Oswego & Syracuse traffic

What kind of traffic did EL have on the branch that ran between Oswego and Syracuse? I've seeon only one pic in a train mag from the late '70s and it was pretty forlorn- just a GP-9, one hopper and a caboose. I've talked to a few Oswego natives near my age (36) and none of them can really recall ANY rail traffic there during the past 10-15 years, so I'm at a loss as to what rail customers used to be there

...away, so did the traffic. There was a coal dock on the Lake which emptied trains of coal into ships and unloaded ships of iron ore into trains. After mid 60s, really nothing much until Baldwindsville.

I see what you mean about the lake shipments- the waterfront in Oswego looks like it used to handle alot of freighter/railroad interchange. Were there no otoer industries in or near Oswego? That pic I saw was taken near Oswego in the '70s, long after the freighters stopped unloading on the EL.

...of printed material about Oswego. From the railroads points of view the DL&W, O&W, and NYC (Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg) were all in there. The Erie Canal-NYS Barge Canal came up from Oneida Lake and Syracuse. The Coast Guard had a station; there was light house. There is an old Colonial fort. The area goes back a long ways in American history. Do a search for Oswego, NY, plus searches on your favorite railroad and canal. Plenty in the library, too, especially if you are from New York State.

When I attended Syracuse University in the early 1970s, I saw the EL Oswego a few times; consists were modest - 10-20 cars. I think most of the traffic petered out once the train got north of Baldwinsville. IIRC, one of the big brewers, Schlitz or Miller built a huge brewery along the line in the 1970s. Too bad they didn't build a pipeline to campus.

Don't know if it is still in operation.

The Miller Brewery in Baldwinsville is, I believe, closed.

...than just the brewery is gone. The track is in to Oswego on the old DL but out of service north of Baldwinsville or Fulton. I know Nestle is gone but may have been replaced by another company; in and out shipping is still a lot less than before.

both miller brewery and nestle are on the nyc side of the river.however just north of baldwinsville on the EL side is the anheuser-bush brewery still alive and well.there is a yard there that sees a job out of dewitt 5-7 days a week.unfortunately for EL the brewery was built after 1976.

....there was a Busch brewery up there, too. Wasn't there a bridge crossing the river for DL to access either Fulton or ? Before the end of the NYO&W the Nestle chocolate used to go to Norwich via O&W to interchange to DL. After the O&W demise I heard there was a birdge or something built. Please set me straight.

As far as I know there was never a rail connection over the Oswego
River in Fulton,NY. O&W came in from the east and joined the Central
near Nestle plant and ran jointly to Oswego(O&W track). The Miller Brewry
opened in the seventies and closed in the late eighties I believe. Conrail
built a yard near the plant and was a quite busy place. That yard is still
there but sees little traffic any more. On the west side of town the track
north of Hannibal St. (old county rt 3) is OOS and has been for a number
of years.This track was/is owned by Niagara Mohawk and used to see
oil trains when the power plant in Oswego was oil fired. The DL&W used
to move coal way back when but I don't know if coal moved during EL
days. I think there is only a couple of customers left in Fulton and I don't
know the frequency of operations. The A-B plant in Baldwinsville is quite
busy though with trains running at least every other day.

STEAM ON
/--OOO--~-oo--oo-

...both the DL and the EL moved coal up to Oswego but also unloaded iron ore from boats, too, until the early 60s I believe. I was there in Sept of 68 I believe, just a week before the by then abandoned coal/ore pier was pulled down.

henry could you be thinking of the RW@O/NYC bridge in oswego? possibly the nestle traffic went north to oswego and then south on the EL from there.CR used this bridge to access the EL side until the mid 80s when it was abandoned.

...er, ah...

I have read old DL Dispatcher OS sheets that shows delivery and pick up of Nestle cars from O&W at Norwich...

I do have pix, slides not prints not digital (read non postable by me), of the coal/ore dock jutting out into the lake just west of where the marina and maritime musieum is now; below and to the northwest of SUNY OS campus. There are quite a few published pictures of the dock, too.

My knowledge of the bridge I mentioned is eronious, however, and I bow to those from there who know better.

...in the August, 1956 issue of LACKAWANNA MAGAZINE.

To respond to 0-6-0's post, I do know that EL moved unit coal trains over the Oswego & Syracuse 1963-'67. According to The Elmira Branch and my neighbor Don (a retired NYC/PC employee), this move was a death-blow to that PRR line that shipped coal via Sodus Point.

As always, the information you guys are posting is very informative. I've seen that line to Oswego a few times, and wondered what traffic had been there in busier days.