EC&N Book

Anyone know about a new book just out on the EC&N ?
I hear one was out, but it is not the Herb Trice book.

Any details or reviews appreciated

Also, does anyone have track charts of the line from Elmira to East Ithaca and on up to Cortland and DeRuyter ?

No, I havent heard of a new book..
but some quick googling brought it up!

http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/14138

I dont know why they would put the entire book on-line for free..
but here it is:

http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1 ... online.pdf

looks nice!
I will check it out in-depth later tonight..
(I will probably order a copy too! just because I prefer a real book to reading something on-line..
only $19.95..looks like a good deal!)

Scot

I thought maybe this was a reprint of the other book on the EC&N. Which I wish they'd do, it turns up now and again on eBay and sells reasonable, but the one book dealer who had it wanted stupid big money for it.

thanks for the info

LV 325 - what earlier EC&N book are you referring to ?

Gangly Country Cousin?

Includes the EC&N.

Did a search. The book is "Mr. Cornell's Railroad and How It Grew" by John Connell (1982).

An eBay seller still has the same copy with an asking price of $130.55; one sold on eBay in 2008 or 2009 for about $18, I picked it up via a Google search catching part of a feedback comment. Syracuse University has one in their library, I've never taken the time to go look at it - it's one of those books you can only look at in the library, you can't check it out, and while you can get copies made out of it, seems like the library staff has to do it, obviously they're trying to maintain the book in good condition.

I would say if you have the cash, buy a couple copies, put one away, and put it on eBay in a year or two when it's out of print.


I should add I have some track diagrams from old LV blueprints of much of this line; I used to sell them on eBay myself once in a while, but I haven't tried to list any since eBay changed their rules with regard to that sort of material. While by no means complete, a lot of them are drawn to scale. They came out of old LV files I got from a couple of sources; one file even included the report to the ICC seeking abandonment of either Horseheads to Van Etten or Van Etten to East Ithaca. One I don't think I ever copied shows DeRuyter, including the stub of former NY&OM line that remained as a siding there - and labeled as NY&OM.

Surprisingly enough, the Cortland library has a copy that can be borrowed; I've had it out myself a couple of times. It's an okay book; I don't think I'd pay $130 for it, though. Wish the photo reproduction in it was a bit better, especially the 1970s views of trains working the line in Etna and Cortland...probably one of the few times photos were taken of a train on the line in the 1970s.

lvrr325, tell me more about the track diagrams you have...do you have to-scale ones of the area in and around Cortland? What years do the diagrams date from? I'm really interested in seeing a track diagram of the Cortland yard...Connell's book says it was 10 to 12 tracks wide at one point, but the land the yard was on doesn't seem like it could hold that many tracks.

Actually, the book in the link above has a portion of the val map showing the Cortland yard - the map I have is a portion of the same map. Reproduction looks good, except that it's white on black instead of black on white, the consequence of being basically photocopied from the blueprint.

Back in the day any time they made changes to the property they'd come up with a blueprint to show it - sometimes they drew one, sometimes they'd take the valuation maps and copy a portion. Generally they were drawn to scale and could show the tracks in full detail or just as line drawings. Sometimes they were done in still other ways, I have one map set that is Elmira to Horseheads on 8x11 sheets that all can be laid out and matched up into one large map. Generally they were dated when created and could be updated multiple times and re-used. Not only that, but the same file got copied multiple times for the various departments and so forth, so there might be a dozen copies of the same thing. I think most of mine came out of Geneva, the station sat open until 1983 with tons of records laying about (when the guy who owns it now finally got control of it from Conrail he ended up dumpstering them because they were a "fire hazard") ... it would have been an easy place for people to get them from.

lehigh310:

Photographed the LV in Cortland a fair amount 1973-76. Two color shots were published in Mike Bednar's WY & Buf Div book.

Marcham did Lehigh Valley Memories a while back. Nice book too.

Charles

Best LV Cortland color I've seen isn't even in an LV book, was in a general NY railroading picture book someone had out 5 or 10 years ago. RS11 403 idling by the frieght house about 1975, in the spring or fall, the trees were bare.

Considering the low speeds and the parallell state roads I would have thought someone might have chased this line, if not Cortland to Canastota, then Cortland to Freeville and south (or north) enough to have shots of at least the easiest to access spots on both lines, but unless someone does a photo book specifically to cover LV branches I don't think we're going to see them. In fact I know some exist for the Cortland-Canastota portion, the CNY Chapter tried to show them years back, but the slide tray only had like one shot in it and the rest were all over the map. Mixed-up stuff from an estate that was donated to them.

I just received the book today "Thr Ups and Downs of a Rural Line Elmira Cortland & Northern RR 1867 -1967 and on" by David Marcham

It looks to be pretty good. Some rudimentary elevation profiles, station schematics, lots of interesting pics including the last day of operations at Cazenovia and New Woodstock, maps etc.

Chased the CS-1 a fair amount 1973-1976 Cortland-Freeville. Slides were shown at the Rochester NRHS chapter regular meeting and at the CNY NRHS Chapter regular meeting several years ago. Addtionally, took several rolls of b&w film of the job. May get a book together on the LV NYS branch lines some day, time allowing.

TB Diamond wrote:May get a book together on the LV NYS branch lines some day, time allowing.

If you get the chance to do it, you can count me in to buy a copy!

Charlie

Would be happy to share the maps and materials I've picked up over the years.