CSX Charlotte Runner

To clarify what Chris has said above, he is correct that the bridge support provides a point of reference. Castle Hanson was not served off the main, it was served off a long lead which started off the Charlotte Branch well north of Jay Street.

At the time the DICCS maps were drawn in 1964, this lead had an inside switch still north of Jay Street, which led to the east and served Rosenbaum Brothers and Mundet Cork, both North of Jay ST and the crossed the road to serve Dolomite Glass Fibers.

Going back to that lead, it crossed Jay St, went south and had a switch to Castle Hansen which is where the 9608 is in the B&W pic above. That lead then crossed Maple St and dead ended at Ritter Co, which was later Flanagan Furniture.

Castle Hansen had 3 tracks, actually 4 since they also worked off that long lead. CPS, do you have a map of Zone T you could post? That would be easier to follow than my verbal explanation.

As luck would have it, I'm going to the monthly brunch tomorrow and depending on who is there, I may be able to get a few more details.

CPSmith wrote:See also: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=4333589" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The diamond you 'probably' saw (there were others) is or was somewhere under the last engine in the consist or the first hopper in the photo. That diamond would have been the crossing of the Abandon and the Charlotte branch and was visible from the sidewalks on Hague St.

I wonder if the diamond railroad crossing sign is still there. Was as of 1999:

nessman wrote:I wonder if the diamond railroad crossing sign is still there. Was as of 1999:

Actually it is... well, sorta... just a stump as of October 2014:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1628145 ... 312!8i6656" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

nessman wrote:

nessman wrote:I wonder if the diamond railroad crossing sign is still there. Was as of 1999:

Actually it is... well, sorta... just a stump as of October 2014:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1628145 ... 312!8i6656" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, unfortunately it was removed sometime I **think** in 2013 or early '14. Somewhere on this forum, I remember someone
mentioning it was removed.

Charlie

charlie6017 wrote:Yeah, unfortunately it was removed sometime I **think** in 2013 or early '14. Somewhere on this forum, I remember someone
mentioning it was removed.

Digging thru the thread - sometime before early 2009 it got cut down to the stump.

nessman wrote:

charlie6017 wrote:Yeah, unfortunately it was removed sometime I **think** in 2013 or early '14. Somewhere on this forum, I remember someone
mentioning it was removed.

Digging thru the thread - sometime before early 2009 it got cut down to the stump.

Thanks Les.......wow I was way off!

Question: at CP 70 years ago, there was an eastbound old NYC-style signal mast nearby, right? The pitchfork
style kind? I'm guessing it was in the same location as the current fixed-approach signal?

Thanks for all the answers to these questions, guys.......it's a nice history lesson!

Charlie

Watching Bills hopefully beat the Jets. I'll check the slides tomorrow...IIRC the wb signal was a single mast, not sure about the eastbound

MP366 wrote:Watching Bills hopefully beat the Jets. I'll check the slides tomorrow...IIRC the wb signal was a single mast, not sure about the eastbound

Thank you sir! I'm doing the same thing, watching the Bills--hoping we stay ahead and win!

BR&P wrote:To clarify what Chris has said above, he is correct that the bridge support provides a point of reference. Castle Hanson was not served off the main, it was served off a long lead which started off the Charlotte Branch well north of Jay Street.

At the time the DICCS maps were drawn in 1964, this lead had an inside switch still north of Jay Street, which led to the east and served Rosenbaum Brothers and Mundet Cork, both North of Jay ST and the crossed the road to serve Dolomite Glass Fibers.

Going back to that lead, it crossed Jay St, went south and had a switch to Castle Hansen which is where the 9608 is in the B&W pic above. That lead then crossed Maple St and dead ended at Ritter Co, which was later Flanagan Furniture.

Castle Hansen had 3 tracks, actually 4 since they also worked off that long lead. CPS, do you have a map of Zone T you could post? That would be easier to follow than my verbal explanation.

As luck would have it, I'm going to the monthly brunch tomorrow and depending on who is there, I may be able to get a few more details.

Nope. No Zone T map. Sorry.

Admittedly, without photos or maps, it's tough to describe what was there and compare it to what we see today on Bing, Google, etc. The Falls Road was double track all the way out to Long Pond Rd. The Maple crossing had at least three tracks (two today) and Jay had either three or four tracks (only one today) and I *think* the Charlotte branch was cut in at a different spot.

