Did the Bossert Plant in Utica have rail service?

Did the Bossert Plant in Utica have rail service? I assume 'yes' since there are the remnants of track leading into the empty lot where the factory once was. I have checked online and have not been able to find any pictures or video of what the building looked like. Some of the people I have talked to said that the Delaware Lackawanna Mainline (now NYSW) went right through the middle of it.

Yes they had rail service and no the DL&W main did not go through it. They did have a switching lead that cut through the open storage shed
and a siding that went through the complex.

I remember, as a kid, riding past Bosserts in my dad's car and seeing multiple gondolas parked under the large metal shed. They appeared to be filled with scrap.

Attached are two Sanborn maps which show a track layout ( accurate or not who knows). The maps are from 1925 and show 4 or 5 spurs into the plant.

DLW crossed NYOW as it headed toward Schuyler St.; careful study of the map, if correct, shows that both roads served the plant with DLW having lead into the plant tracks just to the west of Noyes St.

Awesome, thanks a bunch!

The DL&W line in Utica wasn't the main. It was a branch.

He may have meant main track of the branch line instead of main line.

Good point, TB. Thank you.

Nah, that was my fault. I should have known better. I just tyoed the question up quick and overlooked that. Thanks again to everyone so far.

Next question. Does anyone know if the rail service continued right up until the plant closed in 1985 or if the railroad helped with the remival of materials during the demolition of the complex in 2002?

Thanks.

brockwaythemusician wrote:Nah, that was my fault. I should have known better. I just tyoed the question up quick and overlooked that. Thanks again to everyone so far.

Next question. Does anyone know if the rail service continued right up until the plant closed in 1985 or if the railroad helped with the remival of materials during the demolition of the complex in 2002?

Thanks.

Any rail service there was long gone before 1985. Some rail remains may have been unearthed but I don't know when rail service actually ended.

The O&W rail that is still in place down to Fay St is disappearing also and after the Arterial Road project you won't find any remains.

Well, just in time to have to delete it, I fixed up the railroad remains that run next to the N/S Aterial. Also added the Bossert brownfield: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/150583618

brockwaythemusician wrote:
Next question. Does anyone know if the rail service continued right up until the plant closed in 1985 or if the railroad helped with the remival of materials during the demolition of the complex in 2002?

Thanks.

One of the overhead cranes that was at the Bossert plant was loaded on flat cars on the NYS&W main track and brought down Schuyler Street in the middle of the night with Utica Police escorts and temporary "no parking" signs posted on Schuyler St for the night. The crane was incorporated into the NYS&W enginehouse rebuild in 1991. I was the conductor on the train that brought the crane down Schuyler St into the NYS&W Utica yard.