Thieves Steal Adirondack Division Tracks

I started a Yahoo Group dedicated to the Adirondack Division of the New York Central and recently we have all been buzzing about the recent track removal that CSX is doing from Adirondack Junction to Beauharnois on their Montreal Branch.

Wait a minute....none of us could find an order of discontinuance nor an order of abandonment. What was going on?

This past week, we got an answer. It seems six guys whom owned rail equipment started to cut the rails from the CPR junction to just east of Chateauguay and we asked by a newspaper reporter about what they were doing. When they said they had the railroad's permission, he told the police whom called CSX....whom were fuming that their property was being stolen! These thieves were arrented and now face a charge of theft over $5,000.

Let's hope CSX puts the rails back and that this doesn't spell an end to yet another part of former NYC trackage.

With scrap steel getting around $150/ton - inactive rail lines are a tempting target. A single 39' stick of 105# rail will fetch a little over $300 - which translates into $81,000 for a mile of track (not including ties, spikes or plates).

Is this the abandoned Rutland trackage that runs west from Rouses Point? When was the last time it was active?

No, this piece of trackage is part of the original NYC route that ran from Herkimer to Remsen to Tupper Lake Junction and up into Malone Junction (where the Rutland was) and continued north into Canada through Huntingdon, Valleyfield and Beauharnois to Adirondack Junction, where it connected to the CPR and used their trackage to cross the St. Lawrence River into Montreal. The only portions of this trackage still in active service is from Remsen to Lake Placid for the Adirondack Scenic RR (although the part from Carter to Saranac Lake is still being reconstructed) and that from Huntingdon to Adirondack Junction by CSX (even though the trackage hasn't been in use from Beauharnois to Adirondack Junction since about 2000).

Oh, so in other words, this is all happening up in Quebec.

Station_Master…
I am totally confused by your post here? Can you please clarify the area where the rails were being “removed from”!..

Uticajack

uticajack wrote:Station_Master…
I am totally confused by your post here? Can you please clarify the area where the rails were being “removed from”!..

The trackage he's talking aout is up in Quebec.

With scrap steel getting around $150/ton - inactive rail lines are a tempting target. A single 39' stick of 105# rail will fetch a little over $300 - which translates into $81,000 for a mile of track

It's not quite that lucrative. The rail is 105# per yard, so divide by 3.

ChiefTroll wrote:It's not quite that lucrative. The rail is 105# per yard, so divide by 3.

Ah shit... per foot, not per yard... how'd I mess that one up? Even still - $27,000 / mile isn't too shabby.

The trackage I am talking about currently belongs to CSX (the Montreal Branch that runs from Massena, NY to Adirondack Junction, Que), but was once NYC's Adirondack Division. Specifically, it is the trackage from Adirondack Junction to just east of Chateauguay. We at our Yahoo group recently found out that the junction was left undisturbed so hopefully the CPR guy in the Seaway Tower doesn't throw the wrong switch or a train set will be running aground and flip into a long drop. Here's something that was posted in the group:

There was this article in the Eastern Door (in 1999)

http://www.easterndoor.com/VOL.8/8-32.htm#story2

Railway Line Spartks Controversy
By: Greg Horn

The old Conrail railroad line that runs through Kahnawake, passing
Route 207 and Route 138, which has not seen much activity in the last
five years, was recently sold to the American firm CSX.

When CSX had purchased this line from Conrail, in the Fall of 1998,
they intended to use it as a heavy commercial line between the United
States and Montreal. CSX had even entertained the idea of turning a
part of the track into a rail-yard.

The MCK had met with CSX officials last October to try to find out
what their business plan was for this line.

Since that initial meeting nothing was decided as to what was going
to happen with the rail line. The MCK was assured that CSX would
inform them of their plans by mid-April 1999.

CSX had expressed to the MCK that they were concerned about the
community's safety and would not use pesticides or herbicides on the
side of the tracks.

Then without notice, on August 5 and 6, several trains had gone
through Kahnawake. Due to the fact that the signals were not working
properly, one car was forced to go into a ditch to avoid being struck
by the train.

Following this incident, the MCK made arrangements to meet CSX, and
that meeting took place on Monday, August 30. This meeting did not go
off very well, because, according to a representative of the MCK, CSX
did not live up to their end of the bargain.

"We will no longer accept them on the Territory," states MCK Chief
Michael Delisle.

Just prior to Conrail selling the rail line to CSX, the MCK was
preparing to launch a land claim against Conrail for the land that
the rail line is on. The MCK has now presented CSX with this claim

MCK ???

MCK = Mohawk Council of Kahnawake

Station_Master wrote:MCK = Mohawk Council of Kahnawake

So the tracks are located on an Indian reservation ?

Depends on whom you ask. If you ask the Natives there, they claim all the land that is within their boundaries and then some (this isn't to knock Natives as I have some Native blood in me). But under the CTA, all railway right of ways and lands are under Federal jurisdiction, which supercedes all other claims. So in this case, yes the former Adirondack Division does run through the reserve, but the land claim does not included the railway right of way (in this case, the old NYC line as well as the CPR main line). There is an abandoned r-o-w in this territory, but it has been back in Native hands for a LONG time (dating back to the 19th century).