Erie Railroad River Line from 10/30/04

Was out doing some research and exploration yesterday and noticed the Rt. 305 bridge over the Erie's River Line has been removed and filled in. This location is just north of the Cuba NY interchange on I86/Rt. 17. The construction is in its final phase and no traffic is moving over the new fill yet.

This location also held a nice Erie benchmark that I photographed in the mid-80s. With the construction, it would seem this may be gone.

Charles

A little history:

When the River Line was built 1906-1910, the Town of Cuba successfully petitioned the NYS Public Service Commission to compel a reluctant Erie Railroad to carry the existing public highway beneath the railroad with an underpass. The surrounding fields were former swampland, and the underpass periodically flooded until it was replaced with a highway overpass in the 1960s. It is this overpass that is now being filled in. I believe they decided not to level the long approach fills.

WDB

The Olean Times-Herald ran an article on Sept 1 announcing the work was to begin:

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Work to begin on removing Route 305 bridge in Cuba

CUBA — Work on removing the Route 305 bridge over the old railroad tracks just north of the village will begin within the next two weeks.
The bridge removal has been delayed by the weather and the time it took for bids on the project to come back, said Daniel Todd, New York Department of Transportation project engineer.

DOT workers will soon tear down the bridge and cover the railroad bed. Maple Lane, which is old Route 305, runs parallel with the bridge and will be used as a detour for traffic.

-- more --

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 4919&rfi=8

I've spent about 15 minutes looking for the Erie River Cutoff Line thread here, but this is all I could find.

The Erie cut off bridge over the PRR Rochester Branch in Cuba, NY:

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=219249" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A bridge still standing at New Hudson (near Belfast):

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=223501" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=223502" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NYS is making an offer to landowners who own the former grade at New Hudson. They want to incorporate it with the nearby Greenway rail trail.

I was looking at aerial photos at http://www.historicalaerials.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Looking at a 1951 photo, it's easy to see where the Erie crossed the abandoned Tonawana Valley & Cuba RR narrow gauge line.

I was at the train show today in Hamburg, NY.

They had the ELRHS issue on the River Line by William Burt: Volume 6. Number 1. Part 3.

I bought it for $2. A steal. They had a few copies left.

eBay Canada:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kellogg-Photo-R ... SwzRpaN~5o" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shows the Erie RR rebuilding a big washout in Cuba, NY. I wonder where this was?

On the south side of Cuba:

https://goo.gl/maps/saFZ4Si8Jvq