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  • Niagara Falls, NY station question

  • 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

 #1463808  by SST
 
This post could fit into Amtrak but being narrowly focused I picked here.....

I was just looking at the Maple Leaf [64] timetable: https://asm.transitdocs.com/train/2018/03/03/64" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It arrives NF at roughly 1030am and departs 2 hours later. Does the train actually sit at the station for 2 hours? Doesn't this block any traffic to/from the bridge? There is no other trackage to get around the station. Do they reposition the train until nearing departure time or is there so little Canada traffic that it doesn't matter.....it stays at the station.

The old station solved this as the station track was seperate from the main bridge track.
 #1463826  by CPSmith
 
It's a built in schedule pause for customs. Been a couple of years, but between both the NF NY and NF Ontario locations, there are crews changes, food & beverages swap outs, mechanical inspections, etc., but mostly it's for customs. IIRC, there's a thread in the Amtrak forum.
 #1463861  by Noel Weaver
 
nyswray wrote:Freight service through Niagara Falls into Canada has been abandoned, so the only trains using the bridge are the Maple Leaf (63/64)
Freight service was re-routed through Buffalo some time ago, not abandoned but no longer through Niagara Falls which years ago had two very active railroad bridges.
Noel Weaver
 #1463905  by SST
 
I didn't know that freight didn't go over this bridge. That would explain why the train sits for 2 hours at the station.

So I guess all the freight traffic I see going up the Niagara Falls line is for Niagara Falls, NY only.
 #1463913  by NYCRRson
 
The freight traffic on the "Niagara Falls Branch" (Buffalo <-> Niagara Falls) consists of freight for Niagara Falls, Lockport, Medina, Brockport, etc. and the coal trains for the power plant at Somerset.

Traffic for Lockport, etc. uses the "Falls Road", which is the old NYCRR name for the line that went from NF to Rochester. That was a significant high volume and high speed line at one time. I remember Auto racks and TV trains running 50 mph on that line in the 60's.
 #1463931  by KevinD
 
Yes, freight traffic off the CN Grimsby Sub takes a 30 mile detour to the west/south/east via the CN Stamford Sub rather than continue on the 2.8 miles from the Stamford sub Jct (CN Clifton) to the bridge.

http://www.niagararails.com/cgi-bin/img ... /map12.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.niagararails.com/grimsby.phtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.niagararails.com/stamford.phtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1464109  by MACTRAXX
 
Everyone:

Adding more insight to this current discussion there were two previous relevant topics about the
new Niagara Falls, NY Station and the Whirlpool (Suspension) Bridge status - in which CN wanted
to abandon the segment of track over the bridge between the new Amtrak and the VIA station.
Both of these topics were in the Amtrak Forum.

Without that short segment of track crossing the border you literally then have no "Maple Leaf"
through service - Amtrak and VIA stepped in and saved this vital connecting track. What was
once four tracks across the border (this one, the abandoned two tracks across the closed MC
Bridge adjacent and the single track Buffalo-Fort Erie International Bridge) would have been
down to only one across the border in the Niagara Frontier had the WB track been abandoned.
This route can still be an alternate in case of any problems blocking service over the IB line.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=93406" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
CN Applies to abandon "Maple Leaf" route bridge at Niagara - 9 pages/130 posts - 2012

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=162869" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
New Niagara Falls Station - 64 posts/5 pages - 2016

MACTRAXX
 #1466336  by tonfire72
 
[MACTRAXX wrote "This route can still be an alternate in case of any problems blocking service over the IB line."

This actually happened in the early 1990's (the International Bridge closed for repairs for i think maybe a month if i remember correctly) which caused quite an increase in traffic along the Niagara branch. All Traffic from Canada going to Buffalo and visa versa was rerouted via Niagara Falls. This was during the Conrail days and when CP was regularly using the line as well, through some sort of trackage agreement with the D&H (the CP line thru NF Canada is now gone). There was so much traffic I remember hearing about the "local" residents in the Tonawanda's complaining to their elected officials that "something needed to be done; there were too many trains!" I was in my glory.