Railfanning around Syracuse

What's a good place to railfan around Syracuse?

Andy,
One good place I have gone is Kirkville Rd crossing, right near MP 280. It's just
east of DeWitt Yard. And one place I may check out is Bebee Bridge Rd a few more
miles east. There's an active thread on this board on that crossing. Sounds like a
good place with probably better parking.

Charlie

ANDY117 wrote:What's a good place to railfan around Syracuse?

If you get off the main exit directly in front of the State fairgrounds you got Crucible steel on the Left stay in the Far Left Lane and turn Left at the light drive past the steel mill and make the First right onto Willis Ave make a Right into the Parking lot for Glenn Falls Lehigh Portland Cement follow the road around the railroad siding cross it and stay to the far Right! you'll get many trains there as they slow down in that spot.

In the village of Minoa, there is a public footbridge that crosses the main line at the east entrance to the Dewitt yard. There two main tracks and the yard lead pass under the bridge. It is also where new CP 283(?) is located, which is used to bring intermodals on and off the main. I go there occasionally on lunch and on some days there is considerable action between the mainline movements and yard work. Unfortunately, the bridge is encased in chain link fence, so it is not a particularly good place to take pictures. The aforementioned Kirkville Rd. crossng is 2 to 3 miles east of this location.

New CP at Minoa is CP 282 for track 1 only, CP 283 is about 1 mile West by Fremount Road overpass. Footbridge is an excellent site to watch yard activity and trains doubling themselves before departing points East, or West bounds arriving to enter the yard. Bridge Street, East Syracuse, gives you a good elevated view of CP 285, the West end entrances of Dewitt yard and the "West End" recrewing point just East of CP 285. Retail stores parking Lots along Manlius Ctr rd, offer a ground level view, paricularly behind the Tractor Supply store. The Regional Transportation Center offers food, restrooms, safe platform views of the mains at CP 291, Amtrak stops, CSX mainline trains hustling by at speed announce their approach with a horn blast as required by rule and chance to catch a train coming off or headed North St. Lawrence Sub..

scharnhorst wrote:

ANDY117 wrote:What's a good place to railfan around Syracuse?

If you get off the main exit directly in front of the State fairgrounds you got Crucible steel on the Left stay in the Far Left Lane and turn Left at the light drive past the steel mill and make the First right onto Willis Ave make a Right into the Parking lot for Glenn Falls Lehigh Portland Cement follow the road around the railroad siding cross it and stay to the far Right! you'll get many trains there as they slow down in that spot.

This location has always been relatively safe, but it is trespassing to be down in there, and a lot more active than it used to be what with the pollution cleanup going on using some of the property there.

You can, however, park in a semi-abandoned lot on the south side of the Willis Ave. bridge (on the right) and walk out onto the bridge itself - it probably belongs to someone, too, but is no longer used. This actually makes for a lot of better views if you're taking photos; the traffic up there is never too bad but a lot of it is trucks in and out of the various factories, so be careful.

The street that goes to the right when you cross the bridge does not come out at the other end, should you hear Finger Lakes arriving and want to go see them, go back to State Fair Blvd. and make a left and go down to Bridge Street (just before the fairgrounds) to go back up into Solvay. You also may see the NYS&W appear here, as they seem to be doing their interchange in this area these days. If you chase them, be aware the neighborhoods along this line are pretty ghetto both sides of downtown - you might be better to go 690 to I81 to I481, get off at Rock Cut Road, and catch them coming up the hill in Jamesville.

Worth noting, also, if a train comes along with interesting power and he has yard work to do, it is possible from Willis Ave. to hop on 690 and get across town and get ahead of him in Minoa, I've done it a few times, back when you used to get TV556 coming in with Southern Pacific units every Thursday afternoon.

Chances are you'll be pretty safe, although I'd be more mindful with the recent law changes, if someone asks you to leave be gracious and move on, or ask them where you can legally be.

The property off Willis ave between the siding at at Glenn Falls Cement and the main line is owned by the cement company they don't bother anyone as long at you stay out of the way I know because I asked if it was ok to park there many times. Its not a bad place its better to go down there on the weekends when nobody is around.

I have had only one guy in a Dark blue SUV tell me to leave but when asked for proof of a Badge after saying that he was a Cop did not appear I called 911 and reported the guy and the licence plate as being vary threatening on top of not proving any proof of being a cop. Outer than that the Solvay police, Onondaga County Sheriff and State Police have been down there before and have never bothered me at all.

Carousel Mall abuts the main at CP291(?). There's usually plenty of parking facing the tracks. Unless you're making a scene, mall security probably won't bother you.

You may see traffic headed up the wye to Fulton and Watertown.

If there's a down side it's that everything is either slowing down or just accellerating, so you won't see anything at speed.

If you aren't averse to an hour's travel, run over to Utica and watch from the comfort of the heated glass overpass, or trackside. Barring slow orders, everything but Amtrak comes through at speed - as much as 50 MPH.

scharnhorst wrote:The property off Willis ave between the siding at at Glenn Falls Cement and the main line is owned by the cement company they don't bother anyone as long at you stay out of the way I know because I asked if it was ok to park there many times. Its not a bad place its better to go down there on the weekends when nobody is around.

I have had only one guy in a Dark blue SUV tell me to leave but when asked for proof of a Badge after saying that he was a Cop did not appear I called 911 and reported the guy and the licence plate as being vary threatening on top of not proving any proof of being a cop. Outer than that the Solvay police, Onondaga County Sheriff and State Police have been down there before and have never bothered me at all.

Well, no, that's not accurate either, it's posted all over with no trespassing signs for CSX, the cement company may own some of the old West Shore ROW but it's likely they have a right of way over CSX's property to allow trucks to access the terminal; at one time that was ALL railroad property and if they do in fact own, and not lease, that land the property line could be anywhere down there. And again, LAWS HAVE CHANGED with regard to trespassing on RR property as of Jan 1st - those same police now have the ability to arrest you for trespassing on railroad property. Now if you want to hang out down there and take your chances, I could care less, but don't be telling people something is okay when it's something that's always been at best just tolerated. If you want to be safe and legal, stay on the bridge or the side of the public road, if you want to gamble then go down next to the tracks -

Frankly, if you're taking pictures the views are crappy from trackside anyways, from the bridge you can work in Onondaga Lake or the Carrier Dome and city skyline into your pictures, and have good angles from the south side of the tracks where the sun is better this time of year, which you can't get down below without walking across the tracks.

Carousel Mall is not bad except you don't get a lot of warning for westbounds, unless you keep a window cracked to catch them blowing the horn for the station. Photo angles are really tough, there's a couple spots along the fence opposite the wye where you can get some okay angles because the ground on your side is fairly high, but the rest of them you have to settle for the chain-link across the bottom of the photo. That includes the old NYS&W platform - which the old lead there they use as a storage track so it's frequently blocked with RR cars too.

However, you have the benefit of being able to go up to the food court and there's a row of tables around the window side of the carousel where you can sit and watch trains from, and stay nice and warm. It also solves the fence and RR car issues to an extent, although photos through the tinted glass are probably a waste of time.

What with TSA and all I'm not sure you can watch from the Amtrak platform, but there are places you can park at street level on that side to watch trains. You can follow the ROW pretty well most of the way to Dewitt if you're adventurous and find little places to catch one or two trains for pictures.

there is that elevated parking lot that's built next to Best Buy the lot is directly in front of the Y. I knew of a few people that used to take there wives to the mall while there... there wives would shop and the guys would stand up there and watch and take photos as the trains rolled by.

Find tracks, sit, wait, if no trains, find new spot... if police, run!