BR&P Ellicottville

[SST]

After skiing yesterday I went to the Depot and had dinner. I looked up at the ceiling to confirm that the xmas tree was still there. It isn't. For some reason or another they removed it a short time ago. In its place are stuff that looks like Valentines Day. By the way, it just kept snowing all day. Lots of powder!

After dinner, I drove to the location discussed above and that's the place the depot was moved to. Although, I would have missed it or not known for sure if it weren't for our trusted and long standing telegraph poles. Two of them that I could see from the road are still standing. If there is anything even looking like a depot there, it's buried under the snow. A visit in Spring will take care of that.

I drove under the row on Mill and there is a house right next to the track. This guy has got the best view. Tracks on one side and a complete view of Holiday Valley in front. I"d love to buy that house.

[colorado]

I think I remember that you could see freights if you were running down Mardi Gras....we skied there almost exclusively at night though so it was just engine lights you could see. KB was much closer and the Bunny Hill was very close to the tracks. Only pics I ever took from any Slope was from Winter park, I had a 35mm with zoom back about 92 when we took a vacation and skied there with freinds before we actually moved to Denver a couple years later. Managed to get some B&W shots of Rio Grande Tunnel motors exiting the west bore of Moffatt Tunnel from the slope.

Even though Ski Cooper is pretty much on top of the DRGW line and Tennessee Pass Tunnel, you can't see any of the line from the ski area, besides Uncle Pete mothballed the line over a decade ago. My wife loved Tannembaum, loved riding the lift at night with the overhanging pines ladden with snow with the lights under that canopy.

I never did Firecracker much, as I recall it was a Mogul hill and I never got the hang of moguls so I avoided them, my buddy and I shot Shadows straight a couple times to see how fast we were going since there is a lift that runs parallel to it with a published lift length we knew the length of Shadows. We ran the skis largely straight ahead, airborn over the Knolls and skis chattering over all that ice, timed the run and did the math, averaged 50mph and probably approached 60 going over the headwall. I have never gotten hurt and I have slowed down in recent years, I intend to keep my record of not getting hurt skiing.

[sd80mac]

I never did Firecracker much, as I recall it was a Mogul hill and I never got the hang of moguls so I avoided them, my buddy and I shot Shadows straight a couple times to see how fast we were going since there is a lift that runs parallel to it with a published lift length we knew the length of Shadows. We ran the skis largely straight ahead, airborn over the Knolls and skis chattering over all that ice, timed the run and did the math, averaged 50mph and probably approached 60 going over the headwall. I have never gotten hurt and I have slowed down in recent years, I intend to keep my record of not getting hurt skiing.

Sound like u are pretty much the same kind of skiier as I am!! never like moguls... and go straight whenever I can (when slope is almost empty - I dont go fast through crowds). I went straight on rocket at Bristol - had hang time in air at mid-point of rocket. In one march, the snow was being soft because of warm weather and saw my friend standing at base looking for me. I came in hard and stopped hard, like hockey, creating thick wall of soft wet snow that I cant even see my friend through wall. The wall snow slammed onto my friend. haha u brought my memory back.

I will never go to Gore MT again.. only trails that does not have moquls are on green trails!!

I never skiied at Holiday Valley or Swains. I wish there was RR going by Bristol...

by the way, have you skiied and jumped over trains at colorado?? Wait... that was somewhere at Donner Pass?? LOL Pretty dumb and crazy.... I wouldn't even dare doing that crazy stunt.

[SST]

Moguls are not good for me. I've tried to master them but just don't have the coordination for it. Groomed trails for me. After I broke my leg in 2001, it took a whole season to face Firecracker again. Even now, I'm mindful of its potential.

I"ve been to Swain once about 2 years ago. To much money for the amount of trails available. I think I paid nearly 55 dollars for an 8 hour ticket and skied the whole place in 1 hour. I left in 3-1/2 hours. It was interesting though as I "researched" the R-O-W that sits at the base of it. Aerial photographed it too before skiing there. The post is buried in here somewhere long ago.

[colorado]

The skier jumping over the train was up lake tahoe way over the SP and it was nuts...that was an old Dick Barrymore film. I never went to Swain, too small an area to bother driving to. The rail roadbed at it's base is the old PS&N abandonned in the fourties. The PS&N will forever live in Infamy at least with some of my friends. It was teh PS&N that an old friend the late John Baker attempted to bend a fork into a PS&N route map at a pizza hut after an NRHS meeting decades back, pitchers of beer had something to do with this event.
We used to go to Bristol at least once a year for the higher vertical and longer runs, we also used to do Greek Peak with friends who lived in Elmira, Bleaumont and Wing Hollow closed long before I started skiing, same with Poverty Hill. Cockaine and Peak and peak were too small to bother driving to, never went there.
Lift ticket prices have become insane in Colorado and the mobs from Denver turn I70 into a parking loat on weekends, half hour to 45 minute lift line waits are common along with remore parking in the next zip code that they buss you in from, add to that the crazy prices for food and drink and we stopped skiing the big areas years ago. Steamboat wants something like $100 a lift ticket and all the summit county areas (Keystone, Copper, Breck, vail etc) are all over 90 bucks for an adult all day ticket.
Overall the old BR&P was a great line to chase, the way roads laid out and the speeds trains ran one could easily get a number of photo ops from Buffalo to Salamanca and really nice photo locations were available. Back about 30 years ago there were far more vintage structures in the salalmanca yard complex. One time we managed to get a hold of a large quantity of blueprints and documents out of the shop buildings in salamanca.

[SST]

Poverty Hill is up for sale. 6 million. I've skied Peak n Peak and it's actually pretty nice. The trails were pretty good. It was something different. It's a long drive from Buffalo and I wouldn't likely get a seasons pass for them. A once a year run is worth it.

I'm not tolerant of inflated prices as you mention and is why I'm resistant to heading west.

I've driven down Rt240 south of Springville and have flown down through the valley as well. It is an amazing view either by car or plane. If I had the money, I would really try to run an excursion train from West Valley to either Ellicottville or Salamanca. Not a ski train but just your typical excursion. I would not want to drain passengers from the A&A but actually try to work together in some way. Although I think the BR&P between Ashford JCT and West Valley is much more scenic than the A&A. You are just about at the bottom of the valley just before you cross Rt242 at Ashford Jct. A Fall run would be outstanding.

What would it take to get the A&A "legal" to run a steam excursion down the Olean line to Machias then to Ashford Jct to meet "my" steam operation and hook up for a double header into Ellicottville or Salamanca? Exluding the obvious requirement for lots of money.....is it possible?

[howie729]

I don't know what it would take but I would pay at least $100 a seat (one way) for that trip!!!!!!!

[jrs363]

Okay here are some pictures of the station.

The old postcard would be circa 1915... two colored are from about 2006. Last B&W may be in the 2nd home.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=4570208 ... lle&m=text

John

[SST]

I was in Ellicottville today and except for the skiing, all the snow is melted so I stopped over at the second location. It sure doesn't match the photo. It's all trees, bushes and overgrowth. The site doesn't look anything like the photo. I"m not even sure the house that is in the background is even there anymore. The only thing I could find is a side walk that must have gone up against the depot. Can't see it in the picture. The only thing that gives any kind of perspective on where the depot sat, are the several telegraph poles still standing.

Now that the line is no longer double tracked, it throughs things out of perception too. I wish I could have that picture with me and stand where the cameraman was.

By the way, this location is viewable from the top of Holliday Valley. If the line were really busy, it would be an excellent place to watch trains from.