Railroad Forums 

  • On this date in Rochester rail history...

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1378043  by the cowboy
 
To CP Smith - that westbound LV train with the 502 in the lead that you caught at Geneva avd Manchester on Sunday , March 28, 1976 is the same one that we followed all the way from Sayre that afternoon. You must have been standing right next to us on the Route 96 overpass. (same shot appears in our book "Trackside Around Rochester" on page 41) We were able to beat him to Victor, but he got ahead of us and we saw the caboose go by Rochester Jct. We completely missed the eastbound Apollo which was sitting at Quaker Interlocking. It was DEFINITELY getting dark, so we broke off the chase and headed for home. The Lehigh put on a great show that Sunday (I think we saw 5 or 6 trains altogether), with trains to chase on the way down to Sayre, as well as on the way back!
 #1378045  by CPSmith
 
Yeah, I thought it was the weekend before, but didn't have the exact date. Now we know.

We "saw" them in Victor, but a caboose pic shot out of the rear of a Pinto wasn't that great to include. Just glad we didn't end up in a fireball somewhere.

Dang, now I'll have to change all those dates ...
 #1378104  by Matt Langworthy
 
4/1/1976: among other things on the first day of Conrail, the D&H ran on the Southern Tier Mainline for the first time. Apollo 2 departed Bison Yard in the morning with a quartet of GP39-2s leading.

I'm not sure whether it happened on the 1st or the 2nd, but the B&H also assumed operations on the former EL Wayland Branch. SCIDA had originally intended for Conrail to operate that segment but changed their mind at the last minute.
 #1378106  by TB Diamond
 
Arose early on this day 40 years ago. Ascertained that the first ConRail train JN-5 (successor to NE-1) Was out of Corning heading towards Lyons. Caught up with the job a few miles south of Glass Factory Bay and followed it to Lyons. There was a crew change at GY making the chase a bit easier. For power the job had three LVRR GP38-2 units, lead by the 324. The weather was little improvement from the preceding day but some good photos were obtained by using Kodak Tri-X and High Speed Ektachrome. Watched the caboose disappear to the west at Lyons then called it a day.
 #1378121  by Matt Langworthy
 
TB Diamond wrote:Arose early on this day 40 years ago. Ascertained that the first ConRail train JN-5 (successor to NE-1) Was out of Corning heading towards Lyons. Caught up with the job a few miles south of Glass Factory Bay and followed it to Lyons. There was a crew change at GY making the chase a bit easier. For power the job had three LVRR GP38-2 units, lead by the 324. The weather was little improvement from the preceding day but some good photos were obtained by using Kodak Tri-X and High Speed Ektachrome. Watched the caboose disappear to the west at Lyons then called it a day.
Nice catch! I have seen photos of JN-5 and JB-3 (I think) operating via the Corning Secondary. Neither train lasted long on that routing, according to what I've read. Those trains moved over to the Tier.

Speaking of the Tier, the D&H ran it's first Apollo 1 (westbound) on the Tier on 4/2/1976. The train had several RS3us for power, including #1976- which led the train. She was later renumbered to #506 by the D&H. This engine still exists, and is owned by the WNYP. In fact, the bicentennial paint scheme was stripped and replaced just recently. Folks in the Olean area should expect to see #506 operating there soon.
 #1378123  by Matt Langworthy
 
sd80mac wrote:Wish I knew about March 31 and April 1st... I was young at that time and wasn't aware of what's going on.

First time I found out that EL was no longer was when I visited my grandparents in Syracuse. And I asked grandpa to take me to his old workplace - EL Fayette yard- for the ride. As he drove up the ramp and I saw the new CR sign replacing EL sign. I was shocked and torn... That's the first business of any kind that I knew of that other company can take over other... lets see... 1976.. I was 8...

Born a bit too late....
Same here. I am a year younger than you. Now this was probably the 2nd time your grandpa went through a change in ownership at Fayette Yard. Assuming he'd been with the RR for a while, he'd probably been through the EL merger, too. Did he ever compare the differences between EL's and Conrail's respective arrivals?
 #1378444  by sd80mac
 
Matt Langworthy wrote:
sd80mac wrote:Wish I knew about March 31 and April 1st... I was young at that time and wasn't aware of what's going on.

