Kodak Park trackmobiles

When I started working at Kodak, the tracks were clearly visible crossing Ridge Road at Palm Street, even though they had been paved over. Just north of the plant gate, the tracks appeared out of the pavement, and there was a bumper indicating the end of track for KPRR. Occasionally, I would see a tank car sitting there. The tracks continued north and connected in with the rest of KPRR where they crossed the KPRR "mainline".

I dont think the connection to the old way was connected to the east passing track. If memory serves me correctly, (and were talking about almost 50 years ago) both passing tracks ended north of Rand street with the old way switch a little farther south. In the early, mid 60's the second belt often worked the old way, sometimes going accross Dewey Ave. to deliver coal to Cresent Puritan and boxcars of bricks to Keystone builders supply.

The westernmost track of the 3 was the siding, and at one time the north end of it had a switch to Little Ridge Team Track. The south end was a facing point switch northbound on the main.

The next track (middle) was the main.

The east track was known as the Old Way for its entire length - even north of Ridge Road. The track actually led southward right into the Old Way. At the south end there was a crossover arrangement to the main - on the main track this was a TRAILING point switch northbound. So a train headed north could cut off, pull north of that switch, then shove south and east into the Old Way. If train length was too long to clear Ridgeway Ave they would pull down to Ridge Road, and go all the way back through the Old Way track to that crossover and beyond. When the Second Belt had a large outbound from Kodak, they would pull cars out of the plant and shove them up the siding. Then the next pull, with caboose next to the engine, would go up the main. The power would then cut off, go through the Old Way past that crossover, back out onto the main, into the siding. They would then double the siding onto the main, do a brief air test, and head south.

There were at least two other industries in the area. Flower City Lumber was located roughly where the self-storage place on Bernice Street is. IIRC the switch to that was off the Charlotte main. Closer to Ridge Road there was some sort of oil dealer, with a switch off the Old Way just north of the switch to Kodak (which was also off the Old Way). So in about 1961 there were 4 NYC tracks crossing Ridge Road - the Kodak Lead, Old Way, Main, and Siding. Through the years the Old Way and Siding were shortened up to eliminate 2 of the tracks in the highway, and the Team Track, Flower City Lumber and the oil dealer were removed altogether.

In regard to the change of railroad operation at Kodak Park or now called Eastman Business Park, here is a quote from an internal post to employees about that change:

"Rochester Switching Services – One of the services available at Eastman Business Park we are most proud of is our internal railroad, operating for over 100 years, with approximately 16 miles of continuous track. As buildings and parcels have been sold to external companies/tenants, several requests have been made for material shipment using rail service. Kodak recently entered into an agreement with Rochester Switching Services, a subsidiary of G&W Railroad, to provide rail service to both Kodak operations and external ten-ants. The transition to the new company began October 4, 2010."

Hojack One wrote:In regard to the change of railroad operation at Kodak Park or now called Eastman Business Park, here is a quote from an internal post to employees about that change:

"Rochester Switching Services – One of the services available at Eastman Business Park we are most proud of is our internal railroad, operating for over 100 years, with approximately 16 miles of continuous track. As buildings and parcels have been sold to external companies/tenants, several requests have been made for material shipment using rail service. Kodak recently entered into an agreement with Rochester Switching Services, a subsidiary of G&W Railroad, to provide rail service to both Kodak operations and external ten-ants. The transition to the new company began October 4, 2010."

Is this using KP Locomotives or R&S Units to the the local switching?
Is the KPRR keeping the Locomotives that they own or are they going to sell them?

scharnhorst wrote:

Hojack One wrote:In regard to the change of railroad operation at Kodak Park or now called Eastman Business Park, here is a quote from an internal post to employees about that change:

"Rochester Switching Services – One of the services available at Eastman Business Park we are most proud of is our internal railroad, operating for over 100 years, with approximately 16 miles of continuous track. As buildings and parcels have been sold to external companies/tenants, several requests have been made for material shipment using rail service. Kodak recently entered into an agreement with Rochester Switching Services, a subsidiary of G&W Railroad, to provide rail service to both Kodak operations and external ten-ants. The transition to the new company began October 4, 2010."

