B&M 1227 wrote:. Between Mechanicville and Waterford was it parallel routes similar to the B&M in eastern NY, or was that section of the R&S abandoned awhile ago? IIRC you can see parts of the R&S ROW to the east of 787 between Waterford and Green Island.
B&M, I spent some time Googling around last night.
The original R&S went from Green Island (and perhaps over the bridge to Troy too?) up to Mechanicville, Round Lake, and Ballston Spa as earlier discussed .
It seems there was an Albany and Northern (completed in 1853), reorganized as the Albany, Vermont, & Canada, then as the Albany & Vermont, which was bought by the R&S in 1860. It went from Albany north (on what later became known as the Colonie main of D&H) through Waterford, meeting the R&S at what became Waterford function , paralleling a few miles, and then crossing the R&S and crossing the Hudson river just north of the Waterford/Halfmoon border . [From there it followed then Hudson north until it cut northeast and then followed the Hoosic River to Eagle Bridge. ] The purchase got R&S down into Albany, and R&S made an agreement with the Troy and Boston (later B&M) not to use it north of Waterford junction. North of there it was abandoned. The ROW along the Hoosic river up to Johnsonville later became the current main (now Pan Am) to Mechanicville. (There were 2 B&M lines along the Hoosic River, one of which was the A&V ROW, for many years which B&M noted above). You can see the abandoned line along the east side of the Hudson on this link if it works (choose Topo mode):
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.84848,-73 ... ville%20NY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here is a good history link:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2ttWU ... ad&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In 1871 the D&H leased the R&S which presumably included this southern part of the A&V.
So to make the long story short, there never were 2 D&H lines north of Waterford Junction to Mechanicville. There were two for a few miles north of Waterford Jct. before the 1860 purchase of the Albany & Vermont, but that's it.
EDIT: Fixed a bunch of typos and added the date of the D&H takeover of the R&S