B&M in Eastern New York

Yesterday I viewed the Troy Union Railroad video that someone had linked to the New York forum. What memories that brought back! My mother and I used to ride the B&M from Gardner to Troy when I was a small boy, and indeed rode one of the last passenger trains on the line just before service was removed in January of 1958.

I have some questions about the B&M Troy and Boston line from where it diverged from the Fitchburg, near Pownal, into Troy itself. I know that at least the segment of the line that extended from Johnsonville to Troy lasted into the 1970s. I very clearly remember the underpass on Northern Drive (Route 142) just below the corner of Oil Mill Hill Road. Does anyone recall when that underpass, and the rails into Troy, were removed? I'm thinking it sometime between 1971 and '73. I believe that toward the end of its life, the line had been "downsized" to become a rather marginal freight branch.

When was the remainder of the line, between Johnsonville and Pownal, abandoned? Why did the B&M continue to use the easterly end of the Troy and Boston long after the discontinuation of passenger service, when the Fitchburg ran virtually parallel to it? I have the sense that it, too, remained at least into the '60s.

One final question: In Hoosick, at the point where Indian Massacre Road (County Route 96) meets North Petersburg Junction Road and Green Road (Route 95), did the Troy and Boston --- which is still clearly visible in parts of the area --- cross Indian Massacre Road at grade or underneath an overpass? I gather that however it crossed, it was only a few feet from the intersection, which has been entirely reconfigured since.

I can answer some of your questions, but the B&M Yahoo eGroups. might be a much better source. As you know, there were two predecessor lines between the VT NY border and Johnsonville. The two lines were on separate rights of way. Both lines became part of the Fitchburg RR. One line was for eastbound and the other for westbound. The Yahoo forum had a thread about the various single tracking. It told which sections were ripped up, and when. It also talked about the amount of rail which was reclaimed.


One interesting story is about my Labrador Retriever, Zoe. We got her from a breeder on Route 67, just east of Eagle Bridge. In our conversation, they asked where I work. When I said that I work on the railroad, they said that the abandoned r.o.w. goes through their property. I didn't ask if they owned it. B&M may have either given it back to adjacent property owners, or they still own it.

Interesting questions and I can't seem to get what was what in the area such as the Fitchburg and the Troy & Boston and who did what where and why.

I am also curious as to why there was a line running north into Stillwater village from the bridge over the Mohawk. What did that serve and when was it removed ?

What was the major purpose of the line to Troy ? Passenger, freight, both ?

The Troy branch was the B&M's west end passenger connection to the outside world, with minimal freight service in later years. Passenger service from Boston ran to Troy Union Station where connections were made with the New York Central and Delaware & Hudson, while the freight connections with those railroads were at Rotterdam Jct. and Mechanicville respectively.

Cactus Jack wrote:Interesting questions and I can't seem to get what was what in the area such as the Fitchburg and the Troy & Boston and who did what where and why.

I am also curious as to why there was a line running north into Stillwater village from the bridge over the Mohawk. What did that serve and when was it removed ?

What was the major purpose of the line to Troy ? Passenger, freight, both ?

I'm not entirely certain what you're speaking of, unless it was the former Saratoga and Schuylerville Branch that used to operate from Stillwater northwest to Wayville, then across Saratoga Lake, above which it split with the westerly end heading into downtown Saratoga and the easterly end into Schuylerville. The B&M sold it to Samuel Pinsly back in the late '40s; he operated it as an independent shortline until 1956, when it was abandoned. It's quite easy to spot in certain places. DeLorme's New York Atlas and Gazetteer depicts the whole line.

I was actually referring to a stub spur that went north along the west bank of the river just as the main track curves east to go over the river bridge.

I am familiar with the Saratoga & Schuylerville that came in south of the bridge and junction with the spur line.

There is a good webpage on that line: http://gino.cdfw.net/SANDS/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been told that there was a branch/spur into Stillwater.

There is, or at least was, a large paper mill in Stillwater, so the existence of a spur certainly wouldn't surprise me. If you head up Brickyard Road, west of and roughly parallel to the B&M yard, and then take a right on Kellogg Road, there is evidence of what seems to have been an old ROW heading north toward Stillwater.

If you take a left on Van Ness Road and go up the hill, you will shortly cross the now-filled-in overpass that carried the road over the Saratoga & Schuylerville.