Is this using KP Locomotives or R&S Units to the the local switching?
Is the KPRR keeping the Locomotives that they own or are they going to sell them?

Good point! Speaking only from my own observations, I have yet to see R&S locomotives switching in the Park, only Kodak's. Maybe others here can fill in the details of what this agreement is about. It's possible it may be a shared service operation between R&S and Kodak.

I drive around inside the park quite often, still only the Kodak locomotives inside the park, there has not yet been a R&S engine seen.
I have seen all three KP engines within the last few months..so I believe all three are still around.

From an operational standpoint, nothing is visually different than it has been for the last 20 years,
except the locos had all their Kodak lettering removed, and now only have their road numbers.

Scot

scharnhorst wrote: Is this using KP Locomotives or R&S Units to the the local switching?
Is the KPRR keeping the Locomotives that they own or are they going to sell them?

The locomotives will stay, although the unit with the flames apparently needs wheel work quite badly.

I did speak with my source and not even he is sure whether the STB was involved with the change in operations.

Re: Flower City Lumber

I don't want to tell you how many boxes I went through...

**************************************************************************

Penn Central Transportation Company
George P. Baker, Richard C. Bond, Jervis Langdon, Jr., Willard Wirtz, Trustees

Buffalo, N..Y., June 4, 1971

Flower City Lumber Co., Inc.
55 Jessee St.
Rochester, N.Y.

Gentlemen,

Referring to Sidetrack Agreement, Registry No. 86986-A, dated September 10, 1946, covering trackage serving your facility on the Charlotte Branch at Barnard, N.Y.

Inasmuch as there has been no traffic at your facility for a considerable length of time, the Penn Central Transportation Company hereby elects to cancel said agreement in accordance with Paragraph Seventh thereof, effective July 5, 1971.

Very truly yours,

(signature)

R. P. McFeaters
Division Superintendent

***********************************************

If I recall, it did come off of the main.

Howdy,

"Kodak recently entered into an agreement with Rochester Switching Services, a subsidiary of G&W Railroad, to provide rail service to both Kodak operations and external tenants."

and

"I did speak with my source and not even he is sure whether the STB was involved with the change in operations."

Very interesting, seems like the old KPRR is now acting as a common carrier on their property via an operating company. The STB might actually have something to say about that.

Seems that the tenants might have recourse to complain to the STB if they are not happy. Maybe Kodak has agreed to not take any fees for traffic over their property, thus avoiding the STB ? But as Kodak searches for revenue that could change. Could get messy.

Cheers, Kevin.

Basically they outsourced the railroad...

Rochester Switching Services - http://www.eastmanbusinesspark.com/railroad.php

Can anyone take some pictures of the KPRR engines as they currently are? Who knows how long we will see them before they are sold, repainted, etc. Thanks.

Here's some good info and a map about KPRR

http://www.rochester-railfan.net/kprr.htm

What was the white caboose that used to be at N 43.18664 W 77.67083 by the coal dump?

Regarding the subway connection to Kodak: Those cars started at the loop just south of the Court Street Station. They traveled on the subway as far as Emerson Street where they came up on a ramp to Emerson Street, then over to Dewey Avenue and up Dewey to the loop at Ridge road. Yes, they were run during the rush hours. I'll have to look up the equipment they used. I believe they were the first cars the subway got. I seem to remember something the motorman had to do when they came up at Emerson because the subway used left-hand running and the surface street cars used right-hand running.

This arrange continued until the street cars were replaced by buses; then it was shut down. While this was intended primarily for Kodak Park workers, I remember one run was popular with Aquinas students. Ted

Thanks for the info, Ted. I'm sure that's what I was thinking of when I thought the subway carried employees to and from work at Kodak.