NY - North/South County Trailway

[PUTNUT]

Well, the "row" has been cleared to the Putnam Ave./Rt 6/Drewville Rd. intersection. They haven't started paving yet from the Rt 6 overpass in Carmel. A nice parking lot has just been completed at the Rt 6 bridge in Brewster. Since the Brewster bridge and the causeway bridge at Tilly Foster are original and not some sort of rebuild as at Carmel and Drewville Road, I hope they repaint them and maybe even put the NYC logo on them. The trail ends at Seminary Hill Road since the other side hasn't been paved yet. Both the Seminary Hill Road and Hughson Road underpasses are completed and the detours are down to the delight of the local populace. Since the trail runs through the auto junk yard at Tilly Foster, maybe the county will force some sort of a clean up there.

"RIDE (or walk) THE PUT"

[Jeff Smith]

Some recent news: http://www.lohud.com/article/201010030369

Workers are about to begin a $1.4 million job to pave a 2.2-mile section from Redman Park to Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. The work will almost complete a trail that runs about 45 miles from the Bronx-Westchester line in Yonkers to Southeast in Putnam.
It is the South County Trailway and the North County Trailway in Westchester and the Putnam Trailway in that county, but it's essentially one route. And it continues south of Yonkers into the Bronx with an unpaved path through New York City's fourth-largest park, Van Cortlandt.
New York City plans to pave a 1.4-mile stretch through the 1,146-acre park by spring 2012 at a cost of $2.45 million from federal and New York City funds. As it is now, the path is often muddy, uneven and flooded, city parks spokeswoman Jesslyn Moser said.

Overall, a pretty good article, with tangential notes about the Beacon/Maybrook line, and the plans to extend the line along MNCR active rails (see separate discussion: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 67&t=74270

One inconsistency:

In Putnam, workers are building a 1.2-mile extension following Route 6 to Putnam Avenue, and the county is drawing plans to take that a mile farther, to North Main Street in Brewster. It will later connect to a trail along the Maybrook Line, a former train route, running 5.4 miles to the Danbury Line in Connecticut.

As far as I know, the line is OOS at most due to a bridge, and merely not active, but not a former route.

[DutchRailnut]

The Beacon line is NOT OOS, the bridge was repaired two years ago.
you may never see another train besides MofW equipment. for train moves the line is safety hazard with its fence.
The MTA lawyers screwed that one up royally.

[RussNelson]

I bicycled the entire North County Trailway http://blog.russnelson.com/bicycling/1208706870.html in April 2008. In March of 2011, I rode the southern portion of the South County Trailway. http://blog.russnelson.com/bicycling/1300552892.html At the southern end, in Van Cortland Park, the railbed disappears into brush. I think that south of the park, it's Putnam Avenue, but that's just speculation. Through the park, the trail in undeveloped. The bridges are decked over, but the ties are still in place. At the Westchester County line, the trail starts being paved. The paving continued to the south end of HF Redmond Jr. Memorial Park, where it was blocked by a "trail under construction fence". They were actively cleaning the brush off the trail, fixing culverts, & etc.

After I headed home, I saw that further north, the South County Trail (visible from the parkway) becomes paved again. Didn't make a note of where that was, so I know nothing about the north end of the South County Trail. Looking forward to an explore this spring!