Railroad Forums 

  • What West Shore station

  • 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

 #1565733  by nydepot
 
Real photo postcard. Nothing can be made out on the signs (too far away) and it's unposted with no writing on the back.

Any ideas from track layout? My guess, even though not narrowing it down much, is west of Syracuse. Thanks.
Scan_008.jpg
Scan_008.jpg (1.36 MiB) Viewed 857 times
 #1565743  by TrainDetainer
 
Two things on the signs - the section house is labelled '22', if anyone knows where Section 22 was, and there's a Mile Post right between the Section House and depot - how many depots were located that close to a MP? And there's a curve beginning right between the MP and depot. I have pics that rule out Byron, Weedsport, Memphis, Savannah, Fairport, and Jordan.
 #1565752  by nydepot
 
I got the electronic microscope out. If you stare at it, it looks like MP 382.
S20210312_001.jpg
S20210312_001.jpg (1.81 MiB) Viewed 824 times
 #1565761  by Old & Weary
 
The rather unusual brick building to the left of the semaphore mast is the Oakfield House, built soon after a fire destroyed its wooden predecessor in May l907. The mile post would be 399 and not 382. 382 would have been a little west of the location known as East Bergen where the West Shore crossed Route 19 north of the present village of Bergen. The was not much of anything at the East Bergen station and even less today. At Oakfield, there was a long curve beginning at the freight yard southwest of Oakfield Village and ending about where the freight station stood. The curve is apparent if you look on google maps. The photographer was standing just about where the curve straightens out and it looks like his lens may have exaggerated the curve. The is a more common view taken looking west from the passenger station side at the same time period but have not seen this one before.
 #1565764  by BR&P
 
Totally agree! Two pics on page 264 of "Along The Old West Shore" if you have that book.
 #1565778  by TrainDetainer
 
I agree Oakfield, but IDK about the MP being 399. The last number on the MP does look like a 2, at least in the enlargement, and measuring west with GIS from the Union St crossing at MP367.33 comes out almost exactly with what would be MP392 at the east end of the Oakfield curve. Is 399 an officially known quantity or maybe a typo or other recollection? Just asking.
 #1565793  by Old & Weary
 
Got the 399 and 381 figures from my 1925 West Shore time table which showed mileages of East Bergen-381, Byron-388, Elba 395 and Oakfield-399. After reading your post, dug out a book of track charts dating from the l930's which showed exact mileage from Weehawken as marked at the passenger stations. The figures from this were East Bergen-374.46, Byron-381.40, Elba-387.64 and Oakfield-391.96 so you are correct. Don't know why the time table mileage dated between the photo and the track charts would be so far off unless it had something to do with West Shore passenger trains diverting from Fairport through Rochester to Churchville Junction by this time.