Railroad Forums 

  • Railroads near or in sight of the NYS Thruway

  • 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

 #1013845  by RussNelson
 
As far as I know, there is nothing stopping that section of the Maybrook Line from being turned into a rail-trail, although I don't know of anybody planning to do so. The difficulty of connecting it to the Pok bridge is that the railbed has been built upon by a trailer park, and (maybe) a power company storage yard. And it runs through a couple of houses' front yards.
 #1049911  by XC Tower
 
I remember driving by this trackage multiple times as a kid with my folks on the way to Niagara Falls, being drawn to any railroad track sightings in the big railroad town that Buffalo was in the 1960's and early 1970's. I never saw a train but where did this track come into and from the Interstate? Was it's destination Tifft St. Yard? (My dear old Dad and I stumbled into this yard by accident in the early 1970's....Awesome experience: lots of AlCO"s in the red paint scheme plus a yard office lettered "Lehigh Valley Railroad" (if my memory serves me right)
Thank you for any help.


XC Tower
 #1049960  by pumpers
 
Yes, you are right - on the south end of that stretch of I-90, in Lackawanna, the LV curved west, and then went over the PRR, Norfolk & Western (earlier Nickel Plate), NYC, and an Erie branch, and a few others probably , mostly next to each other, and then curved north to get to the Tifft St Yard and docks. Must have been quite a sight in the day... Going north along 90, the LV turned east around Cheektowaga and was the main line to PA and NJ. A bit further east in Depew a branch took off heading for Tonawanda or Niagara Falls as well. JS
Officially, where was the west end of the LV mainline? Was it TIfft St Yard?
 #1063116  by greenwichlirr
 
On a 1921 topo, I'm seeing a branch of some sort come of of the West Shore RR at Ravena. It finally tells me that those two stone trestle abutments that bracket the conveyor under the Thruway were indeed railroad related.

Now the question remains: What railroad was it?

EDIT: Just did some research and found my answer. I had NO idea of the amount of relocation that the West Shore went through.....pretty good amount. What was the purpose of the yard at Ravena?
 #1174570  by W0LfMan
 
(a)A single-track line crossing under the Thruway from south to
north, near MP 325-326. I was under the impression that the only
line to have done this about 37 miles west of Syracuse was the long-abandoned PRR Elmira-Newark-Sodus Point line. Can anyone identify this
railroad?

It's the Ontario Midland railway

www.ontariomidland.com
 #1201545  by glenfieldwestern
 
While traveling on I-90 to Albany yesterday I noticed that the West Shore bridge near Ft. Plain was being removed.

There is a trail on the old ROW in this area so it was a surprise to see the bridge being removed. Does anyone know if it will be replaced with a smaller pedestrian/bicycle bridge?

Was the bridge in bad shape?
 #1201886  by RussNelson
 
I, along with 538 of my closest friends, bicycled from Buffalo to Albany a week ago on the Erie Canalway trail. At Fort Plain, we had to detour off the trail because of flood damage. I had seen a gaping hole from the Thruway on the east side of the bridge, so I got a photograph of it. Sadly, the West Shore bridge had the eastern abutment undercut by the creek, and fell to the south. This is what it looked like looking north along the creek.
Image
IMG_2930 by Russ Nelson, on Flickr
 #1202031  by glenfieldwestern
 
Russ,
Thank you for answering the question and providing the info that recent flooding in the area had caused the abutment to fail. Your photo really underscores the extent of the damage. It looked like welders were cutting the bridge apart when I passed by on the Thruway on Saturday but at highway speed it was hard to know for sure.

GW
 #1233619  by RichCoffey
 
I am curious about a couple of old ROWs that cross the Berkshire Spur of the NY Thruway. Does any know when they were abandoned, etc. and are there any links to recommend sites re their history, etc.?

-1-
N 42.48224 W 73.62921
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.48224,-73 ... ounty%20NY

North Chatham
Albany & Hudson Electric Railroad
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/kind03nw.jpg

Image
Image

++++++++++++
-2-
And a little further to the east near Old Chatham
N 42.44279 W 73.55746
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.44279,-73 ... ounty%20NY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chatham Division of the Rutland Railroad
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/kind03ne.jpg

Image
Image
 #1233713  by RichCoffey
 
I was able to answer my own questions but any further info is always appreciated...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-Albany & Hudson Electric Railroad-
abandoned in 1929?
http://upstateearth.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... ilway.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://upstateearth.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... -from.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Electric Park at Kinderhook Lake
http://www.journeytothepast.org/prim_so ... 20.%20.%20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-Chatham Division of the Rutland Railroad-
abandoned in 1953
Corkscrew Rails And Tales: History Of The Rutland RR From North Bennington To Chatham
http://eastwickpress.com/news/2011/12/c ... o-chatham/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More Info on RR Net
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 28&t=33783" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1233741  by trainsinmaine
 
There are two more that you will cross if you head toward Massachusetts: the former New Haven branch that went from State Line down through West Stockbridge to Housatonic, and part of the original Boston & Albany line from Canaan to Chatham (visible only when the trees are denuded of leaves). I'm not sure of the date when the B&A was rerouted, but it was well before the turn of the century. I've never found a map that depicts the original roadbed in its entirety. It is largely above the level of I-90, on hillsides and, at one point, on a hill within the median. You really have to keep an eye peeled for it, because it's not terribly obvious.
 #1236279  by trainsinmaine
 
Go to Maptech's mytopo site. Bring up "Canaan, NY" and find BM 289.2 on the B&A (CSX). Look a bit southeast of there and you will find a straight topographic line adjacent to a small pond, going northeast to southwest. (This is also due southwest of
Flatbrook.) That's the original ROW. It crosses I-90 at a very sharp angle, traversing the north side of Mercer Mountain.
As it approaches County Road it disappears from the map. I'm wondering whether the eastbound lane of I-90 was laid over the roadbed from there to the vicinity of the tollbooth. South of the tollbooth, there is a road that veers off toward the southwest at a suspiciously gentle angle and heads to the village of New Concord, where it continues suspiciously straight toward a tangent with the B&A, eventually becoming NY Route 295. One wonders. I've been to that area, but I don't know it well.
 #1236292  by trainsinmaine
 
I looked at old maps and it's clear that I'm wrong about the road to New Concord --- it doesn't lie on the old roadbed. My guess is that I am correct, however, about part of the Thruway spur lying atop it. The question is where the west end joined the present line.
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