Dunkirk/Fredonia -signal lit

When traveling on the NYS Thruway (I-90) and passing over the RR track I always look for signs of movement. Never got lucky.

Last week I headed down to Fredonia to watch a basketball game and traveled the local streets where Vineyard St crosses the track. It was dark. As I approached the crossing and being a good driver, I looked both ways before crossing and was taken by surprised to see a westbound signal (yellow) lit. Totally unexpected. No signs of movement and all covered with snow.

Is this track still taking deliveries?

A couple of pictures both looking west.



I just bought this new XR iPhone and expected better pictures than my 5c. Disappointed.

That signal is the Approach Signal for the NS diamond and would be approach lit. I don't know about traffic on the branch, but the salt and ice in the crossing is probably shunting the circuit, causing the signal to light up.

I too am very dissatisfied with the Xr photo ability. They advertised the X as having a great camera but I had old flip-phones that took better pictures - and at 1/10th the price. I hesitate to recommend Apple products to anyone now, except when I'm POed at Microsoft when their junk is acting up.

Looking at recent Google aerial views and street views, it doesn't look like Fieldbrook Foods (just to the south of the NS diamond) is getting rail service. Truck trailers are sitting there encroaching on the spur. The end of track just north of E. Main St. (US 20) looks bereft of customers as well.

Sadly, it wouldn't shock me to see this industrial track torn up. I believe it's part of the original Erie route from 1851 that terminated at Lake Erie in Dunkirk.

Charlie

I'm not an expert but I thought that this was the track that was the north end of the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh, for some reason also referred to as the "Dolly Varden." I could be looking at the wrong trackage but it does terminate just north of US 20 in Fredonia. This DAV&P is the line that went to Lily Dale, which is of interest to my wife, since among other things, Susan B. Anthony would have traveled it to visit that community.

umtrr-author wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 7:42 pm I'm not an expert but I thought that this was the track that was the north end of the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh, for some reason also referred to as the "Dolly Varden." I could be looking at the wrong trackage but it does terminate just north of US 20 in Fredonia. This DAV&P is the line that went to Lily Dale, which is of interest to my wife, since among other things, Susan B. Anthony would have traveled it to visit that community.

You are correct. This whole stub is the north end's remnant of the old DAV that as a whole has been out of service for decades. Without searching extensively, I believe there have been three sections left that are in operation: the north end (as in this thread), a small stub in Warren, PA, where I live (just a few minutes from me) and one further south, but still less than an hour away.

It's completely possible that a bunch of it is in operation in the Pittsburgh region, but I don't know.

My understanding was that a new medical company chose the location it did because it has active rail...and it would be this rail. Of course, they are not up and running yet, and who knows if they will be.

I have never heard the Susan B. Anthony story, but it's completely reasonable to think she may have done so.

Looks like it might have served Chautauqua Brick at one point, ROW below 20 is pretty obvious including a freight station.

lvrr325 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:31 pm Looks like it might have served Chautauqua Brick at one point, ROW below 20 is pretty obvious including a freight station.

There are still the remnant of rails in the dirt at the Chautauqua Brick in Jamestown, but I believe that this business came to be much too late to have gotten service.

Right but we're talking about Fredonia.

The ROW is fairly obvious up to a bit below that then becomes hard to find.

When I looked at the Google views two tank cars are visible in the Fieldbrook Foods siding. In street views the rails show some use from there up to the mainline, but little or no use below it.

If you follow east from where this comes up to the CSX mainline, there is one siding and a material yard that kind of wye off the other yard tracks more directly eastward - this is the last remnant of the Erie. It crossed over the former NYC and terminated at the Dunkirk pier, but not much of that is visible. The ROW going east can be followed fairly easily. IIRC there are some historic aerials of the area that do show the track.