Rail Trail Development on Beacon Line (Maybrook Line)

Interesting stuff on the trailway. I've posted this in some other threads, too:

Some recent news: http://www.lohud.com/article/201010030369

Workers are about to begin a $1.4 million job to pave a 2.2-mile section from Redman Park to Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. The work will almost complete a trail that runs about 45 miles from the Bronx-Westchester line in Yonkers to Southeast in Putnam.
It is the South County Trailway and the North County Trailway in Westchester and the Putnam Trailway in that county, but it's essentially one route. And it continues south of Yonkers into the Bronx with an unpaved path through New York City's fourth-largest park, Van Cortlandt.
New York City plans to pave a 1.4-mile stretch through the 1,146-acre park by spring 2012 at a cost of $2.45 million from federal and New York City funds. As it is now, the path is often muddy, uneven and flooded, city parks spokeswoman Jesslyn Moser said.

Overall, a pretty good article, with tangential notes about the Beacon/Maybrook line, and the plans to extend the line along MNCR active rails (see separate discussion: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 67&t=74270

One inconsistency:

In Putnam, workers are building a 1.2-mile extension following Route 6 to Putnam Avenue, and the county is drawing plans to take that a mile farther, to North Main Street in Brewster. It will later connect to a trail along the Maybrook Line, a former train route, running 5.4 miles to the Danbury Line in Connecticut.

As far as I know, the line is OOS at most due to a bridge, and merely not active, but not a former route.

Bridge was fixed two years ago, the line is not OOS.
there just is no traffic, and with the trail you probably never see another train other than MofW equipment.
For transportation the line is now a safety hazard thanks to incompetence of MTA lawyers.

Dutch, what did the rocket scientist attorneys do to make the line inoperable? Was it allowing a rail trail?

UpperHarlemLine4ever wrote:Dutch, what did the rocket scientist attorneys do to make the line inoperable? Was it allowing a rail trail?

"Rocket scientist attorneys" do not make a railroad inoperative but the lack of maintenance and use can do it and this line has been out of use for a long time. It did not have much local business on it when I ran over it in the 70's, which was some 40 odd years ago and it was even less after that. The line has no potential for passenger service due to its east-west lay when the flow is north-south.
When I was in Danbury this past August, it was very depressing for me to see the rust on the rails, grass and weeds on the roadbed everywhere, crossing protection removed and the general condition of the track. I would love to see the need to have regular train operations over this line but it is very unlikely to happen now or in the future. I still have memories of it when it was pretty busy and it was in addition a nice ride.
Noel Weaver

What I was making reference to was Dutch's posting that the MTA attorneys had made the line inoperable. What did they do?

t5hey allowed a rails for trails, on sthe space occupied by the second track on beacon line.
the attorneys in all theyr wisdom agreed to a fense between running track and trail.
these imbeciles agreed to have a fence 7 foot high at about 8 iches next to a train on active track.
so there is no longer a way to evacute a train unless passenger jump 3 feet high over a fence or into a swamp..
these same legal retards agreed to notify putnam and dutchess county two weeks before each move........

The last several entries on here have been about the Beacon Line. Sorry but the Beacon Line was all former New Haven Railroad territory and it does not belong on the New York Central fallen flags.
Noel Weaver