Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the Penn Central, up until its 1976 inclusion in Conrail. Visit the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #1230010  by ekho-viktor
 
Hello! I'm new here! Woo

I almost placed this question in the New Haven section, but decided it might better suit the Penn Central category based on its area of interest. I'm searching for any information on the Maybrook Line's passing sidings, specifically from its reduction to single trackage (I believe around 1961?) to 1983, when Conrail removed the tracks from the town of Poughkeepsie to Hopewell Junction. Does anyone even have information on this? Track maps? Pictures? I've found plenty of information about the Maybrook Line during full double trackage, but precious little about its life in the latter days of the New Haven Railroad and under Penn Central.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm trying to model Poughkeepsie during the PC era so I'll take what I can get... Haha
 #1230316  by Backshophoss
 
The best info source would be a PC New Haven Region #1 ETT or PC Northeastern #1 ETT.
Both employee timetables can be viewed as pdf files at http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/home" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PC stated passing siding lenghts by how many 50 ft cars it held.
 #1230444  by ekho-viktor
 
Backshophoss wrote:The best info source would be a PC New Haven Region #1 ETT or PC Northeastern #1 ETT.
Both employee timetables can be viewed as pdf files at http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/home" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PC stated passing siding lenghts by how many 50 ft cars it held.
Excellent! Thank you very much :)
 #1230487  by charlie6017
 
ekho-viktor wrote:Hello! I'm new here!
Hello and welcome to the forums...........lots of good people here!

Just wanted to send a welcome and will see you on the boards. ;-)

Charlie
 #1231049  by Noel Weaver
 
Maybrook Line rode on the Naugy track between Devon and Derby Junction under double track ABS rules, TCS/CTC territory from Derby Junction to Berkshire Junction with a siding at Botsford assigned direction for the siding was eastbound with an interlocked switch on the west end and a spring switch on the east end. Berkshire Junction to Fair Grounds was double track ABS territory, Fair Grounds to Berea was single track TCS/CTC territory with sidings at Brewster, Holmes, Hopewell Junction again with assigned siding direction eastbound and interlocked switches on the west end and spring switches on the east end. Poughkeepsie and Highland sidings were fully interlocked at both ends and there was no assigned direction involved.
Berea was the west end of the TCS/CTC territory and there was an interlocked switch at that location. Trackage west of that point was yard trackage with yard rules in effect. This was the situation at the end of the New Haven and during the Penn Central years various changes were made and also under Conrail as well with what remained by then.
Noel Weaver
 #1260872  by FLRailFan1
 
ekho-viktor wrote:Hello! I'm new here! Woo

I almost placed this question in the New Haven section, but decided it might better suit the Penn Central category based on its area of interest. I'm searching for any information on the Maybrook Line's passing sidings, specifically from its reduction to single trackage (I believe around 1961?) to 1983, when Conrail removed the tracks from the town of Poughkeepsie to Hopewell Junction. Does anyone even have information on this? Track maps? Pictures? I've found plenty of information about the Maybrook Line during full double trackage, but precious little about its life in the latter days of the New Haven Railroad and under Penn Central.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm trying to model Poughkeepsie during the PC era so I'll take what I can get... Haha
Welcome..
 #1261226  by Noel Weaver
 
Penn Central did not make any major changes to the Maybrook Line except at Hopewell Junction where they made a change to the track layout to allow for a movement from the east to use the Beacon Branch (Beacon Secondary Track) without having to stop and line a switch by expanding the Hopewell Junction Interlocking to allow for this move and by installing a power switch to joine the Beacon Secondary Track to the Maybrook Line. Quite late in the Penn Central period the siding at Brewster was removed, I do not remember just why this was done but I think there was a problem with the siding and the railroad did not want to spend the money to repair it. Double track operation at Fair Grounds was not that far east of Brewster and traffic was not that heavy by then either.
Noel Weaver
 #1261334  by Backshophoss
 
Was the old interchange with the NYC at Put Jct near 1 of the siding switches in Brewster?
Beileve there was a bridge on Brewster siding that was not in good shape,or a washout that took out
that siding in the PC era. The Maybrook Line was cut into a steep slope in the east side of Brewster.
 #1264134  by AMK0123
 
Noel will probably know, but I'll take a stab at it.... From walking that line numerous times over the past several years it looks like the west side of the siding was located just east of Crosby Ave, (behind the Brewster Superette). It looks like the siding continued east, however I can't tell if it ended just short of Peaceable Hill road, were the bridge crosses over Brewster Honda or if it continued on over to just under I-84 were it would have connected to the siding were the old lumber yard was.... Also, in that area under I-84 is an old hollowed out concrete base and an electrical cabinet. Don't know it that was a past signal for that siding or just a block signal...
 #1264182  by Noel Weaver
 
