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  • Ithaca & Athens

  • Discussion related to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and predecessors for the period 1846-1976. Originally incorporated as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company.
Discussion related to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and predecessors for the period 1846-1976. Originally incorporated as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company.

Moderator: scottychaos

 #461968  by uhaul
 
Where was that photograph taken? I am not aware of an Athens, NY between Sayre and Ithaca. You should donate a copy of this picture or the original to the Ithaca Historical Society.
Ithaca Is Gorges
Ithaca Is Gangsta
Ithaca Is Cold
Ithaca Is Your Mom

 #461978  by charlie6017
 
I think they're talking about Athens, PA which is just south of Sayre.

 #462009  by scottychaos
 
yeah..sorry, its Athens, PA..I just assumed that was obvious.
I dont think the I&A actually went to Athens though, because the P&NY already went through Athens, and the I&A interchanged with the P&NY at Sayre..so there was no need for the I&A to lay its own rails all the way to Athens.

Its a Baldwin builders photo..
I thought that would also be obvious from the words "Baldwin Locomotive Works" clearly visible on the side of the building! :wink:

Scot

 #462036  by uhaul
 
I know there is a Athens NY, but was unaware of Athens, PA. I just have no idea where Baldwin Locomotive Works is. Hold on, ah, it is near Philadelphia PA, not Philadelphia NY.

 #462074  by scottychaos
 
uhaul wrote:I know there is a Athens NY, but was unaware of Athens, PA.
I know there is a Athens PA, but was unaware of Athens, NY! :P
(seriously..not joking)

huh..there it is, just south of Albany.
never came across it before!
even though I lived several years in the mid-Hudson valley and in Albany..
interesting.

But yes, we are talking about Athens, PA.
Athens is right next to Sayre..to the south.
Waverly, NY, Sayre PA and Athens PA make up one community called "The Valley"..(where im from! :P )
My Mom grew up in Athens..and I still have a ton of cousins there.

Athens is the oldest of the Valley towns..it was a village site long before the Europeans arrived..very important location, where the Susquehanna and Chemung rivers join.

Scot

 #462217  by lvrr325
 
If a town the size of Sayre can have a suburb, that would be Athens. There was even a seperate station, and both have seperate downtown areas. I'm not sure exactly where the town line is, but the south end of what remains of the yards is considered to be in Athens, which puts it roughly between the crossing there and the bridge by the Sayre station.

I'm not sure how anyone that has studied the LV could not be aware of it; even in the Conrail era for many years it was a division point between the Albany and the Philadelphia Division (it was about when they sold part of the Lehigh to Reading & Northern that the main to Mehoopany was transferred to the Albany Division).

It would seem a lot of the settlers in that area were of Greek or Italian heritage, what with Ithaca, Athens and Milan all within 40 miles or so of each other.

 #462240  by scottychaos
 
lvrr325 wrote:If a town the size of Sayre can have a suburb, that would be Athens. There was even a seperate station, and both have seperate downtown areas. I'm not sure exactly where the town line is, but the south end of what remains of the yards is considered to be in Athens, which puts it roughly between the crossing there and the bridge by the Sayre station.
No, the concept of "suburb" just doesnt apply to Sayre/Athens.
In order to have a "suburb" you have to have an "urb" first! :wink:
Sayre and Athens arent that far apart in size..and they are very distinct and seperate, with unique downtown areas..they dont really blend together. Athens cant really be considered "Sayre Jr."

And really..Sayre is more of an offshoot of Waverly & Athens! :wink:
yes, it grew bigger than both of them, because of the LV, and became the "dominant" Valley town because of the LV..but it was never THAT much bigger that it culturally absorbed the other two towns or took away their identity..the three towns are pretty close in size to this day, and still seperate and distinct..Sayre being the biggest, then Waverly, and Athens the smallest..but the differences in size are not dramatic.

The three valley towns were always, and remain, quite distinct and unique from each other..although the three downtown shopping districts have all died and been replaced by the nightmare that is Elmira street..with Walmart and Lowes and all the rest..So there is now really only one shopping district in the Valley..but thats a different topic! :wink: :(

Scot

 #462404  by tun
 
Nice pic! I'm a student at Cornell so it's nice to know a little bit about the railroad history in Ithaca.

 #462520  by scottychaos
 
tun wrote:Nice pic! I'm a student at Cornell so it's nice to know a little bit about the railroad history in Ithaca.
Tun,
I see the thread you just started on the NY forum was quickly locked..why, I have no idea.. so I will just answer it here.
tun wrote:I know the LVRR used to run in Ithaca. Does anyone know any specific spots I should visit in Ithaca for some first time railfanning? Also, what line used to run on those tracks that go past the bus terminal and eventually behind Wegmans? Do trains still run on those tracks nowadays? Thanks.
The tracks behind Wegmans were originally Lehigh Valley.
(then Conrail 1976-1999, and Norfolk Southern 1999-present)
ALL tracks remaining in Ithaca today were originally LV.
(there was also DL&W in Ithaca at one time, but those tracks do not remain)

There isnt much to see in Ithaca railfanning-wise..
If you can catch a coal train to the powerplant, thats about all there is.
not sure how often they run these days..(there are some answers in those other threads) sometimes you can catch NS power laying over in the yard behind Wegmans.

