Trains on CSX St. Lawrence Sub (CR's Montreal Secondary)

Just going by what I see in the imgages, you have two parallell tracks no more than half a mile apart, one apparently still connected to the main, the other apparently not.

It seems to me that it would be cheaper to extend the existing lead west and then run a lead off it southward into the new park than to pay the costs to get a switch put back in to the parallell lead. If the new line winds up oriented 90' to the existing one, what difference would it make when no facility is set up to use it? They can build it either way.

Further, there's even a switch as part of the industrial spur so one could either directly access a southward track, or pull in and reverse via switchback to enter it.

Tree, thanks for posting that 1953 photo. Seems photography from that line back in NYC/PC days
is hard to come by in books, etc. Unless I just haven't looked in the right places.

Charlie

There was a fellow at Springfield who was apparently cleaning house and disposing of his collection of the NYC historical society magazines and calendars - free. One I happened to snag had info about the Watertown area, including several of the Adams Center station and a couple of Roots (Calcium) - at one time a busy junction. I posted all of them on the Watertown Model RR club Facebook page.

lvrr325 wrote:Just going by what I see in the imgages, you have two parallell tracks no more than half a mile apart, one apparently still connected to the main, the other apparently not.

You mean on the north and south sides of the industrial park? What images are you looking at which show either one not connected?

tree68 wrote:Remember that the area of the industrial park was at one time the Watertown yard and engine facility - the remains of the roundhouse are right next to the jail, and if you wander west behind the stores you can still find remnants of the yard.

"west"? Don't you mean south of the jail? The USGS topo map shows the yard mostly covering the jail's parking lot.

I'll have to take your word for that - I was under the impression that some portion of the yard ran E-W behind what is now Raymour and Flannigan. I've been out in that area and found evidence of RR structure other than just tracks.

MYSTERY!! Calls for some field work!

Okay. Using the links/coordinates posted in this thread I find two short tracks about half a mile apart which go off to the left of the main track, which normally on a map is west. One (the northerly of the two, and apparently the remnant of a line to Sackett's Harbor) goes to an industry, the other goes to nothing. The latter has the appearance of newer construction or rehab. Given someone is expecting CSX to install a switch, I presumed perhaps the latter one had it's switch removed due to a lack of any business. Given the close proximity of the two tracks, I am reasoning that it would be easier to run a new lead off the existing remnant of the Sackett's Harbor line, which apparently has a customer and remains connected, than to try to get CSX to put in a switch on the main track and deal with all that. The ROW for this line remains clear for some distance and there is plenty of room for a track to split off from this ROW and come back down to where the second track is located.

If the southerly of the two tracks remains connected, then just what switch do they want installed? Do the posted coordinates have nothing to do with it?

I think we're getting our switches confused here.

It's Massena that wants a switch cut in, not Watertown.

I'm not familiar with the area, but it appears there is an industrial park at N 44.90904 W 74.88998, which would be adjacent to the yard. I'm guessing that's where they want their siding.

For the Watertown discussion:

The southernmost switch at the industrial park in Watertown may have already been in place. If you look closely at it, you can see another switch (or remains of one) about 150' RR south of the mainline switch. If not, the local Industrial Development Corporation may have had something to do with it as part of plans to market the industrial park.

Getting from the existing "Blue Seal" switch (which is north of Arsenal street) down to where the southern siding ends up would involve some interesting track routing.

Russ - I see what you're saying about the yard now. It appears that the south end of the main yard was right about where that south siding is located with the north end at the Arsenal Street Bridge. Still, the Topo doesn't show the roundhouse, so there may well have been further RR facilities to the west of the jail in the past. Need a ca 1930 map.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The City of Massena has dreams of a switch and track to go to a planned industrail park. Some how we got redirected to Watertown. BTW, The City of Watertown pays CSX $2000 a year to maintain that Main line switch and frog to no where.

The remains of the Watertown roundhouse can still be seen on Google or Bing satellite maps. Look just to the west of the jail and Bellew ave on the south
side of Waterman Drive.
There was a small east west yard that went as far west to about Haney st.on the Sacketts Harbor line.

RSD15 wrote:There was a small east west yard that went as far west to about Haney st.on the Sacketts Harbor line.

Aha!

Q 152 northbound with a nice train, about 60 cars, lead by an older SD45 and lots of steel near the rear. Should be near watertown at this time.

SD45?

I don't think CSX even has any SD45-carbody rebuilds on the roster outside of a few ex-EL SD45-2's.

And most of those seem to be Conrail Shared Assets power. Not something too likely to see up here.

Are there any CN units still coming thru on this line? If so, are they CN trains, or, just
run-through power?