Central Bridge freight house is gone

Hi, heard from a friend that the Central Bridge freight house was demolished last week. The contractor has taken some of the timber supports and placed them aside, I guess for future use some where else. The rest is one big pile now.

Soon, there won't be much left.
.............................. There already isn't much left.

I'll try to stop by and check. There has been a lot of construction in the town because of the water district upgrades but I didn't think it would affect the freight house.

Bob Sandusky

I am not familiar with the building? Is this it, or should I say, was this it? Thanks

http://tinyurl.com/3r4swy

Dick

Yeah Dick that was it. The picture was taken from the east side (the freight house sat on the south side of the tracks).

Cars could be lined up at the house via two switches from the east. The first serviced the feed mill (IL Ricther) which is just east of the freight house and just west of Rte 30. In fact the bridge over Rte 30 is 4 tracks wide to be able to service the feed mill. The second switch used to sit just east of the freight house (between the mill and the freight house) and was connected to the mill lead. Both switches were fed off of the south track from the east.

I don't know if there was ever a switch to the west of the freight house that also serviced the mill. If there was it would have to be an awfully tight switch because there isn't much room between the freight house and the road crossing the tracks to the west.

I was told once that there was also a creamry in town serviced by the D&H but I don't know where it would have been.

And one of the quirky things about Central bridge is that during the 60s and early 70s National Commercial Bank used to send a "bank bus" to town two days a week for a couple of hours to provide banking services for the residents. I knew the last guy to drive the bus and he said they had to keep the windows on the bus closed because when a freight went past it created enough wind to blow the cash around.

Bob Sandusky

Has any one been able to confirm if the house is gone? I was going to check on friday night but I wont be in the area till saturday AM because of the upcoming snow storm.

I drove by last night on the way home from work.

Its gone, a large excavator was parked where the east end used to be. too dark to see how they had left the ground surface.

I'll look through the Sanborn maps and try to track down where the creamery was. I think it was to the west of the general store, ie west of the main crossing. There was a row of low-slung wooden clapboard sheds in there that lasted into the 1970s or 80s.

march hare wrote:I'll look through the Sanborn maps and try to track down where the creamery was. I think it was to the west of the general store, ie west of the main crossing. There was a row of low-slung wooden clapboard sheds in there that lasted into the 1970s or 80s.

I moved in up the block just walking distance from the general store and I'm pretty sure the sheds were gone when I moved in (06/84).

You know I'd like to kick myself. I've lived within 5 miles of that building since 1984 and always meant to get down there and get some decent photos and dimensions. Well too late now.

Should hv that covered. Did the detail photos in the 80s before thevegetation obscured the view. Somwhere I have the dimensions that I took at that time. Overall dimensions should be in the D&H station book as well, available from BLHS.

Just received notice of this tonight. Sad news! Do we know what day the depot was lost officially?


http://www.trainweb.org/dhvm/structures_depots.htm

I hated to see the historic old freight house removed. It was the last standing building dating back to the old Albany & Susquehanna Railroad. It is a shame the building couldn't have been preserved over the years and put to some good use. Inside the building remained an old Fairbanks Standard scale. I hope someone got it and will preserve it. On the interior walls were many names and dates of local men who either worked in the freight house or were just local citizens. Most of these names date back 100 or more years. Also on the east end was an enclosed outhouse which could be entered only from the exterior.
I remember when the Depot was destroyed by a derailment in 1965. A local oil company used that building for their offices at that time. They had a great pool table inside the office and us young kids liked to hang out in there. Thank goodness the derailment happened in the night.
Once upon a time there were also two water tanks that serviced the steam engines.
The Sheffield Creamery was located to the west of the current crossing behind what was the Bateholts Coal Company, (now gone). In front of Bateholts is a newer building (1940's) which still stands. That building was the Loren Chase Hardware and later several general stores occupied the place. Currently there is a beauty shop in that space. The Creamery was attached to the far west end of the coal company sheds. Local farmers brought their milk into town and it was shipped primarily to the NYC area. It was also used for storing ice which was harvested locally on the Cobleskill Creek (Ottman's Pond near the current LDS Church). I remember when the creamery and coal sheds were torn town 20+ years ago. It took for ever for the creamery remains to burn as it had several layers of wood walls with hay sandwiched between the those walls.
How I wish I could step back in time and see these venerable buildings in their heyday.