New Tonawanda to Buffalo Rail Trail

Article in the Buffalo News http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/ ... e-20150612" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; from June highlights a new 4 mile trail going from the Lasalle Station Metro Stop at Main st in Buffalo north into the City of Tonawanda along the old Erie Lackawanna ROW.
Mentioned a 12' wide asphalt path on the 66' ROW.
Happened to go over the ROW this week on the I- 290 and pavement down already! Snapped a few pictures but have to figure out how to post them here.
Surprised they are actually moving this fast on this project after reading 15 years in the planning stages.
Mark

This is terrible news. Soon I will have to say "I have ridden every named rail-trail in NY that existed as of August, 2015." I hate having to qualify my accomplishment.

http://blog.russnelson.com/bicycling/ra ... s-all.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cool it's about time. I've been looking at that right of way for 30 years now wondering when I'll ever get the chance to ride through there.

I crossed over the line the other day on Kenmore Ave. Although the asphalt hasn't been layed at the time, the stone base has. It will be an interesting bike ride. It would be a great trail if they exteded it over the Ellicot Creek bridge and terminate at Filmore Ave. To go any further than that would cross the Peanut and then directly into somebodies back yard. A business actually.

As a side note, the business thats on the Erie RR at E. Niagara St in Tonawanda that the extended path would run into, use to have some sort of dumper on the property. I think it was converted to a storage building or something. It has been torn down.

After posting the above I went to Google Sat view. To my surprise it has been updated. You can see the business has removed the "dumper."

Pavement has been laid north of the 290, other day late afternoon already some kids on bikes were riding on it. south along Colvin still just the graded base.
Russ, thoroughly enjoyed looking at your pics you mentioned again for your rail/ trail collection. as i forward thru them, any particular order they are organized? - good eye on catching long gone ROWs. Did you mention once you visit a lot of Clerks offices to ck out maps and surveys?

and knock on a lot of doors?

thanks again

Mark

Do you even have a day job?

They're in order by the name of the trail except in a few places where there are a few distinctly named trails that are built on the same railbed.
I've been able to find the built railroads well enough. I have to visit County Clerks offices to get maps for unfinished railroads.
Knocking on doors is iffy. Sometimes people are home, sometimes not. When someone is home, I've had pretty good luck. People are proud of the history of their property, and several times I've gotten guided tours.
Yes, I have a day job. A lot of this is done on weekends.

The weather called for good bike riding today so I headed up to Tonawanda to run this ROW. There was a work crew there pouring cement and they said NO to riding on the whole trail. It's closed. So I found another entry point...Where everybody else is riding and walking on it. Nobody gave me anymore trouble.

I started off in Tonawanda and headed south. There are still some RR "stuff" along the ROW. There are still many telegraph poles. I saw a couple of ties laying around and 1 still in the ground. I did find a siding with rail still there and 99% of it under ground. It was an accident that I saw it. I rode right by it on my way but on my return, the sun had come out and was lower which created shadows and the rails popped into view. The trail is nice and will get nicer and they finish off everything. 90% is paved over except for one stretch north of Sheridan Dr and before Colvin. No approaches have been done. They are still pouring concrete for curbs and sidewalks.

This picture is on the north side of the 290 looking south.


This picture is on the north side of Sheridan Dr looking south. This will be a nasty crossing. Lots of traffic! This is also a good location because there are several places to eat in the immediate area. Andersons, TEDS, Paula's Donuts and Dunk'in Donunts.


This picture is on the north side of Kenmore Ave looking south. I'm not certain how far the lighted aspect is going to be. I didn't see any infrastructure along the row north of here. But it is pretty much finished from Kenmore to Main St. This is also the best section of the whole thing....RR wise.


The ROW ends in a giant parking lot and has clearly been flattened. Across the street on main st is the condo's from years ago. Nothing to see really so I turned around with the sun at my back for a better picture of the stone block abutment. I wasn't expecting to see this so when I came upon it, it made the whole ROW worth riding. From all the graffiti on it, it is clear that these abutments have had "visitors" long before this was cleared out.

I love big abutments and I cannot lie. I was in town in 2012 and bicycled the informal trail that went up to the top of the abutment on the right. Can you tell me exactly where this trail starts and ends, so I can add it to OpenStreetMap? It will then propagate to http://openrailwaymap.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, http://osm.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, and http://opencyclemap.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At Sheridan Drive the initial article talked about some kind of enhanced traffic signals to be installed. " Hawk Signals" to stop traffic. I know Sheridan is a raceway so hopefully will work to stop traffic.

OK I've wondered many times why I cannot see the pictures that are posted? Sometimes and rarely I can but generally not. anything in settings I can adjust or is it a filter on my 'work' computer. thanks, i need to log on to my personal laptop to compare. Mark

Now that you've said your work computer.....the company has probably blocked the picture because RR pictures are porn.

but but......................... but i read all those articles where GOV employees spent hours ' viewing'. even after taking ethics training.
guess i realistically wait till later to ck out things.

SST
Very perceptive: Apparently the " employer" does block the pictures. Oh Well
Mark

On a different note, just to the east along the CSX ???? Main, the GE Plant along the 290 appears to be renovating their siding that serves the east side of their plant, as it looks they are adding some concrete pads along the sidings. Just curious of course. Am i correct?

Thanks
Mark

I went over the new trail on 290 yesterday - wow! I will have to hike that trail some day.

Last time I hiked that right-of-way I had to keep a lookout for the E-L Niagara Falls local or the C&O through freight. Pre-Conrail days for sure.

If memory hasn't failed me, on the stretch between Kenmore and the old DL&W overpass there was a tell-tale over the tracks to warn southbound crews of the bridge clearance. I wonder if there are still foundations or bits of wooden poles sticking up there somewhere?

Russ,
Here is the link for where it stops and starts. http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.01197,-78 ... wanda%20NY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Marker A is the big parking lot on Main St and the path begins on the northern side of it. There is still some ground work being done so "the path" make actually start at the sidewalk along Main street later.

Marker B is were an access rd follows the DL&W row. It is all cinders. You can see the row through the trees and is quite impressive. You won't be able to see the row once the trees are full of leaves. Also at this point, there are 10 or so rails pounded into the ground. Nothing attached to them. They follow the curve of the access road. One rail was a Bethlehem 1976 rail.

Marker C is just North of the 290. This is were the siding is that is buried in dirt and trees. Just a bid north is where the IRC departed the row but I couldn't find anything on my first visit. The concrete abutment that use to be at the concrete plant has been taken down.

Marker D is the end of the path which includes the parking lot. Hopefully some day someone will find the money to cross over the Ellicott Creek bridge and end at the bike path along Tonawanda Creek/Erie Canal. One can only dream.