History of Gang Mills -- From Then to Now

The NS Gang Mills yard plays heavily in any discussion of the Tier west of Binghamton and in the "explosion" of the gas-related traffic. I thought that it might be interesting for those of us with no or limited (like myself) knowledge of the history of Gang Mills to discuss that history as a means of gaining a better understanding of the current situation the NS faces in managing traffic on the Tier. I believe that the scope should also include the old Baker Street yard as well as decisions affecting Hornell and Elmira.

And I'd like to keep the discussion positive -- we all know that hindsight is perfect but to use that trite expression, "it is what it is," so limiting the discussion to critizing prior decisions probably won't be too useful. Understanding those decisions and the "whys" behind them, however, may be useful in putting today's world in the proper context.

As I said, my knowledge is relatively limited based upon a gap from the late 60's until about 5 years ago when I was out of area except for short visits but it seems to me that the mission of Gang Mills has morphed from that contemplated when it was set up initially. From my perspective, "mission creep" is a problem for any organization.

Poppyl

The history and uses of the Gang Mills Yard as I know it:

1. The yard was built in 1951. Yep, it's 60 years old.

2. Gang Mills was and useful strategic location because it was adjacent to the connection between the Erie (now NS) and NYC (now WCOR). At the time the yard was built, the Erie and the Reading connected in Williamsport via trackage rights the Erie had over NYC's Corning Branch (dating back to the early 1900s). The Erie had to pay NYC a decent share of the revenue (35%?), but it was generating a train a day in each direction. Indeed, the connection lasted until Conrail... because the Rading had no connection of its own to the Great Lakes.

3. There was more local business back in the day than there is now. As recently as the early '80s, there was a small stub of the former Erie main that went to a small factory and a lumber yard in Riverside. Therefore, Gang Mills handled that traffic.

4. Gang Mills also fielded locals down the branch to Mansfield and Blossberg until Agnes destroyed the branch in 1972. The traffic apparently diminished over time, as one of the EL books in my collection shows the local powered by an SW8 during the late '60s.

5. The Erie fielded a long haul local down the Erie Rochester Division to Gang Mills when the yard was built. After the Rochester Division was severed, the EL used some of the former Lackawanna mainline for the local. In the '50s, the traffic pattern seems to indicate loads came from the west, based on the photos I've seen of the Erie interchanging with Steuben County's shortlines- the B&H and the K&P. The role for Gang Mills grew after November, 1963... when the Lackawanna main was severed between Groveland and Wayland. Although the interchange with the K&P was over by then (and buried under Route 17), the traffic on the B&H was growing, so Gang Mills became the origination point for that traffic, as well as EL's own customers on the Wayland Branch.

6. Beginning in the Dereco era, EL collected the interchange cars for the D&H at Gang Mills. The D&H would run a weekly local between Binghamton and Gang Mills to collect those cars.... a practice that continued until C-Day.

Time grows short, so I'll add more after the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

Thanks for the information.

I can remember riding the Erie out of the "new" station on the DL&W ROW several times in the mid to late 50's to visit my grandparents in Cambridge Springs, PA.. If I remember correctly, Hornell was the hub back then where crews and power were changed, and passenger cars sorted. Gang Mills seemed to be a local car switching operation and NYC interchange point.

From some aerial photos from the mid 1960's that I have it looks like today's configuration of the yard hasn't changed too much from that time, although I do not have any visual information showing how it looked at its inception in 1951.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Poppyl

I thought the EL was able to move some of it's Reading interchange traffic off the NYC since they had a direct, if more roundabout, connection via the former DL&W Bloom line?

Perhaps they did eventually but this yard was built for the Erie not the EL.

lvrr325 wrote:I thought the EL was able to move some of it's Reading interchange traffic off the NYC since they had a direct, if more roundabout, connection via the former DL&W Bloom line?

LV, I'm guessing you mean coming from the west on Erie to Binghamton, to Scranton on DLW, then the DLW Bloomsburg line. ANy idea where the traffic then was interchanged to the Reading ? To the Catawissa line at Bloomsburg or Rupert, or if they it went on to Northumberland and then joined the main Reading line across the Susquehanna (the line passing through Sunbury and Shamokin) ? Thanks, JS

Here's the yard at Bing Maps:

http://binged.it/sR6EPd

It's probably a few years old.

thanks for the info. I spent alot of time on the lumber st bridge! what year was hornell yard & crew change moved to gang mills? p-c and , early c-r had a crew change in the old baker st yd till 79-80ish

Going back to 1951 for a moment, it looks to me like the "new" Gang Mills yard provided a significant increase in capacity over the old yard next to Dennison (comparing a map of the downtown yard with my 1960's photos). Please correct me if I'm mistaken on this.

