150th Street yard in harlems west side

I would like to know if anyone here has any info on the yard located around 150th street in Harlem by the Hudson River.
My Father-in-law had a trucking company that hauled meat for various companies. He remembers a small yard located just north of what is now the Fairway Market where the freight cars were deposited for unloading.

Any recolections or drawings of how the tracks were laid out would be appreciated as I would like to re-create the area for him in HO scale before he dies. I have tried to research it with just one mention of team tracks as a result.

Thanks,
Gary

Very interesting, I did not know there had been a yard there. I do know present Fairway market (132nd St & 12th Ave.) was formerly a meat packing plant, like many other businesses on west side Manhattan, so no doubt that 150th St. yard had reefer traffic.

Tom Curtin wrote:Very interesting, I did not know there had been a yard there. I do know present Fairway market (132nd St & 12th Ave.) was formerly a meat packing plant, like many other businesses on west side Manhattan, so no doubt that 150th St. yard had reefer traffic.

Yes it is interesting.
I live just across the river and with the help of google earth for a diferent perspective I think the yard branched off the two track main line just north of the old motel there (an elongated v shaped structure), then according to the recollection of my father in law, ran down under the Riverside Drive Viaduct. My father in law had a meat trucking company on 130th and 12th street, and met his wife at the diner located on 131st. What the track configuration was remains a mystery, and hopefully someone here will remember or have some info that would be of help.

GaryNYC45 wrote: My father in law had a meat trucking company on 130th and 12th street, and met his wife at the diner located on 131st.

Sounds like the aforementioned meat trucking company would have been right on the site of Fairway Market's marking lot? And the diner might have been the very establishment that today is Dinosaur Barbecue? That fits your description. The site is heavily frequented by yuppie food shoppers today, since "Fairway Uptown" is one of the rare grocery shopping establishments in Manhattan that has free parking and where those of us Manhattan residents can go who have not abandoned our suburban shopping habits (i.e., buying a trunkload of groceries instead of what you can carry home in your wire cart).

See map of the West Side:
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/imag ... ectric.jpg

There is a location marked at 152nd Street, perhaps this is the location being discussed?

The Fairway, I think, is near 126th Street (and Dinosaur BBQ).

-otto-

Yes, Thanks to all for the responses.

The location would be around where the Dinosaur Restaurant (highly recommended for those who like BBQ) is located. I have been told there was a location of a few team tracks (some refer to it as a yard) located just under the north side of the Riverside Drive Viaduct. It would have to have branched off the main line just north of the motel (just north of the north end of the Riverside Drive Viaduct) as far as I can guess.

The meat was unloaded from this area and hauled to the shops located in the 130's. (BuxBaum Meats and such). I am trying to determine what the track layout was for the yard in that area.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\winxp\Desktop\motel[/img]

Sorry for the double post, trying to post a photograph of the motel.

Yup, we can't see photos on your local hard drive. Upload to Webshots or Photobucket and try again.

-otto-

For what it is worth somewhere in the area being discussed
there was a siding at grade into the upper floors of a meat
(wholesaling/packing whatever you wish to call it)
processing facility. Some forty/fifty years ago I remember
observing it, because among the couple of reefers there
was a Kingan's ("Battleship Ham") reefer. I had only seen
this on the colored pages of Red Ball's catalogs.
These were reduced scale (approx. 'TT' scale) sides
printed many to a page, in color. I had seen photos in
pictures of model railroads covered in mags. - but never
the real thing. Model railroaders back then, had a strong
bias toward reefers, and many excellent ones were made.
The ATHEARN stamped metal kits (in multiple scales)for steel
sided cars had individual formed metal grabs and
steps, excellent thin section stamped bodies and fine
paint jobs. They stand up even today as excellent models.
Reefer numbers on model railroads were out of proportion
to there presence in the general freight car population.

Memory may play tricks , but this place got lots of
Wilson reefers. Earlier there had been a Swift facility some-
where uptown in that region, but I can't pinpoint it.
I don't know what came off this line into the street around
150th street, but examining Sanborn Maps appropriate
to era; and visiting the New York City Archived historic property
tax plats will produce what you seek. The New York Central
ICC Valuation documents, also will have what you seek for
the Great War period, and will have photos of yard offices,
toilets, crew shacks, etc.- if any were present.
Good-Luck, Peter Boylan

The yard was between 135th St. and 150th St. between Riverside Drive and the Henry Hudson Parkway, opposite the site of Riverbank State Park and the sewage treament plant upon which it was built. NYC established the facility to serve industries in the Manhattanville section, which is where Columbia University has plans to expand its campus northward.

In the 1960s, there was a terrible accident near the yard involving two freight trains that claimed the lives of several NYC crewmen. Here is a link to a photo from that accident, which shows part of the yard:
http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=171855

This may be a bit of a stretch, but I've been wrong before and yet survived...
Anyway, the film Death Wish (yes, the 1974 with Charles Bronson playing a Manhattan Architect/Vigilante ) sort of climaxes with a night shoot-out/foot-chase between muggers/Mr Bronson ('Paul')/and eventually cops in an area that looks a lot like the underside of Riverside Ave in upper Manhattan, with industrial buildings/street trackage (and plenty of chainlink gates and stair for action scenes).
For some reason that area looked like the area your talking about, and since a lot of the film was actually shot in Manhattan, it's possible that they indeed filmed that scene there (Lindsey & the PC wouldn't have much cared - just give them some compensation).
Does anyone else agree, or know different?

The scene you're talking about with the three muggers was filmed at the stone staircase on Riverside Drive somewhere between 125th and 135th St. I believe that staircase is still there today.

The section where the staircase is actually is between 135th & 145th. I sometimes walk by there. It is easy to see how someone can be vulnerable in these locations, so I tend to avoid them, preferring to stick to the high ground.

Hmm, I may be misremembering, but I thought there were industrial buildings (or parts thereof), street trackage, lots of chainlink in the scene, all covered over by Riverside Drive's characteristic structural framework - the staircase was a little later in the scene, I think (or maybe earlier - ugh I forget if the criminals 'ambushed' Paul there and then hid in the industrial building, or it was the other way around). Assuming this part wasn't filmed on a soundstage, but indeed was on location, I figured it might well be in the area of the yard we're discussing, and the street trackage would have been served by that yard.
Since I haven't seen the movie in a number of years, don't have the DVD, and don't plan to purchase or rent it to review that one scene (Death Wish wasn't...all that great - just mildly interesting IMO ), I realize that I may very well be wrong here...