The Lackawanna in Owego

After driving through Owego last week, I was following the old Lackawanna line to Ithaca. It made me think, how did the Ithaca line get across the Susquehanna, the Erie and the Lehigh? I looked at the old topo map of the area and it gave me an idea of how it got from point A to point B, but did it cross the Erie on a bridge, or did it cross at grade? Also when was the Ithaca branch torn up?

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NY

I believe the DL&W Ithaca branch crossed the Erie main on a diamond where today there is a crossing gate protected pedestrian crossing. The DL&W then must have crossed the LV Auburn branch on a couple of crossovers, I'm guessing. I lived in Owego after the Ithaca branch was ripped up, and while I don't remember ever seeing pictures of these junctions, looking at the lay of the land, it would be hard to imagine anything other than at-grade crossings.

We had a discussion about this on the old railroad.net..
sadly all the old posts are gone.

The DL&W crossed the Susquehanna on a bridge just East of the current main Owego bridge..
someone had photo of the existing bridge abutment on the north shore!
its still there..

here is the 1903 topo map..the DL route is clearly visible:
http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NY

and this is interesting..I dont think we noticed this last time..
why is the bridge gone on the 1956 topo map??

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NY

why would the DL have abandoned their bridge that early?
flooding maybe?
Did they reach their line in Owego via the Erie from Binghamton then?
anyone know when the bridge was removed?

Scot

I also noticed the difference with the bridge missing between the two maps. I wondered if it got washed away in the hurricane. If you notice in the 1956 map, the whole Itaca branch is gone. That would tell me that it was pulled up before then. But the Lehigh is still there as is the Erie and DLW mainlines.

I was ~ 5 yrs old when we moved to Owego in 1957 and I think I remember seeing the curved through truss Ithaca branch bridge in place but not in use until ~ 1959 or so.

I thought all the DL&W Ithaca branch was gone by 1947, including the bridge?

I was abandon in '44 or so.

Charles

In Taber's book, "DL&W in the Twentieth Century" it is stated that the last train to Ithaca was run on December 4, 1956. After that, freight service on the branch only went as far as Candor (about 10 miles north of Owego) until May, 1957. In October of 1957, the track was torn up.

There is also a picture showing the LV crossing the DL&W at grade.

scottychaos wrote:
The DL&W crossed the Susquehanna on a bridge just East of the current main Owego bridge..
someone had photo of the existing bridge abutment on the north shore!
its still there..

Scot

Huh? Someone indeed....
http://www.geocities.com/than_357/dlw_b ... wegoNY.jpg

Tom H>

west of the overhead bridge on Rt 17 and before the sewage treatment plant on the left...abutments cand be seen on both banks of the river. The roadbed can be followed from the north shore thru back yards, etc. almost to the crossing of the Erie; much of the roadbed can be seen and followed all the way to Ithaca at the top of the switchback on Coddington Road. Right east of the overhead (Owego Court St/Route 38) bridge along the eastbound lanes was the station with a service area (tank, turntable, yard or siding,etc.) along the west bound lanes. See Taber; see Shelden King's Route Of the Phoebe Snow; see Railroads of Thompkins County for details, pictures, maps. [/i]

The curved bridge in Owego was dismantled in 1959 when the DL&W mainline was abandoned and trains diverted to the Erie tracks. Why it does not appear on 1956 topo maps is anybody's guess, DL&W was still running that stretch in 1956.

When the river is low in the summer, you can see the pier remnants of the bridge in the river.

I wasn't aware of the abutment on the south bank. I live less than five miles from there. Will look again, now is the ideal time.

I have always believed Frank Capra used Owego as his model for Bedford Falls in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." I first heard that in the mid-70s, before the movie began attracting attention again. Lately a case has been made that Capra used Seneca Falls, promoted mostly by the people from Seneca Falls.

Owego much more matches the layout of Bedford Falls. Owego has a square that much more resembles the fictional Beford Falls square than the one in Seneca Falls. The bridge from which George jumps is a twin of the one over the Susquehanna River in Owego. The river through Seneca Falls is just a creek.

And George mentions the glass factory closing. The Southern Tier was the home of New York's glass industry, not the Erie Canal route.

So, if that is true and Bedford Falls is indeed a Southern Tier town, did Harry Bailey and his new wife arrive on the Erie or the DL&W?

Well, Mr Lehigh and I took a tour of Owego today.

Last week I learned where the DL&W crossed the Erie at grade. The site of the crossing was not where the present pedestrian crossing is, it was slightly east of there. Erie had a tower protecting the crossing, OG tower. We found the foundation of the tower today. The DL&W crossed the Erie just west of the tower.

Approaching the Lehigh tracks, we found the DL&W ROW north of the Erie, with a tie still buried in the ground! That wasn't very obvious as we were walking. It is north of the Agway store across the street. We were able to sight the ROW from Academy street to the crossing of the Auburn branch. There are still spikes in the ties where the diamond crossing of LV & DL&W was.

The pedestrian crossing was original a road grade crossing where Academy St went north to join Rt 38. Last week my dad showed me an article on the Ithaca branch that had a picture taken from the rear of a DL&W Ithaca train looking south towards Owego and the LV/Erie tracks. There originally was a wye where Rt 38 and Academy St split, and the DL&W crossed Academy St north and south of the Erie tracks (twice!!). You can see this on the topo map. Also had a picture of the OG Tower on the Erie, it was a big tower.

The pier remnants from the Owego bridge were visible today with the low river level. I still haven't been able to find the abutment on the south bank, no sign of it in the winter either.

Based on Google Maps, Academy St runs only between Front St and Main St, next to what was Owego Junior HS back in the Jurassic era when I was in 8th grade (it may have been the original Owego Free Academy - when I attended OFA in the late '60s, it was hard by the EL/LV tracks with excellent views of the passing activity).

It's McMaster St that angles approx northward from Main St toward the Erie tracks and becomes the pedestrian crossing. McMaster St exists both north and south of the Erie tracks. As to the location of the DL&W crossing, it is indeed a little east of the former McMaster St crossing as shown in this 1903 topo map:

http://docs.unh.edu/NY/oweg03se.jpg