NYSW Routing

Forgive the ignorance of a relatively new railfan, but where does the NYSW run after Sparta? I cannot seem to trace the route on any maps up to Binghampton, Syracuse or Rochester after that.

The NYSW runs up the old Lehigh & Hudson River RR through Warwick, NY and up to Campbell Hall where they have trackage rights on NS's Southern Tier (ex Erie) through Port Jervis and on up to Binghamton. From there they have 2 ex Lackawanna branches to Syracuse and Utica. They have maps at their official site http://www.nysw.com

Just to add a little info, the portion from Warwick(Pelton Road) to Campbell Hall(Hudson Junction) is also via trackage rights on the NS Hudson Secondary Track.

If you are planning on trying to catch any trains...the NYSW scanner channel is 160.485 and the Hudson Secondary is 160.800.

I guess after the massive track reductions on the ex-Erie between Port Jervis and Ridgewood in the 80's what little freight was left went over to the ex-L&HR+NYS&W side in order to placate New Jersey Transit.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:I guess after the massive track reductions on the ex-Erie between Port Jervis and Ridgewood in the 80's what little freight was left went over to the ex-L&HR+NYS&W side in order to placate New Jersey Transit.

This is generally true, but prior to the 1980s, Conrail ran 3 through trains per day (!) between NJ and Binghamton, and another to Port Jervis. Almost up to the end of Conrail there was at least one daily thru freight each way.

NYSW in its early years was a superb marketer. People banged on doors, wined and dined econ development officers, hustled for business, brought a lot of customers back to rails. That effort seems to have tailed off, and been replaced with the quite profitable bulk load / reload business.


Paul