Ebenezer Secondary, Hamburg, NY

The Norfolk Southern Ebenezer Secondary from Tifft Yard area to main line that B & P (old PRR) is using, owed by NS, has a two foot section of track removed south of the Willet Rd crossing, located on the edged of the Hamburg NY townships, near Lackawanna. It is blocked with ties across and a STOP sign stuck in the middle of the tracks. . I have never seen this done on a track that is limited service. The local police dispatch has called it in , as ties on the tracks to NS , a couple of times with no response. This just seems strange.


Any thoughts ?

Sounds a little unconventional, but if it's a short line with a small number of employees on a line that everybody knows is out of service, I don't see anything wrong. I've seen a wide variety of end-of-track "bumpers". In New York State, when you see a short section of rail removed, it's to save on taxes. Railroad lines are heavily taxed, which is why they're removed so promptly when not actively used.

That's not the Ebenezer Secondary. The Ebenezer Secondary starts at CP GJ and runs to CP Draw. The section that runs to Blasedell from GJ is the actual Buffalo Line itself, and sometimes called the West Seneca Branch due to some former ownership names for part of the line through town. There is a major issue with one of the bridge foundations in Blasedell and the line will probably be abandonded shortly since the NS no longer has any use for it other than as a storage track for idle cars...

-B in B

Thats too bad. My grandparents live along the line in WS,just south of the 400, and when I was young I could remember seeing a Conrail trains with a cabosse every time we visited. We sometimes walked to the turtle pond north of the 400 and see action toward Gravity. I have pictures from the late 80s early 90s but cant find them. Bring on the stb link. lol

So, the relatively new wye that was installed just a few years ago....will be useless?

Hard to say about the "Y". A Brakeman friend of mine on NS told me they use it every once in a while to turn their power, but I don't know if that would be enough to justify keeping it around. No idea. Another friend of mine read my post here and doubted that they would abandon the line like I think they will. He was thinking that they would want to keep it around until they figure out a solution to the CP draw bottleneck some time in the future. Who knows, your guess is as good as mine...
-B in B

Can anyone take a pic, please?

Why would anyone call the police about this? Can't they tell the stop sign makes it an official end-of-track?

RailKevin wrote:Why would anyone call the police about this? Can't they tell the stop sign makes it an official end-of-track?

I read it as "the police reported the ties to NS..because it appears as though someone (vandals, etc) placed them on the tracks, making a potentially dangerous situation" .. the police being unaware that it was NS themselves who did it.

Scot

Why doesn't NS and CSX make a joint venture and rebuild the Gardenville line from the start/end south of CP Draw all the way to GJ. That will take care of CP Draw. Money you say? Well, how bad is the bottle neck at CP Draw? Is the time lost adding up to be more expensive than updating the line? To me, the answer is obvious. The extra time that it takes to move a train up the Gardenville line and then back downtown will offset the time sitting to get across CP Draw. Plus, if shipping traffic were to ever resume above CP Draw, an alternative would be in place.

The best possible scenario would be to permenantly close the Buffalo Junction Yard, and then build a new bridge next to Draw where the old NKP bridge is today. Then swap properties and realign CSX track 1 & 2 onto the new bridge and make CP Draw the NS bridge. Then NS could get back & forth without having to cross onto CSX property at all, anytime they wanted to and the West Seneca section of the Buffalo Line could be abandonded.

-B in B

SST - I'm curious with your scenario how you propose to get all the traffic moving east and west? all the east bound freight has to go over draw. there's no was to get on the Buffalo Line from the west. only westbound at CP5. Railroaded has the best solution - although i doubt they'll ever rebuilld the N&W bridge.

Anchorman wrote:SST -Railroaded has the best solution - although i doubt they'll ever rebuilld the N&W bridge.

Yes, I can some what agree with that. In today's weak economic climate, I would encourage NS to revamp their bridge, rather than replacing the route entirely.

@Railroaded: great suggestion. CSX likes their monopoly, so I don't think you'll see this anytime soon.

Dave Becker

Why not restore double tracking on the compromise line including the bridge? For that matter I work right by that line. No more than a train an hour tops so there is plenty of capacity