Looking for photos of the Falls Road and Hojack

Does anyone have any snapshots or other photos of the line & industries from Niagara Falls to Rochester? I run it weekly and would love to see what it looked like years ago. Hojack line, too.

Thanks very much.

if you go to the local section of the seymour library on east ave in brockport you will find many old postcards around 100 years old of both lines in the hamlin/brockport/spencerport areas. i was there last year and remember seeing them in the local history section.

Dummy, nice to see you on thursday in the Brock. Best to you and to your little man!

thanks, and we will see you again sometime im sure.

no pictures ? well, i do remember back in the 70s there was a double track going west from park ave to just west of the kenyon st. bridge near the east end of campus. there it joined into the single line. also west of town right at the cerve as you go towards holley, maybe a hundered yards west of the redman rd bridge there was a signal tower with a single light. from what i can recall, it was always red. when it was on.

Try these links:

http://www.rochester-railfan.net/hojack.htm

http://rochester-railfan.net/images/hojack/default.htm

http://rochester-railfan.net/images/Roc ... efault.htm

http://www.webstertrails.org/hojack/story.php

Somewhere there was a review of the Hojakc performed around 1970, and it listed all the industries... I'll try to track it down. I found it once during a search on another site... I remember the document having photos of some pretty scary looking track.

-otto-

In the final days traffic in the West Hojack was pretty slim. Motts had a plant at Hamlin but it closed somewhere in the mid 70's. Waterport Cold Storage got a few cars. At one time Lyndonville shipped vinegar out in wooden tank cars but that ended about 1970???. Pfeiffer Foods at Wilson got tank cars of shortening, Elberta had an Allied Chemical plant that got tank cars of chlorine iirc. Ransomville Agway was an occasional shipper of grain but not often. At Model City there used to be an outfit that brought in flat cars of dumpsters, those were high loads but that traffic had ceased by CR days. In the old military base there were two customers, Barker Chemical and Whitnor.

Somewhere I believe I have the old DICCS maps for that line, when I find them I'll pass along more info. They were drawn in the '60s when there were more active customers out there.

Was Pfieffer the only thing at Wilson? That's where my mother's side of the family is from, and it seems I remember my uncle taking me for a walk on the tracks back in '73 or '74. If the line was anything like the Falls Road, there must have been docks where produce was loaded all along the line.

While running the FRR - especially now with the leaves gone - you can make out alot of former sidings, docks, and foundations where things used to be. East of Albion at about MP25 there seems to be a former siding kicking off to the north. I was told by a local that it used to be a lead for a quarry of some sort.

These two lines must have been something to see back in the 40's. They should have a book done.

BR&P wrote:In the final days traffic in the West Hojack was pretty slim. Motts had a plant at Hamlin but it closed somewhere in the mid 70's.

As the story goes, NYS was about to pump some serious money into the Hojack Line when Duffy Mott in Hamlin closed. Since the line's largest shipper west of Rochester was no more, the funding quickly disappeared and the abandonment of the line became inevitable.

The West hojack, in its final months, was in terrible condition. I chased the local out of Rochester in November, 1977. The job had stopped at Barker, NY to eat when a crew member related that it usually took two crews or more for the round trip out of Rochester to Model City.

I presume derailments and other mishaps on the Hojack towards the end were frequent occurences?

When was the Hojack abandoned in the Niagara University / Niagara Power Project area? My information says sometime in the 1960's. Anyone have more information?

Les: Quite correct in your presumption. In February, 1977 I followed a ConRail snowplow extra, this shortly after the infamous "Blizzard of '77". This job derailed several times while attempting to clear the line.
My reference shows the Hojack as being abandonded Niagara Falls-Lewiston, 2 miles, in 1971. The reference goes on to note that this abandonment was unauthorized by the I.C.C.

It wasn't a case of two crews to get to Model City and back, it was one crew but 4 days - two out, two back. And due to track conditions and regulations then in effect, a track inspector had to accompany them as well. This led to the use of TWO taxis each morning and night rather than one. Derailments were not extremely common, maybe because of the very low speed - although they did manage to roll 4 or 5 grain loads out of Ransomville Agway in two separate derailments the same trip. They picked up about 6 loads, went a few miles and flopped a couple. When things were back in shape a day or two later they continued east, only to tip over a couple more somewhere near Long Pond Road. Only one or two of the original consignment even made it as far as Charlotte.

Here's a few pictures of the western end of the Hojack...Barker thru Ransomville.


http://finance.ph.groups.yahoo.com/grou ... rowse/64ae

Looks like you have to join the group to see the photos.