Electrified sidings

Here is a picture of the gypsum plant (formally The Rock Plaster Co.) located east of Oak Point in the late 1940’s showing the electrified siding. I have the following questions.
1) What were some of the companies along the New Haven that had electrified sidings?
2) What kind of agreement did these companies have with the New Haven? Did they lease the overhead catenaries and tracks?
3)Did some of these firms have there own electric switchers?

(Photo courtesy e-bay)

Answers to these questions depend on the period. In the peak period of the NHRR electrification virtually every industrial siding between New Haven and Woodlawn and Harlem
River was wired. The sidings that served lumber yards, coal yards etc had a knife switch at the entrance to the track and before it was to be switched by an electric motor the
knife switch had to be closed to energize the wire to that particular track. This knife switch was handled by the crew of the local freight, often the fireman. After the switch
had taken place the switch was again opened which not only killed the power on that particular siding but grounded the line as well.
Usually a siding serving a particular customer was the responsibility of that customer insofar as maintenance was concerned.
No freight customers on the NHRR had their own electric locomotives, one or two of them may have had a small steam or gas/diesel to switch their cars, Bullard which was off
track 4 west of Bridgeport was an example of this with a small diesel with side rods, I remember seeing that engine in use back in the early 60's. Y & O Coal just west of the
Devon Bridge had a couple of old NHRR 44 tonners as well. I am sure that there were more but these two come to mind right now.
Noel Weaver

The other night I saw film shot in the Bronx of one of the New Haven's electric box cab switchers working ground level track along the viaduct on the approach to the Hell Gate bridge. This was on the east side (using compass directions) of the viaduct, the side opposite where the tracks were that went to the Harlem River yard. I was surprised this track had been electrified but there it was.

This motor came out from between a building and the viaduct, moving south (away from Oak Point and towards the bridge) and then the crew flagged across the street. They were pulling a few cars, boxcars I think. The photographer was standing along the opposite curb shooting the movie. It was E.138th Street I think. There was no narration or captions but from the automobiles present it looked like the 1940s.

When I lived in Manhattan in the 1980s I visited the area a number of times. It's a tough neighborhood so I used to go on Sunday mornings when the bad guys were all home sleeping it off.

At that time the track was still there. Or at least the ROW. You could see how the track once ran along the base of the HG approach. I believe there were rails still embedded in the pavement. I don't recall seeing any evidence the track had once been electrified so I was very surprised to see the scene in the movie when the motor suddenly appeared.

At any rate, this was very urban, industrial type trackage. Obviously if the NH was using a motor to work this track the sidings would have had to been electrified as well. In addition to Noel Weaver's expert commentary above, I think I have read in articles and books by Bill Middleton, possibly Jerry Pinkepank and others too, that the New Haven once had quite an extensive network of electrified yard and siding tracks in the southeast Bronx as well as at other places.

Imagine if there had been an Internet in say 1940? Wowee!

Any info on the film that you reference above that can be divulged????

The track in question was the DeLavergne Lead which we knew as the alley. It was electrified but restricted to 200 class electric switchers and in diesel days to 0900's. It was a real adventure going up in there, often good for lots of very slow moves and maybe throw in a derailment to make it even more interesting. At one time there was considerable business up in there and during the 60's it was always worked in the daytime.
Noel Weaver

CannaScrews wrote:Any info on the film that you reference above that can be divulged?

This was a film shown at a monthly meeting of the New York Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. The scheduled program (Memories of the Long Island Railroad [sic] from Mark I Videos) was not shown because it didn't arrive on time. One of the members happened to have the video of transfered 8mm film of the New Haven but I don't remember the name. I can find out though.

I know a good chunk of it was shot by a gentleman named Arthur Ferguson and consisted of 1950-60s footage of NH MU cars operating on the Harlem Division in the Bronx and along the Shore Line in Westchester County.

Also some excellent footage of one of the NH electric switchers working street trackage in Bridgeport. I believe this was shot relatively late, in the 1960s I think.

Nice if it can get transferred to DVD.

The only footage I've seen of Bridgeport street running is a short clip in the movie "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man In The Moon Marigolds" starring Joanne Woodward, it shows an Alco switcher going down Seaview Ave.

Noel Weaver wrote:The track in question was the DeLavergne Lead which we knew as the alley.

Thanks very much Noel that is some good information. I can easily understand why that track was nicknamed the alley. It also has to be right up there with least known NYNH&H operations.

Was DeLavergne the name of a consignee?

There is a video avail actually showing the trolley motors on Seaview Ave. in B'port. I'll have to check which one it is and I'll post it.

Tommy Meehan wrote:

Noel Weaver wrote:The track in question was the DeLavergne Lead which we knew as the alley.

Was DeLavergne the name of a consignee?

I don't remember any consignee's up there with that particular name. Incidentally it was pronounced somewhat differently than it was spelled.
Incidentally there was once a diamond in the middle of one of the streets, I don't remember just one. I don't think any of this line is still in use or probably even in place. There were some really strange places in the Harlem River of the past.
Before anybody asks, no the diamond did not have any signals.
Noel Weaver

De La Vergne was a producer of large engines and compressors (refrigeration mostly); their early diesel engines became the basis for Baldwin Locomotive's diesel engines for their line of diesel locomotives. Since Baldwin bought De La Vergne in 1931 and moved engine production to Eddystone, PA, I suspect their plant was in other hands and uses by the late 1940s-early 1950s, but the "traditional" name remained. Built in 1888, it was at 1189 East 138th Street.

See "Dawn of the Diesel Age" by John Kirkland, pages 33-50 for a very detailed history of this company and its diesel engine products.

The Bromley maps (1921) of the Bronx also show the facility of The De La Vergne Refrigerating Machine Co. located between 137th and 138th Streets and to the east side of the Harlem River Branch. John Chester De La Vergne (1840-1896) was an American mechanical engineer and an early inventor of refrigeration machines. His company provided refrigeration for many breweries, which help allow for the mass production of lager types beers. The location in the Bronx would seem logical, since the Bronx had a number of breweries. After his death his company developed other machines, including one of the first oil engines in the United States. With these diverse interests, the company would eventually drop the word Refrigerating from the corporate name.
Tommy – In the 1990’s I used to visit Oak Point only on early Sunday mornings for the same reason. Now one can view the area with Google Street Views from the comfort of home.