Poppyl

lvrr325 wrote:I thought the EL was able to move some of it's Reading interchange traffic off the NYC since they had a direct, if more roundabout, connection via the former DL&W Bloom line?

Yes, EL did shift some of the Reading interchange traffic to the Bloom to save money. However, EL continued to run interchange trains down the Fallbrook until late March of 1976... because the connection at Williamsport was more direct.

pumpers wrote:

lvrr325 wrote:I thought the EL was able to move some of it's Reading interchange traffic off the NYC since they had a direct, if more roundabout, connection via the former DL&W Bloom line?

LV, I'm guessing you mean coming from the west on Erie to Binghamton, to Scranton on DLW, then the DLW Bloomsburg line. ANy idea where the traffic then was interchanged to the Reading ? To the Catawissa line at Bloomsburg or Rupert, or if they it went on to Northumberland and then joined the main Reading line across the Susquehanna (the line passing through Sunbury and Shamokin) ? Thanks, JS

The Reading and EL did interchange traffic at Rupert on the Bloom. That interchange had actually begun back in the DL&W era and, like the Williamsport interchange, continued until shortly before C-day in 1976.

On paper, the interchange and revenue division point for RDG/EL traffic was still Newberry Yard. The actual hand-off of the traffic at Rupert was for "convenience" only. EL was only getting paid for Williamsport to Corning mileage, but the traffic was routed via Rupert/Scranton for EL's convenience. RDG got paid for part of a haul they did not perform, and EL ended up with a slightly longer haul without getting paid, but apparently that worked within their larger operating plans better.

Politics could have been involved in decisions like this as well, as the EL was debating track reductions or elimination of either the DLW or Erie Delaware Div, the Rupert business definitely added to the car count between Scranton and Bing.

There was also a restriction in the original Erie/NYC agreement that forbade the Erie from shipping Reading traffic east of Corning. The Rupert interchange may have been beneficial for EL as a way to bypass that restriction.

To pick up where I left off: Gang Mills was continued to be of local importance during the Conrail era. The B&H traffic diminished as Taylor/Great Western declined, but resurged somewhat when the late Stan Clark focused more on the Cohocton business after the original mainline lost all winery traffic. (I have news paper article about this somewhere in my RR stuff.) In addition to the B&H traffic, was handling coal traffic (for the plant at Dresden?) and storing hoppers at Gang Mills. I can recall strings of hoppers in EL livery there during the '80s.

I don't know how much local traffic was on the Corning Secondary between Wellsboro Jct and Gang Mills or even if that traffic went through Gang Mills. On the other hand, locals to Wellsboro (town) continued until the end of 1992. WCOR entered the picture at the beginning of 1993. It wasn't much then. I seem to recall counts of 300 or 400 cars per year on WCOR prior to the Myles family assuming control,

Conrail didn't seem to use Gang Mills for traffic to Geneva. That was handled as a turn from Lyons prior to the NS split. NS began operating locals to interchange with FGLK in Geneva (H06) in 1999, so that certainly added to the car count at Gang Mills.

The WNYP also added to the traffic at Gang Mills. Since the mid '00,s NS stores loaded coal trains in the yard that come in from the WNYP.

The biggest change at Gang Mills in recent years, has been the gas drilling boom. With explosive traffic growth on WCOR, the Lehigh Railway, Owego & Hartford and the spur to Holding Point. gang Mills seems full or nearly full every time I see it. Of course, losing 2 tracks to Samara Barend's I-86/i-99 project didn't help.

So here we are... with Gang Mills probably handling more traffic than at any time since the EL era. Who knows what the future holds?

We also got to think that that at any time Finger Lakes and Norfolk Southern could always win back the coal contract from the coal plant in Solvay, NY taking that train away from CSX if that were to happen NS would have to make room for that train as well down in Gang Mills.

scharnhorst wrote:We also got to think that that at any time Finger Lakes and Norfolk Southern could always win back the coal contract from the coal plant in Solvay, NY taking that train away from CSX if that were to happen NS would have to make room for that train as well down in Gang Mills.

I guess it would depend on how the coal was shipped. Could Suzie-Q get access to the plant?