New Tonawanda to Buffalo Rail Trail

Thank you, now that you mention - memory trigger.

Mark

Ah yes - memory trigger.
Mark

Perhaps you are referring to the Niagara Junction yard.

As I understand it the former NYCRR yard located East of Hyde Park Blvd and North of Seneca Ave (due East of the double decked (rails above roadway) Steel Arch bridge at the "Whirlpool" area of the lower Niagara River) was the NYCRR "Suspension Bridge" Yard. We dropped/picked up my Dad at that yard many times when he was running the "Medina Turn" and other trains that started/terminated there while he was a Loco Engineer for the NYCRR.

There was a Lehigh Valley RR freight yard just North of the NYCRR freight yard. The LVRR had trackage rights over the NYCRR Niagara Falls Branch. The LVRR joined the NYCRR just South of the big NYCRR Bascule Bridge over the New York State Barge Canal between the City of Tonawanda and the City of North Tonawanda.

There is another railroad yard located just west of Interstate I-190 and just north of Porter Rd. that was the "Niagara Junction RR Yard". This yard is more visible from I-190. The Niagara Junction Railroad was an all electric railroad (overhead wire operation) that connected to the chemical plants and joined up with the NYCRR "Niagara Falls Branch" at that "Niagara Junction Yard".

I have heard of "pranks" played by the "real railroad" guys that would drop cars for for the Niagara Junction Railroad crews "just out of reach" of the overhead wire so the Niagara Junction RR guys would have to drag chains between their "end of live wire" and the cars they needed to grab so they could pull the dropped cars back onto their "live rail"...

The Niagara Junction RR ended up in Conrail and the electric operations were replaced with Diesel Switchers back in 1979. They had some electric loco's that got transplanted to the former "Electric Division" of the NYCRR around New York City.

More Info;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Junction_Railway.