Upper Harlem - Wassaic Branch / Extension

Shot this back in '08 during the "layover" between trips... the shot is taken between the "rail-trail" and NY 22:



There's a fence in the way and I didn't want to stray away too far from the station, but at least I got a shot of the FL-9s!

I did fine out there today, thanks for everyone's help. I timed it, and it took me about 4-5 minutes to get photos in Wassaic station.







More Photos http://jonstrainphotos.com/photos/route/haw

Jeff Smith wrote:Awesome shots;

Glad you like em I got two more lines to ride then i've been to all of em, Port Jervis and Waterbury.

Clean Cab wrote:MN assumed ownership of the tracks north of Dover Plains in 1995 after Conrail abandoned service in 1993. This was done under the provisions of a law that allowed MN to reclaim territory given up by Conrail after a period of one year.

Out of curiousity, would this provision allow CDOT or MNRR to claim the disused portion of the Maybrook from the state line to Danbury?

DutchRailnut wrote:

Maybrook fan wrote:I'm a tad off subject but my question is; If some type of freight customer wanted to use the line now. Does Housatonic still have the trackage rights to upper Harlem or would Metro north have to pull the freight ?


Also I'm a NY resident and think we are over taxed also,
But just to keep things on a fair playing field, Ct. DOT does kick money and equipiment into Metro North.

The answer is no, the HHRC has given up all freight rights on entire Harlem line, wich they had via Danbury Terminal Railroad, a company now desolved and part of Housatonic Transportation Company

As for your second statement CDOT provides enough equipment to cover connecticut operation, they do not supply equipment for service in New York.
For Every CDOT car running in New York, MNCR has to supply more than 1 in Connecticut, due to shortage of M-2's

Dutch, did HRRC also relinquish freight rights on Beacon line in NYS? I.e. when they dissolved Danbury Terminal, did they relinquish "the Danbury cluster"?

no they did not, they only used their rights a few times, once during a derailment on their part in Massachusets, Conrail (CSX) begged them to interchance at Beacon since to many cars for Housy were plugging up Selkirk.
Then a move to borrow Side Dump from MNCR at CP Dyke
and a transformer move to Hopewell , currently line is OOS and nothing has traveled west of Dykeman interchance in several years.

Thanks Dutch.

<Bump> for current interest reflected in the Beacon topic.

Otto Vondrak wrote: As much as I would like to see my beloved Harlem Division come back to life!! -otto-

Otto, the sad, sad fact is that we have lost WAY too many rail lines that should have never been taken out in the first place. I have a feeling that the day may come when we will sorely wish we had some of 'em back. Sadly, that is going to be hard to do as this thread had demonstrated.

It's not all the railroads' fault, either. I think property taxes play a role. If it weren't for property taxes, it might make sense to simply embargo a line like the Upper Harlem and maybe run a high-rail truck over it from time to time. Then if the future need arise - it's still there. Might just need new ties and balasting. A few states - Wisconsin comes to mind - have had rail freight preservation policies. But the Empire State has not been very good at this. Nor has my state (Indiana). To bad; it really is a shame.

Regards,
Fred M. Cain

Some of the pics on this thread have disappeared,and the links have gone dead, a server glitch?

Backshophoss wrote:Some of the pics on this thread have disappeared,and the links have gone dead, a server glitch?

Yes, I recently posted a comment on this on an old thread I'd started on the NYC's Putnam Division titled "Mystery Along U.S. 202" here: http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 0#p1430901" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I had posted some pics (actually map drawings that I'd diligently made) and used "tinypics". Tinypics are web-based and evidently expire after a time. They are fairly user-friendly to use but bear in mind that if you use them - or a similar service - your images will not be permanent. What to do? Beats me. On the Yahoo e-discussion groups, they will often allow you to "copy-and-paste" photos directly into the text material and those photos appear to become permanent. Unfortunately, this forum will not let you do that which I think is a shame. A real computer geek might know how to change that but that wouldn't be me!

regards,

Right click the image, hit "open in new tab" and copy that address, provided it ends in a valid image file extension (i.e. jpg)

Then [img ]copy and paste the image between these brackets minus spaces.[ /img] - you can click the Img box at the top of a post to insert the code prefix. It should work if the image isn't ginormous.

It's probably just broken links - after all, the original posts are over a decade old.

The links will run you to your ISP's "Web Helper Service" page now

Can't control what others have taken down on their servers!!!

Two other options when you right click an image are "Copy Image" and "Copy Image Location." Using the latter you will have copied the address G.O.T.T. refers to with the file extension.

If I'm to upload something of my own, I use a hidden gallery in my SmugMug account to host and link to the image. You can select an appropriate size that way too which is good for posting here (my avatar is also done that way). This way, too, as long as I remember to pay them every year I know my image will stay up.

Sorry to keep this going completely off topic, but I figure some would find value in this.