Ice Houses

Does anyone know of sources of information for NY Central Ice Houses and operations? I know ice was harvested at Raquette Lake and Old Forge, NY for ice houses in Weehawken, NJ. Also that Utica City Ice operated a large ice house on White Lake near the NY Central depot of the same name.

Charlie C.

There was also an ice pond near Brewster / Put Jct. from which ice was harvested and sent to the Mott Haven Coach Yards.

The New York Central and the Lehigh Valley Railroads used to own and operate Ice Houses in the Village of Cayuga, NY on Cayuga Lake.

Looks like 100% on your spelling on that one, buddy. Way to go!

When you consider the volume of ice traffic that used to exist on various branches way back it's amazing. From an economic standpoint all the railroad's ice was non-revenue but they probably did haul ice for city ice houses. But just the overall number of cars is a whole chunk of traffic we will never see in this day and age. Too bad!

See http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/M ... seMenu.htm for information on Michigan Central icehouses at Detroit and Niles,MI.

What Makes things more intresting about the village of Cayuga, NY is that the State lowers the lake level in the fall to make way for the following spring run off. This makes for easy spoting of where the poles and suports used to be for the Ice Houses and docks that once used to stand there. They can be found near the current Village Offices (Ex New York Central Station) The Lehigh Valley Station stood about 50 yards to the South of the NYC Station but was leveled in late 1880's. Older maps show at leased a 6 track yard and 3 or 4 sideings that were once used during the winter for the ice houses.
In the Summer months the New York central and the Lehigh Valley used to bring Tank Cars with water up and fill them with Carp out of Cayuga Lake to put in the cars to take to New York City for the Jewish Community.

NYC harvested Ice out of the Mohawk River in Niskayuna, NY on the Troy and Schenectady Branch. The ice was then loaded into I would assume reefers for a trip over to Karner (Colonie, NY) to the big Ice House.

My grandfather, Myron Tyler, had a seniority date of 02-16-11 with the LV. He worked the Auburn Division for 53 years before retiring November of 1964. He often related that the manpower for the ice cutting at Cayuga, NY came from furloughed LV Trainmen. This was a way to stay employed during the winter months when 'cut-off' in Train service. He did both; saw ice when he couldn't hold a job and protected ice trains from the Extra Board when he had sufficient seniority to remain employed all winter long.