Groveland Industrial abandonment

I wonder when those aerial shots containing the hoppers were taken, as it had to be 2005 or earlier based on NS stating there had been no traffic for at least two years at the time of filing in 2007.

Could have made for a nice museum railroad or something of the sort.

Aside from the poor track conditions and low volumes, serving the plant was a shove move the entire way from Attica to Alexander (hence the fatal accident) as there was no run-around on the branch. As noted, a no-brainer for abandonment.

As for notice, all filings, decisions, and notices of the STB are available on their website, which is updated daily. See http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... lyreleases for STB decision and notices and http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... e?OpenView for documents filed by the railroads and others.

OK, admittedly off-topic, but Otto himself started it!

Well, first we'd have to start printing on dead trees. Then we'd have to convince someone that we were a paper of record. Then someone would have to pay me about $100K annual salary to publish something on dead trees.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what's with the "dead trees" thing? I understand we're talking about paper, which IS made from dead trees, but we don't say "I'm stopping at McDonald's for some dead cow".

If it's an environmental thing, remember that trees are a crop, just like corn, wheat, or even your lawn. You cut them down, new ones grow back. Maybe trees take a bit longer but the concept is the same.

On the other hand, the same phrase probably has some railroad uses. "Volunteer crews will meet at the Museum Saturday AM. The day's project will be the installation of dead trees under the rails, and spiking them to proper gauge."

20 years from now when newspapers (the dead tree / recycled paper product) will be extinct - what will then be defined as a newspaper of general circulation? Otto - you're the full color glossy dead tree guy - what say you?

The Dead Trees are also a rock group out of Portland Oregon under an Indie label. Does anyone know if NS has ripped up the track yet?

Luther Brefo wrote:The Dead Trees are also a rock group out of Portland Oregon under an Indie label. Does anyone know if NS has ripped up the track yet?

It wasn't as of yesterday.

As an aside, immediately adjacent to the Groveland Industrial Track a careful observer will notice an abandoned r-o-w that runs between Batavia and Attica. This is the original route of what became the New York Central Railroad. Before the straight line between Batavia and Buffalo was built the NYC ran down to Attica and then into Buffalo. The NYC sold the Attica-Buffalo line to the Erie people after the Buffalo & Rochester RR was opened between Batavia and Buffalo. The old NYC freight house still stands in Attica. It is part of a grain mill complex.

BR&P wrote:OK, admittedly off-topic, but Otto himself started it!

Well, first we'd have to start printing on dead trees. Then we'd have to convince someone that we were a paper of record. Then someone would have to pay me about $100K annual salary to publish something on dead trees.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what's with the "dead trees" thing? I understand we're talking about paper, which IS made from dead trees, but we don't say "I'm stopping at McDonald's for some dead cow".

If it's an environmental thing, remember that trees are a crop, just like corn, wheat, or even your lawn. You cut them down, new ones grow back. Maybe trees take a bit longer but the concept is the same.

On the other hand, the same phrase probably has some railroad uses. "Volunteer crews will meet at the Museum Saturday AM. The day's project will be the installation of dead trees under the rails, and spiking them to proper gauge."

Right you are, sir!! The less dead trees we waste printing things like newspapers, the more dead trees we can insert under our rails at the R&GV, and the more dead trees we can use for that proposed $100K salary of mine! And while McDonald's is okay, I prefer to get my dead cows from Nick Tahou's or Red Osier!

The whole "dead tree" thing was really more a comment on how I feel it would be impractical to have a printed version of RAILROAD.NET... and how it would be a waste of paper since there are already publications of record that do the job. Though I wouldn't mind having my own magazine some day...

Hey BR&P- next time I'm in town, let's go get some london broiled dead cow at the Red Osier!

Back to your regularly scheduled progam...

-otto-

Red Osier has some of the best dead cow I've ever tasted! (Although my all-time favorite was served on the Loose Caboose dinner trains out of Webster in 1982-83.)

Unfortunately the track in discussion had too few decent dead trees under it, and shipped too few carloads of dead corn and dead wheat and dead soybeans. Therefore it became a dead railroad!

Seriously, I recall about the time I walked the line, they had just returned it to service after a severe storm. Even though there were numerous washouts, all Conrail did was backfill the holes and relay the track. It would have been prudent if they were in it for the long haul, to put in a few pieces of culvert pipe, as long as the water had excavated it out for them. A track guy I used to know had a saying - "A washout is Mother Nature's way of saying there should be a culvert in that spot".

I guess it's a dead issue now.

That line was ERIE built in 1852, and is the one that went from Atica through Batavia, LeRoy, Caledonia, where it interchanged with G&W, into a WYE in Avon, and into Rochester. It was also what the LA&L started with, going south two ways, abandoned to Ashantee, but going to Livonia.

O-6-O wrote:Isn't this the line where a 1/2 dozen years ago a conductor was killed riding a car that overturned when it derailed on
a crossing that had icebound flangeways? I think it was this line.

Yup. This is the one. January 1999. The conductor's name was Larry Stroman. R.I.P., Larry, R.I.P.

I was just looking at a 1950 topo for this area trying to sort out all the lines around Batavia, since it looks like GVT has, or could have had, parts of all of them.

Anyhow, it shows two lines running southwesterly out of Batavia to Attica - one marked Erie Attica Branch, one marked New York Central Attica Branch. I presume the NYC side was abandoned by the 1960s, as the current relocated CSX mainline overpass is just wide enough for one track to pass under.

You can follow the entire thing on Windows Live Local - no hoppers are visible in Alexander, but there are a couple in Attica being loaded.

Conrail inherited the messy trackage and maintained the Groveland Secondary for the Wayne Feeds grain mill which was located at Railroad St. in Alexander. The Groveland secondary was about 3.2 miles long, minimally maintained, and switched for awhile by a local out of Hornell while Conrail owned the mess. Later after NS assumed control it was a 3.2 mile shove. As mentioned, it was a former Erie connector track with former DLW main. As of 1984, the track was only good for 10 mph, passenger equipment or hazardous materials was not allowed, and the Conrail Hornell dispatcher controlled the track and yard limits between CP-Attica and Alexander. After the Genesee & Wyoming RR decided salt trains would be routed exclusively through Caledonia, Conrail and G&W mutually determined the Greigsville interchange wasn't needed, and Conrail abandoned the end 22 miles of line, from Railroad St. in Alexander to Greigsville sometime in mid '80's.

Alexander to Greigsville was abandoned by ConRail in the late summer of 1985.