Utica Branch Discussion Thread

[ut-1]

Here is a photo taken today at Halfway House crossing (County Rt 32B), Norwich:

[milkman]

Thanks for posting the photo ut-1.
Did you happen to go by Woods Corners and see the equipment they have parked there?

[ricky]

i know they got a long way to go but i just wonder if they fix washout near walmart yet?

[milkman]

i know they got a long way to go but i just wonder if they fix washout near walmart yet?

Yeah,I believe they have.I haven't seen the crew at the Halfway House crossing in awhile.I was told they are working below Oxford now.

[ut-1]

A siding improvement project is underway at Utica Club Brewery (officially known as Matt's Brewery). Here, UT-1 passes by the work today at 12:37 pm.

[lvrr325]

Well, the Rt. 12 crossing at North Norwich looked no different than last year, grass/weeds overgrowing the tracks, same for the one on Co. Rt. 29.

[NYS&W142Fan]

Today I heard the crew has been down through Brisben cutting. They also had a flat bed loaded with ties. Can anyone confirm how far South they have gotten?

[milkman]

Today I was told that the railroad crew has a lot of equipment and doing a lot of work just north of Brisben.He said they were doing concrete and culvert work in that area.
I also noticed on the way home today when I crossed the railroad crossing on Rt12 in N Norwich that they must have sprayed the weeds as they were all brown on the tracks.

[chen1234]

All of this is as of today (June 24, 2016):

Defoliant has clearly been sprayed along the ROW from Chenango Forks to at least Norwich.

Rails have been dug out of the pavement at the Greene St. Crossing in Greene (near Page Seed Co.)

South of Brisben several washouts are still visible from County Rt. 32

2 brand new concrete culverts are being installed near where North Road and Co. Rt. 32 intersect (North of Brisben). Equipment is present at both sites.

Tracks have been dug out of the pavement at Halfway House Road (Co. Rt. 32B) and there is a shipping container and pickup truck parked near the crossing on the ROW.

The tracks are no longer covered by dirt at Black Bridge in Norwich (where the RR crosses Canasawacta Creek).

Miscellaneous MOW equipment and supplies are parked across the tracks from Chobani (formerly Norwich-Eaton Pharmaceuticals) on State Rt. 320 near Woods Corners. This includes a Hi-Rail dump truck and a pickup owned by Frontier Railroad Services.

Signs of brush clearing at West Cayuga St. in North Norwich (bonus points if you know N. Norwich's other name!) and Co. Rt. 23 near Sherburne Four Corners.

Blanding Road Crossing (just south of Sherburne) has been resurfaced with rails exposed and ready for use.

I know this is old news, but all signs of the washout just south of Earlville Station have been erased.
Apparently the station itself is now Building # 35 in NYSW's inventory, even though the high grass around it speaks to it's lack of use.

I'd post photos, but when I tried to attach them RR.net kept saying JPG files were "invalid"

[ut-1]

Thanks for the updates milkman & chen1234; I'm going to try to get down to your neck of the woods again soon to get some photos of the work.

Here's a photo of UT-1 exiting the Utica Club Brewery spur taken the morning of June 23rd:

[ut-1]

Here are a few pictures from last night's late-running UT-1:

1) On the former NYO&W Utica Branch, UT-1 crosses the Sauquoit Creek via O&W Utica Branch bridge 48, 6:41 last night in New Hartford.

2) Having switched New Hartford's Oneida Warehouse, 3040 returns to the former O&W Utica Main 7:10 pm.

3) Southbound, Durant Farms, Waterville, 8:25 pm.

[milkman]

I like the picture of the one with the farm in the foreground and train in the background.Beautiful!

[ewh]

Last month I drove from Binghampton to Utica and noticed the line around Norwich. The tracks seemed overgrown north and south of Norwich, but were obviously well used from Utica south about 15 miles or so. Can anyone tell me the operations on this line? Any traffic through Norwich? I also saw remnants of the NYO&W line in bits and pieces between Binghampton and Utica, but I was 60 years too late to see any trains.

[BR&P]

Just as info, that's a very clean city. There is no "p" in Binghamton!

[SteelRail]

There's already an established topic on the line here: (Admin note: merged, but thanks for the backlink to make my job easy!)