• Last remnants of the Putnam Division (Stub Ends)

  • Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.
Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

  by Jeff Smith
 
Per Schumer's FB page, and Riverdale Press, CSX to move on this: The Riverdale Press: CSX agrees to appraise Putnam Line land for greenway

Who owns the former ROW in Van Cortland Park? Of course, from Yonkers up through Putnam County, it's already a rail trail.
Months of stalled negotiations are back on track that could finally take a long-abandoned rail line and turn it into park land.

CSX Corp., has backed off its earlier demands of $10 million for a mile or so stretch of land along the Broadway corridor that used to be part of the Putnam Line, and instead agreed to have an appraiser give his own assessment of the land’s value.
...
While CSX demanded $10 million, the city was only willing to pay $2 million, Padernacht told The Riverdale Press.

City officials found the demand to be far too high for property that had not been used for nearly two decades, and which would have limited value in the private market.
...
There are some, however, who feel the stretch of land between West 230th Street and West 238th Street should have a much lower price tag. CB8’s environment and sanitation committee chair Laura Spalter said in April CSX has donated land for parks projects, including a section of the High Line to Manhattan in 2005.

Padernacht sees opportunity with the land, not only to provide a new “nice and safe entrance” to Van Cortlandt Park, but also something that could benefit businesses along the Broadway corridor stretch.
...
  by Jeff Smith
 
So, once this 8-9 block stretch is sold, all that will remain in the Bronx is BN Yard, used by MNRR, and the stretch of track at Putnam Junction just south of Brewster North, used for storage and turning.
  by Backshophoss
 
The wye tail track at Put Jct heads west not north toward Carmel.
Didn't the trail end at the southern property line of Van Cortland Park??
  by unichris
 
Backshophoss wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:28 pmThe wye tail track at Put Jct heads west not north toward Carmel.
Actually the Putnam ROW does run essentially west there, towards the Middle Branch. It only curves north just east of present Route 6 along the shoreline, and heads up towards Tilly Foster, across the causeway/bridge and then to Carmel Hamlet.

The single track point of the wye coming out of the yard is pretty clearly what's left of the Put and heads towards (but probably does not reach) the propane company that would have been right on it when more of the track was still there. The last piece of the modern bike trail there is displaced a few yards north of a fence and yet further north to skirt the propane co. But by the previous trailway end at the western intersection of Putnam Ave with Route 6 across from the Drewville Mart, the trail is on the ROW and the rails are long gone.

As for other bits still there

Just north of Eastview there's a short bit of what is presumably a siding track in the weeds that didn't get removed with the main line.

Way down in Yonkers a chuck hole developed in the pavement where the route crosses Mile Square Rd at grade and rail can be seen buried below the road surface.

Legend has it that the bumpy spots just north of Barney Street are a result of paving over the ties without removing them.

And of course there were rotting ties in Van Cortlandt Park, though that was fenced off this fall for paving - hopefully they will remove the ties in the process, if anything is left behind it should be as an historic display (like the platform remainders) and not something destabilizing the surface.

There are a number of nice historic signs along the trail in addition to the surviving stone markers, unfortunately there's nothing for the filled-in turntable that is now a garden below the skate park just south of Yorktown Heights.