First time I found out that EL was no longer was when I visited my grandparents in Syracuse. And I asked grandpa to take me to his old workplace - EL Fayette yard- for the ride. As he drove up the ramp and I saw the new CR sign replacing EL sign. I was shocked and torn... That's the first business of any kind that I knew of that other company can take over other... lets see... 1976.. I was 8...

Born a bit too late....
Same here. I am a year younger than you. Now this was probably the 2nd time your grandpa went through a change in ownership at Fayette Yard. Assuming he'd been with the RR for a while, he'd probably been through the EL merger, too. Did he ever compare the differences between EL's and Conrail's respective arrivals?

No. He and his family side worked for DLW at Scranton, mostly at the shop. He went for opening position in Syracuse and moved to there. I guess that he was only one who flew out of Scranton. Went thorugh Erie & DLW merger. He retired in 1970. But he still always took me to there whenever I'm at his house, even in winter times, in rainy days, HOT DAY.... nothing can be in my way of exciting to go to Fayette yard.
guys at there were awesome! Grandpa trusted these guys to leave me with them to go on rides to Tully or to Baldwinville. I would see his yellow Torino GT following us when I was in either caboose at top window or in GP7 cab.

Sadly, being mugged twice in area that was great beautiful with many huge houses turned into bad neighborhood took care of his mind. So I didn't had chance to talk to him about his history with RR. I know that family were sharing stories of what he did at work. That's only thing he would talk about, I believe. He wouldn't want to talk about job or companies.

I know that with CR's arrivals, the crews are probably the same one. To be honest with you, I don't remember anyone. I didn't took a time to memorize their faces in my face or their names. ALL I want is get on engineer's lap and run the thing! I know that everyone knows me and my grandpa. They were very cheerful whenever they see us coming. Even without my grandpa, my mom would drive up to there on our way to home and they know who I am. If Conrail shuffle crews around (DeWitt and Fayette), then my grandpa probably wouldn't take me to there.

PS. Don't u find it odd that I never knew about DeWitt until 1994, huh? I guess that Grandpa knew that if he took me to see DeWitt, then I would be in Heaven Cloud.. He did his best to avoid DeWitt... :P
 #1386933  by Matt Langworthy
 
Monday 5/31/1999: this was the final day of Conrail operations in upstate NY. Traffic seemed rather brisk on the Chicago Line as I headed westbound from Rensselaer to Rochester on Amtrak. The Maple Leaf was about an hour late because a coach had to be dropped from the consist in Schenectady due to mechanical issues.
 #1497244  by psb128
 
Farmer Joe wrote:My Uncle Bill Hunt had 16mm movies of riding that NYC line into Attica. He worked for the NYC, PC and Conrail. Before he passed, he gave me a VHS copy of those movies. It was some very interesting viewing. They were taken just before the line was removed in the 30's. I'd like to someday get them transferred to DVD. I'm sure he passed out more than one copy of that movie too.


Hi, this is Paul Bohn - did you ever get this tape converted to DVD ? I am originally from Attica and have become very interested in Attica's history. I would gladly convert the VHS tape over, free of charge (of course).
 #1521368  by C2629
 
October 1st, 1979.....The Ontario Midland took control of the Hojack from Webster to Hannibal and the Pennsy from Newark to Sodus Point. At the same time the Ontario Central started running from W. Victor to Shortsville. Both railroads were part of the ONTARIO LINES. Today the OMID is a stand alone railroad while the ONCT has been absorbed by the Finger Lakes RR. Here are a couple shots from the first day on the OMID.http://www.railroad.net/download/file.p ... w&id=20570
Attachments:
Leaving Sodus eastbound
Leaving Sodus eastbound
img OMID79110_edited-2.jpg (1.01 MiB) Viewed 1671 times
Returning after going to Newark
Returning after going to Newark
img OMID79117_edited-2.jpg (991.31 KiB) Viewed 1671 times
  • 1
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16