by Train60
CSX has filed with the STB to abandon an approximately 0.77-mile rail line that runs between milepost Q## 3.79 and milepost Q## 4.5 on its Putnam Branch in Bronx County, NY
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 306435.pdf
The filing includes a brief history of this section of the line,
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 306435.pdf
The filing includes a brief history of this section of the line,
5. A brief narrative history of carrier operations in the area, and an explanation of what, if any, changes are contemplated as a result of the proposed action;
The Line, originally part of the New York City and Northern, was built in 1879–80, in an era of intense railroad speculation. It went bust, reorganized as the New York and Northern, and was bought by the New York Central in 1894.
The Old Putnam’s (the “Put”) first terminal was 155th Street in Manhattan, but that was changed in 1918 to Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx for a new connection with the since-demolished Ninth Avenue elevated line. The 0.77-mile Line that CSXT seeks to abandon is part of the Put that ran alongside the New York Central’s (now Metro-North’s) Hudson Division for a stretch in the Bronx, then proceeded north through Van Cortlandt Park and into Tibbets Brook Park. It paralleled today’s Saw Mill River Parkway in Southern Westchester and ran north to Elmsford, Yorktown Heights, Lake Mahopac, and finally Brewster.
A Getty Square Branch, which diverged from the Put’s mainline in Van Cortlandt Park and headed to downtown Yonkers, was the Put’s only service to be converted to electric operation, ending service in 1943. The City of Yonkers tried to stop the abandonment, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Originally, the Put traversed the Rockefellers’ Pocantico Hills estate. But, in 1930, John D. Rockefeller Jr., fed up with its smoke-belching steam trains, paid New York Central to reroute the Put around his land. To make room for the bypass, the multimillionaire purchased the entire hamlet of Eastview and paid about 150 residents and a Christian Brothers winery to relocate.
In the 1950s, ridership declined. Most of the Put’s stations lacked adequate parking, so some riders switched to the faster, more modern Harlem and Hudson lines. Above all, because the Put wasn’t electrified (diesel had replaced steam), Grand Central-bound commuters had to endure an inconvenient transfer to Hudson Division trains at Highbridge in the Bronx. After back-and-forth with state regulators, the New York Central ended passenger service on the Put in May 1958.
Freight service continued and customers included an Elmsford A&P warehouse, Stauffer Chemical in Ardsley, and the last customer, in the early ’80s, was famed cookie baker Stella D’oro.