When was the main routed around Batavia, NY?

All scrap was high all summer 2008, but like I said I'm sure that stuff went into someone's garage or basement.

The reason for the route change was "grade crossing elimination".
The city,residents and politicians "railed" for years that it was an
unsafe situation; the reason why firehouse #2 was built south the old main.
When pass.trains stopped at the station(in the day) 3-5 streets were blocked.
And,there were some derailments in the city over the years.

The new bridges were in and panel track was being put down in late
summer of 1956.
Lehigh Ave was the best location for the new design depot with its
underpass and platform between the two southmost tracks(#s???)
Route 98 was too high for the freight elevator designed (read costly)
and too many stairs.

The design was almost identical to the Dunkirk station,done in the
same time frame. A man I knew that worked on the design as a
college intern said that design was to have been used at two other
sites between Erie,Pa and Chicago.
Standard replacement design ???

The connection on the west side was made to the West Peanut as
that line still served East Pembroke , Akron Jct. and beyond.
There was a wye at the crossing with Rt#33.

It wasn't to long after the new route was opened that CTC was installed
and the line was reduced to two tracks. At the station the northmost
track became a very long running track/yard lead.

Stainless steel was the sign artists material back then as aluminum
coatings that would endure the elements were not commercially feasible .
It was amazing that the sign remained on the wall all that time.
I believe it remained as long as it did, merely because it could not be seen
from any inspection trains and no m-o-w foreman ever received orders
to remove it .
It came down the last week of August,08.
The signal maintainer was nearly struck by one of the letters
in a brisk wind the week before. He decided that the rest should
be removed for safety reasons.

chnaus:

Thank you for a most complete and concise narrative on the NYC Batavia bypass and on the old "New York Central" passenger station lettering.

Batavia map:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychao ... tavia.html

Scot

I posted some of my Batavia, NY pictures in 2008 on my webshots site.

I have included some information in the captions as to the location of the photo and the date it was taken.

The NYC "new" ROW was built starting in 1951 and ending in 1957.
The line officially opened on April 2, 1957.
The "old" line running through downtown officially had its last train on April 12, 1957.

http://community.webshots.com/user/railfanbrplv

As was mentioned previously...the NYC relocation was a grade elimination project.
I researched the relocation in 1998 and read many Batavia Daily News articles about severe train accidents in the Batavia City limits. The NYC original mainline crossed most streets at grade. (This was not uncommon of the original NYC Mainline as it ran in downtown Rochester [until the 1890's] and downtown Syracuse [until the 1930's]).

To find the abutments of the original NYC Mainline bridge over the Tonawanda creek, walk East from NY-98 along the NYC Peanut (still existing track). Once you reach the creek, look South and you will see the abutments.

Is the existing "peanut" line bridge over the Tonawanda creek actually one of two NYC mainline bridges (pre realignment)? Based on the old mainline ROW and the alignment of the existing bridge it seems likely. The "peanut" line appears to diverge from the 2 tracks on the bridge just prior to crossing Walnut St. (Rt. 98). I seem to recall from my childhood (early 80's) that the southern most track on the bridge also connected with the northern track just east of the divergence northwest.

I think there was another project like this done at the same time..... or a little after.

Oneida NY has a bypass alignment built to the north. I think it was built as a two track alignment with a passing siding, and a new crossover set.
Canestota NY got a 2 track elevation thru town on the same project.

Local legend that the NYC agreed to do this after T-boning a fire truck on a run to a fire.....

There have been multiple crossing elimination projects done along the mainline. The current route to the north of Syracuse is a bypass; Canastota has a short elevation; Onieda is a bypass to the north, and in Herkimer it's a little of both, bypassing to the south of the original route and elevated as well. I'm sure there are others I've left out.

Somehow my notifications were turned off and I did not realize so much activity had taken place regarding this question.

Thank to all who contributed.

Having recently qualified east of Buffalo, I have noticed all the "fly-arounds" mentioned here.

Especially this time of year, the eye is drawn to unsual curves and tangents appearing through the leafless trees and shrubs along the way. Man's former paths, trails, if you will, can be seen with ease now.

The progress achieved by shedding crossings-at-grade have made railroading much safer for us and the public. No one on my side of the windshield ever wants to be involved in an incident, but we know the day will inevitably arrive. The more crossings eliminated the better. Of course we all understand that once all X-ings are gone, the day of remote operations for OTR trains will not be far off.

As a train watcher for over fifty years, I had noticed that the usual sign of a once healthy and vibrant community was missing from downtown Batavia--its mainline railroad. Now I know why.

Thanks again

P.S. Could the Canastota and Onieida work have been done as a single project?