 #1117309  by map193
 
Flat-Wheeler,
You would be amazed at what I found when I walked through there. There were a lot of glass insulators just to the right of the R.O.W. as you're going towards Persia. I never did find any wires, but I really didn't look for any either. It was so overgrown in spots that you would never be able to see interesting things like that. I did find a lot of remnants of poles like you did but nothing was complete. The only surviving parts of a lot of those poles were pieces of steel about 12 or 14 inches long that were used on the top for the cross members or whatever they are called. I did notice that most of the dates on the rail was 1915. You would probably know where the current washout is if you have walked that entire span before. By looking at google maps it appears that it might be about a mile or so away from Broadway rd. as you're going back towards Cattaraugus. It really has some nice views through there as you look down through Skinner Hollow and across the Cattaraugus Creek. Oh, you might know this from walking through there, but were there any signs that this was ever double tracked or was this single tracked from day 1? There are a lot of spots where it looks too narrow to be double tracked so I wasn't quite sure. Thanks!
 #1117825  by Flat-Wheeler
 
Map193,

I believe I stand corrected ... I forgot that's not Persia Rd where the Broadway Rd crossing is, but that's near where Persia is on my old map. My bad.

But yes, about a mile in towards Skinner Hollow, East of Broadway Rd, is where lots off water runoff problems were evidently growing when I was last in there. Impressive scenic views of the hollow for sure. I primarily searched the north/east side of the ROW for insulators. I found a whole one half buried about a half mile past Broadway, down about 120 ft off to the leftside, another one along the embankment leading down into the hollow, and I led my buddy to find one 100 ft off to the leftside hidden between some granite boulders about a mile past the hollow. Judging by the fragments and pieces I'd often find, they used a wide variety including many old, rare, and unusual colors, styles, and makers. Anyways, I digress...

As far as I could tell, the roadbed was single track (originally wider than standard gauge) with occasional passing sidings along the route between Salamanca and Dunkirk. Though this was the Westernmost end of the original Erie Mainline from the mid 1850's, the other route to reach the Water Level Routes (via Hornell to Buffalo) was soon favored. Buffalo was THE place to be connected with all other roads, not Dunkirk, and the lack of shippers between Cattaraugus and Forestville combined with the tough grades, tight curves, and poor water runoff between Salamanca and of course Persia, impeded this line from becoming more than a lightly used branch along which to string the West end of the first Southern New York telegraph. So it was never double tracked in subsequent years, unlike the Erie's Southern Tier route Salamanca Eastward to Olean and Hornell Eastward to Elmira.
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