After MP366 recovers from the Bills' win last night, perhaps he can dig up a photo or two.

charlie6017 wrote:

nessman wrote:

charlie6017 wrote:Yeah, unfortunately it was removed sometime I **think** in 2013 or early '14. Somewhere on this forum, I remember someone
mentioning it was removed.

Digging thru the thread - sometime before early 2009 it got cut down to the stump.

Thanks Les.......wow I was way off!

Question: at CP 70 years ago, there was an eastbound old NYC-style signal mast nearby, right? The pitchfork
style kind? I'm guessing it was in the same location as the current fixed-approach signal?

Thanks for all the answers to these questions, guys.......it's a nice history lesson!

Charlie

Here's the pitchfork north of Jay: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=4198422" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's the pic I remember seeing before.......great photo, thank you very much!!

Charlie

CPSmith wrote:You guys are making me dig ...

It would probably look like this:

More photos (8 total) here: http://rrpicturearchives.net/archivethu ... ?id=112710" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is all very enlightening for me. Since when and where was there a diamond in Charlotte? It would help me to see a map. Im just so blown away..... I always thought it was a straight shot to Charlotte and just a spur to the left (Falls Road) and a spur to Kleen Brite (The Old Main)

Great memories, CPS! Congrats on having the foresight to take pics of everyday stuff instead of the "It'll always be there" mentality!

To fill in a few added details for posterity:

Your DICCS map of Zone R is a good reference. As you note on the Archives page, it was indeed Nichols Wyman Lumber, not Weyman. Another NYC error is right there too - the short stub off NIchols Wyman was Empire Blower, not Builder. They made large industrial application sheet metal ductwork. I don't recall any cars going in loaded, but very occasionally they would ship outbound on a flat car.

That First Belt sequence is just as you describe it - looks like they were having trouble coming up the hill, cut the power off and pulled south of the road so the mechanic could drive to them and make repairs. Then went back, got the train, and resumed the southward pull. In the caboose pics, that ACL boxcar was from Weyerhaeuser, the "Box Shop" or "Folding Box" at Boxart St. (Not sure what year it changed from Rochester Folding Box to Weyerhaeuser). At any rate, the way the switching was usually done that plant was switched on the way north, and the cars from there wound up next to the caboose on the way back up. If you were at a crossing and saw ACL or NS (the original Norfolk Southern) cars, you knew the caboose was almost there.

Is there any way your scanner can blow up the pic of the crewman on the running board of the RS1 to about 300%? If you can shoot that to me in an email I may be able to identify him. And on the color shot from the Ridgeway Avenue area footbridge with 2 men on the front of the 7604, we believe the gent on the left is Hollis Robinson, a former LV man who came to PC in the late 1960's. Still trying to put a name on the other guy.

Conrail6467 wrote:This is all very enlightening for me. Since when and where was there a diamond in Charlotte? It would help me to see a map. Im just so blown away..... I always thought it was a straight shot to Charlotte and just a spur to the left (Falls Road) and a spur to Kleen Brite (The Old Main)

Josh, a Google map will give you a rough idea of the layout, altho of course a lot has changed over the years. But to help you a little, the area where the Falls Road and the Charlotte Branch split was near Otis. The actual Otis depot was on the Charlotte branch, north of Lyell Ave and east of the track. Charlotte was several miles farther north, and yes, there was a diamond there also. Crossing River street, if you were going to the West Yard, and westward on the Hojack, you went "straight" for this discussion, altho it was a left curve. But if you wanted to go to the swing bridge and across to the East Yard, between River St and the light house was a switch to the LEFT. You would take that and it would go left a bit then curved right and crossed that other track on a diamond, and joined the Hojack main immediately west of the swing bridge.

CPS, if you're coming north for "National Bite The Bird Day" you're welcome here, and remind me - I'll hand you some color slides a friend of my father's took in the early 1950s at Charlotte. Nice shot of the South Yard which is now totally gone, the North Yard had 3 tracks, RS3's on a Belt coming around the bend heading south across River St.... good stuff! I might post them on line - I dug them out because someone was working on a book of RR pics in the area, but I never heard from them.

Edit - I see CPS has a shot of the diamond at Charlotte on that photo page, maybe that is what you were talking about. Your mention of the Falls Road suggested you were talking about Otis - there was a diamond there as well.