What was the "Old Conhocton Roadway" (Batavia-Buffalo)?

[scottychaos]

Interesting info thanks: one of those topics on ROW - "NOW" I know what that is..........

OK help me out - Going further south of Corfu on 77, the next abandoned ROW you can see across the pastureland - is that the LV? This is before Darien Lake Six Flags or what it is called now.

Mark

Yes, that would be the LV main.

The "main street" right through the middle of Darien Lake theme park, the main east-west road of the park, is literally the DL&W mainline ROW.

Scot

[Fireman43]

Scot,

thank you. I'm playing catch up with the LV. multitasking between this area and Ithaca .Would this stretch of the LV have been double tracked ? I know saying " this stretch " is kinda vague but thought I might ask.

thanks
Mark

[pumpers]

Well, about 100 years ago, it was double tracked. Here is a promotional flyer from 1901.
"On the Lehigh Valley. The great double track scenic highway, New York and Philadelphia to Buffalo and Niagara Falls"
https://archive.org/details/onlehighval ... hi/page/n4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Note you can click and download the pdf when you have time to waste. Not sure how they are claiming to/from Philadelphia though, perhaps transferring in Phillipsburg to the PRR (or Allentown or Bethlehem to the Reading?).
Edit: when did they start single-tracking sections? I would guess the 1960s, but I really don't know.

[lvrr325]

LV single tracking dates to about 1965. Sayre to Buffalo was then made primarily single track with sidings but some stretches remained designated #1 and #2 track. A late timetable will show the details.

[TB Diamond]

CTC Batavia Int.-Wyoming Int., the area referred to above, went in service on July 5, 1967 effectively single tracking this line segment.

Single tracking of the Lehigh Valley RR main track via the installation of CTC between State Line Int. and Wyoming Int.line segment by line segment began on March 16, 1964 (State Line Int.-Van Etten Jct. Int.) and was completed between Quaker Int. and Blacksmith Int. on March 21, 1972.

[ctclark1]

The "main street" right through the middle of Darien Lake theme park, the main east-west road of the park, is literally the DL&W mainline ROW.

Close, but essentially. (I know, OT for Cohocton)
Across 77 from the main park, just south of the Administration building you can see the ROW as the service road back to some of the "offsite" facilities (there's a gate right at 77 on the west side). Darien Lake actually owns the ROW in this direction across Fargo Rd all the way to the County Line.
Continuing straight across into the park, the ROW is just north of the walkway down the catered picnic area (actually under the pavilions, not the walkway itself), and then, yes, the "straight" path if you look from the south corner of the "Grand Theater" East to the "Galaxy Theater" is the ROW. The "Galaxy Theater" building, for all intents and purposes, spans the entire width of the DL&W parcel.
From there going into the non-public areas of the property, the last visible remnants of it are an existing sleuce (going over what is, I'm led to believe by the Genesee County Web Mapping site, the very beginnings of Ellicott Creek, which is actually piped under the property from here to the pond areas near the parking lot) which leads into the construction storage area; and then a cut in a wooded area where it leads to Colby Road between the campgrounds and Amphitheater parking lot.


Getting back to Cohocton - just for fun while I was in the GC Web Mapping site, I decided to follow it into Batavia. Interesting of note is that two parcels of the ROW between Hartshorn Rd across Hopkins Rd and almost to Wortendyke Rd are owned by (sic) "Con-Rail" and "ConRail".

Also, since I don't know as I've ever seen it on a map, based on the lines I can follow, I'm assuming this map shows what the Cohocton was to have done upon entering Batavia. I'm guessing it would have been a "continuation" of the Erie line straight west while the line to Attica turned south and crossed over the "mess" of the NYC yard area (remember at that time that NYC was 4 tracks, with a station and roundhouse area, and the Peanut splitting off, all within the area of Rt 98, the Tonawanda Creek bridges, and Rt 63.... certainly had potential to be messy although I've never seen a good diagram of it, so I can't say for sure).

[RussNelson]

It's extremely obvious on the LIDAR from Batavia west to the quarry but not visible in any way west of that.

https://orthos.dhses.ny.gov/?Extent=-87 ... Menu=false

[Old & Weary]

Looking at the GIS site, there is a faint straight line on the west side of the quarry which is on the same alignment as Cohococton Road on the East side. It appears to peter out at both ends which would make it hard to observe from a cross road. Following this along to the west, there are lengthy segments which pass under the Thruway bed and further on become Tillman road. A trace also looks like it merges into a straight part of Wherle Drive and there is faint line visible just East of Barton Rd. The only possibly visible part is a small cut on east side of South Newstead Rd. I've also traced the roadbed between Batavia and the County Line Quarry without finding anything on the other side and was amazed to see these images. It is easy to see how they would have otherwise remained out of sight.