I dont think these threads were linked in the other thread..
some interesting reading about Cornell specifically!
:P

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42626

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... id=40392f7

And this page of mine also has some interesting railroad history relating to Cornell:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/leviathan.htm

Scot

 #462541  by RussNelson
 
scottychaos wrote:There isnt much to see in Ithaca railfanning-wise..
Depends on what you're looking for. There's tuns and tuns of old railbeds to visit, plus Ithaca had a trolley. For example, you can go up to Trumansburg and see the PRR bridge which (still) crosses the Taughannock Creek. And you can go upstream a bit and look for evidence of the Pennsylvania and Sodus Bay. You can still see its footprint left in the property line of the State Park. See http://russnelson.com/unfinished-railroads.html .

 #462625  by TB Diamond
 
Russ:

The Lehigh Valley passenger main (origional MT prior to the construction of the Seneca Freight Bypass) crossed Taughannock Creek on the still-extant bridge, not the PRR. The PRR Elmira Branch went up the west side of Seneca Lake for a way before diverging west through Penn Yan, not the west side of Cayuga Lake. The former PRR tracks Watkins Glen-Penn Yan are still active and utilized by FGLR.

 #463021  by lvrr325
 
If you go west on 96 just a block or two from Route 13/34 you will pass the former LV station, now a bank, which still has three passenger cars and an 0-6-0T steam engine displayed on the former LV right-of-way. Can't miss it. The bus station is the former DL&W station.

NS operates mostly nocturnally, coal trains go to a power plant at Ludlowville. I don't know if there's any traffic coming out of the salt mine now or not. Some coal is spotted in the yard in Ithaca for transload to truck to deliver to Cornell. Anyone up to speed on current ops? Are they still basing that job out of Sayre?

East Ithaca LV station still stands, relocated, as a restaurant.

The DL&W used switchbacks to come down the hill behind the Manos diner along Route 13, making a horseshoe curve at the bottom to cross 13 - the bridge is long gone but the ROW is pretty evident. As recently as the 1980s they used to store hoppers on that track. Some track is still left up on the hill that never got pulled out, per a Cornell Railroad Historical Society bulletin. That group has a train show the end of April each year, now at "The Field", an indoor soccer arena on 34 a few miles north of Ithaca proper.

Most of the abandoned ROW is pretty evident if you know where to look - the passenger main up to Geneva can still be followed, the former EC&N branch from East Ithaca eastward, and so on. The frieght main can be tracked from Van Etten Jct. west but can be hard to find in spots.

The DL&W came out in '58 and the LV below East Ithaca in '38 so they're a little tougher to track.


And the PRR line was also known as the Elmira Branch because it went through Elmira on it's way to Sodus Bay. I believe there's still a short stub of it in Elmira and it can be followed up to Watkins Glen pretty easy.

 #463046  by TB Diamond
 
The DL&W Ithaca Branch, Owego-Ithaca, 34 miles, was abandoned in 1956. A short segment in Ithaca up to Morse Chain was taken over by the Lehigh Valley RR.

The LVRR E&C Branch (former EC&N), Ithaca-Spencer, 22 miles, was abandoned in 1935.

Information from FRA files.

 #463076  by tun
 
scottychaos wrote:
tun wrote:Nice pic! I'm a student at Cornell so it's nice to know a little bit about the railroad history in Ithaca.
Tun,
I see the thread you just started on the NY forum was quickly locked..why, I have no idea.. so I will just answer it here.
tun wrote:I know the LVRR used to run in Ithaca. Does anyone know any specific spots I should visit in Ithaca for some first time railfanning? Also, what line used to run on those tracks that go past the bus terminal and eventually behind Wegmans? Do trains still run on those tracks nowadays? Thanks.
The tracks behind Wegmans were originally Lehigh Valley.
(then Conrail 1976-1999, and Norfolk Southern 1999-present)
ALL tracks remaining in Ithaca today were originally LV.
(there was also DL&W in Ithaca at one time, but those tracks do not remain)

There isnt much to see in Ithaca railfanning-wise..
If you can catch a coal train to the powerplant, thats about all there is.
not sure how often they run these days..(there are some answers in those other threads) sometimes you can catch NS power laying over in the yard behind Wegmans.

I dont think these threads were linked in the other thread..
some interesting reading about Cornell specifically!
:P

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42626

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... id=40392f7

And this page of mine also has some interesting railroad history relating to Cornell:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/leviathan.htm

Scot
Thanks for the info. Is there really a yard behind Wegmans? How would I be able to get close enough to see? (assuming I don't want to break any trespassing laws.)

BTW I'm pretty sure I heard a train blowing its horns around 5:30PM EST today. I usually hear it around when I eat dinner so I might have to go downtown one of these days to check it out.

Also I saw in another thread that there were some tracks in Buttermilk Falls. Are those still around and how far into the park do I have to go? My only means of transportation is TCAT, so I would be dropped off in that little circle that route 15 uses.
Last edited by tun on Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:59 am, edited 1 time in total.