Finger Lakes Railway (FGLK) Discussion

I must be getting senile in my old age, that wasn't even 40 years ago and I cant remember the correct number of cars. The cars started dropping off the rail about one foot past the chalk mark on the rail indicating wide gauge. If I recall the track inspector checked the track mid afternoon and discovered the defect. At that time all bulletins were issued at Sodus. Most of the time the job went on duty Tuesdays and Thursdays 1600-1700. This was a Wednesday run. Since the inspector lived nearby he went home, figuring he would get it written up the next morning. Going east we had no problem. That evening everything went very well until that shove to the insulator plant.

"a mind is a terrible thing to waste"

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
(Vice President Dan Quayle - yikes!)

"the mind is a turrrible thing" - Charles Barkley (and others)

So the track to Victor Insulator is currently out and not going back in?

Not quite. What you're looking at in this photo are the remnants of the NYC Auburn Road and the view is from Maple Ave (in Victor) looking to the west.

FGLK (and ONCT before that) place(d) cars at VI from the connector (still in place) on the other side of the hopper. The hopper in the photo sits in the current unloading spot.

The gravel path to the left of the fence is roughly where the NYC main was, and yes, that's gone for good. Both the main and the side track (on the right side of the fence) have been dead-ended at Maple Ave since the late 70s and (in the ONCT days) served only as an occasional car storage location.

The side track appears to be relatively untouched, extending past the loading dock and that's all that VI needs for the one-a-year boxcar.

I assume the rail pile stacked on the right will eventually find a new home, but that's just speculation on my part.

When ONCT began operations, ALL VI traffic moved in boxcars. After covered hoppers took over, the plant continued to receive one or two commodities in boxcars for several years. Also, they maintained a limited inventory of the other products which came by covered hopper (and were stored in the silos) in bunkers inside the plant, in case the main system went down and to use if a small quantity of something was needed.

Eventually all this was discontinued, and I am almost certain that there have been no boxcars unloaded there since well before FGLK took over ONCT. Today the remains of the siding can be used as storage in the unlikely event they get more than one car at a time.

It's a far cry from the days C2629 speaks of above, when the plant received several different types of material by rail and when one train might have 4,5, or even more cars for them.

What happened to the other cars that were stored up there like the plow?

They are inside the fenced Insulator property, on what used to be the engine house lead.

Here: http://chris9411.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=5213639

Thanks for the explanation.

Spotted an engine [2306] parked on the runaround in Victor just now so I did the drive-by to see what was happening. Second engine and at least two covered hoppers stopped just passed the switch into Victor Insulators 13:20.
Checked again on the way home; nothing left behind. Cars that had been in place for quite a while now gone with no loads dropped for VI. The group of stored covered hoppers west of there has grown again. I believe this is the third group they’ve brought in for storage this time around. Not only did the string grow, they rearranged them a bit - the newest cars being placed in the middle.

Last night: Yet another group of covered hoppers has arrived - 10 more of them. They were parked across the switches on the runaround west of Maple in Victor. Two GE’s tied down and quiet just west of the VI lead on the main. I believe this is the 5th group of cars brought in as I try to note things in new positions the last few weeks. These are more of the cleaner variety like the westernmost cars. The rusty group in front of them being kept separate; and always pulled out before adding to the others. Also a fresh load spotted at VI recently. I find every move on this end of the line exciting.. I hope I can catch them rolling one of these days. With cars stretching from Rt. 251 to the funeral home I’d say there’s about a 3/4 mile train there.

Thanks for the update.

blackbearford wrote: They were parked across the switches on the runaround EAST of Maple in Victor.

Fixed!

Anything new and exciting going on?

Re discussion a couple pages back about the ONCT derailment December 10, 1980, shoving west toward Maple Avenue. I found notes made during preparation for rerailing. Train had 6 cars. The 5 that derailed were, west to east, UP 170529, SOU 34210, SOU 521079, SCL 40576 and WHI 70737. Everything was upright and in line and not all wheels were derailed on any of them. No, I have not found the pics of it yet. (funny transposition of the same digits on the UP and SOU cars, but that's not a typo).

It's an attention-getter when it happens, but reality is stuff like that occurs every day all over the country. 40 years ago there was much more sub-standard track than today and while 5 cars at once was unusual for ONCT, the small derailments were a fact of life on every railroad and no big deal, usually. I have notes from Penn Central days and in some cases there were 4 different crews derailing at various locations in Rochester - in one 8-hour shift!