Just a couple pics of the Falls Road RR

The other day the weather was so nice I decided to put the boat into the Erie Canal and lock through Lockport to Gasport.

Entering lock 34 with the trestle in the background.


Exiting lock 34


Approaching trestle


My boat at Gasport. Took about 2.5 hours from West Canal Marina near Niagara Falls Blvd.


Rail crossing at Gasport. Rails were shiny but not like a NS or CSX track.


Approaching Lockport on the return trip


Inside the chamber waiting to go up.


In both directions I didn’t have to wait very long to get through the locks. I locked through myself and it was no problem. Between Lockport and Gasport there is a section of track that can be seen from the canal but I skipped taking a picture. I’m already planning medina or Brockport for next season.

Fall in the air. nice pics -
The Lockport locks - is there a series.? ( not the flight of 5 ) or jus the one? Guess I never paid much attention - was always more fascinated with the manual labor it took to blast out the rock of the route to the rest.
Must be pretty impressive to be on the water looking up as you went that way?

There are two chambers to lock through. 34 and 35. 34 being the lowest one. The Flight of Five have been “rebuilt(?)” but are for viewing only.

I’m glad I brought my work gloves to hold onto that slimy rope. It’s a little intimidating when you first enter the chamber especially when you have a sizable audience looking down at you. Please Lord, don’t let me screw up.

I recently read a book about how the canal got started politically. From what the book said, we almost didn’t have a canal. It came down literally to the last minute of the session and one person from the opposite party cracked.

My Father was a Loco Engineer running the "Medina Turn" out of Suspension Bridge (Niagara Falls to Medina and reTurn) back in the 1970's. They stopped with the train over that "upside down" bridge in Lockport for a while (don't remember if they where switching cars or waiting for a signal).

Anyway, when they got the OK to move nobody could locate the rear Brakeman... Nobody on the crew had seen him for a hour or so, and given that part of the train was stopped on the bridge folks started to think he fell over the side and ended up in the Canal...

The State Troopers got called and preparations began to bring out the Scuba Team to "drag the canal" (search underwater for a body).

Someone from the troopers went to the Brakeman's residence to notify his wife that he was missing.... Turns out he got sick of waiting for the train to move and took a Taxi home and went to sleep without telling anybody on the RR crew.......

Nice Pics