It's been a long time but if I recall correctly the east end of the siding was considerably east of the I-84 OH bridge and the bridge over NY-22 and US-6. Correct on the west end of the siding which was just easty of Crosby Avenue. The rationale for doing the spring switch on the east end of most of the sidings never made much sense to me because the hottest trains were eastbound A/OB-2, OB-2 and OB-4 all of which had hot loads for Cedar Hill, Providence and Boston for next day placement. They stabbed these trains by running them through sidings to meet trains that had loads that were not as hot and empties that were not hot at all. At the time that single track CTC operation was put in effect there were about six regular round trips a day but they also ran extras from time to time.
Noel Weaver
 #1311290  by Jim Kaufman
 
Hi Noel, just a quick jump in here...what I remember of the Maybrook Line was:
You NH guys called it "Marlboro Country" account it was out of the way, and looked like the "country" in the old Marlboro cigs commercials;
And it was an "up-and-down" railroad....at parts half your train would be pulling up hill, middle on the flat and the rear coming down hill! A lot of broken iron laying around! I know about the "broken iron"...coming into Brewster one night, the hogger (NH, I won't reveal who, but it was not you!), got a drawbar on the "funny" end! Blamed it on the Cond and me (head end brakie) because we were asking about getting coffee before CP Fairgrounds (as you know, the Disp had no idea where you were, and we always stopped at the Windmill Diner)!
Let's see, Cond was sitting on Frmn's side of engine, I was in the middle and the hogger was running...yep I can see how we "caused" the drawbar...talking about coffee!
Anyway, it was a very cold night (Jan '81), the drawbar was pinned under the lead axle of the boxcar (east end, we were on CH-4 SK-NH)...after about an hour of struggling, in the cold and snow,we got the drawbar out, tossed it to the side, cabled up the car (I gonna guess it was about 20 deep from the head-end) and set it off on the east end of Brewster siding and got back together---and outlawed at Danbury. And then we got our coffee.
The story doesn't end there, we got the same hogger back to Selkirk, and he "blew" us into the Road Foreman (K. Craig) about wanting to stop for coffee! And causing the drawbar!!!
Anyway, glad to hear you are getting better.
 #1314871  by Maybrook fan
 
As a kid growing up in Holmes I can remember PC trains waiting for one another in the siding. The crews would frequently go to the "corner store" at the crossing. Sometimes a train that wasn't required to stop anyway would so they could go to the store. A couple of particular incidents stick out in my memory. - One time on a Saturday evening an east bound stopped in the siding and the crew went into the store. The store personal told the crew the Methodist Church was having a chicken dinner if they had time to go they should. So they went and apparently enjoyed it, because every time one of those guys was on a stopped crew after that they'd ask when the Church was gonna have another dinner and they'd rave how good it was. - Another time a west bound was signaled to stop when approaching the siding (as they frequently did to use the phone in the shanty). This train had a unit go dead prior to pulling into Holmes and the engineer was "QUITE UPSET" the dispatcher had stopped them instead of having pull up to the other end of the block. As the grade on the east end of the Holmes siding is considerable he could not get the train moving again and he said they'd have made it if they weren't stopped. Although the local kids and I were quite impressed with the shower of sparks when the wheels slipped and spun. Needless to say they had to break the train and make two pulls over the summit.
 #1314889  by Jim Kaufman
 
I'll give a real quick story on the grades at CP Holmes. One night we had to take the siding, as we pulled down the siding and stopped, the rear end crew said we were "blocking" a crossing by a caboose "length"!
Now the engr and I (the Conductor) looke at each other..."what crossing?"
I told the the guys in the Hack, don't worry, that is a "private crossing" and we do not have to "cut the crossing" (make a cut to clear the crossing, such as we do on "named"/timetable crossings).
Well the east bound showed up (SENH-4, we were CHSE-3 ((westbound)), we got the "bug" signal off the siding...when the rear end crew said "come back 2 car lengths"!!! What??...the engr said "what did you say?"..."Come back 2 car lengths"...I got on the "horn" (radio) and said what did you "idiots do?Cut the crossing?"..."Come back 2 car lengths please"...I said to the engr, back up and see what happens. We did, felt the "air" being cut in, got an "on/off" brake test, the rear end said they were on the Hack and away we went.
When we got to Selkirk, I asked the "Knuckleheads" (AND they were...you could not trust them out of your eyesight, hence I rode the head end to do any work), what they did at "Holmes" was: some person came up to them in the Hack, and said they had to use the crossing (230am!), it was not an emergency, they just wanted to cross. The "knuckleheads" got out, cut the "air" (turned the angle cocks), got the "pin" (uncouple the caboose), and pushed the Hack, about 2 car lengths "clear" of the crossing...but because of the grade, could not push the caboose back! Hence, "come back 2 car lengths".
Needless to say, I told these two...not to answer any call where I (or the engr) was going to be the Conductor...I told them what they did was "crazy" (I cleaned this up), etc.
One of them died a few years later (non-railroad related), the other is still working. Never worked with both of these guys again.