New York, Westchester & Boston NYW&B / NH West Farms Jct

West Farms Junction diagram, somewhere bwteeen 1914 and 1921:
University of Connecticut Digital Collections: NYNH&H Track Map: West Farms Station, junction where NYW&B joins the NYNH&H to the east

West Farms NYW&B branchoff on the far right hand side of the overall image in this one, only really shows the point of merging

Plus - The track maps show bunches of detail not normally found. Working my way through them I was able to locate the Casanova station west of S.S. 4. Nope, nothing remains today to show it ever existed - the Bruckner Expressway took care of that.

Minus - the UConn site has the railroad listed as the Harlem River & Port Charles R.R. Co. Don't know where they got that from. I've fired off an e-mail to them pointing out the error.

Thanks for sharing these links!

Otto Vondrak wrote:Thanks for sharing these links!

No prob, now if only NY state's archives were as... er... good with regards to being able to find this kind of stuff, who knows what we'd find on the NYNH&H, NY Central, NYW&B, etc.

Looking at the latest Google earth satellite images of the area, the catenary tower is slowly being exposed by construction in the immediate vicinity[taking down the trees that obscure it], construction that could also threaten its existence eventually. This to my knowledge is the only standing catenary tower remaining from the NYWY&B, and should be documented photographically before its inevitable demise.

If the catenary tower being exposed is part of the interlocking complex, then it's a New Haven catenary tower. Bridge 82H and 83H were New Haven catenary bridges.

If the catenary tower being exposed is part of the interlocking complex, then it's a New Haven catenary tower. Bridge 82H and 83H were New Haven catenary bridges.

Here is where it is:

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IIRC, just a little bit north of where it would later be connected to the NYNH&H ROW it ran parallel to previously.

We have a winner!

The catenary bridge in question is not just any catenary bridge, it is/was NYW&B Bridge No. 1, an anchor bridge. In addition to carrying the westward home boards, it was at this point that the overhead power switched from NYNH&H to NYW&B (or vice versa, depending on your direction of travel). Totally situated on NYW&B right of way. It's the first stand-alone bridge east of the 174th Street overpass.

Ho-ly ****.

That's all I have to say, well, that and "I gotta get down there to photograph it before it is too late"

Dunno why, but even though we still have many remaining structures [Heathcote station, Port Chester station [now a church], Quaker Ridge [now a home], etc], actually seeing a piece of the railroad ROW that I thought would have been scrapped a long time ago is actually quite exciting.

Too bad it'd probably be impossible to get it preserved / shipped to a RR museum or something, a purely NYW&B catenary bridge just about 100 years old and still in tact like this.

In April of 1973, I walked and photographed (remember Kodachrome??) some of the ROW. Found what was Columbus Jct, Gedney Way, Wykagyl, Quaker Ridge and a few others. Even saw bases for the catenary towers. Wonder what it looks like 37 years later.

Did the same, Rick, some ten years earlier, with Roger Arcara leading the way.

I hear Wykagyl still has platforms - one day I'll head down there and see what is still there out of my own curiosity.

Found concrete bases in the bushes just southeast of the Mamaroneck station parking lot, where the NYW&B ROW passed through and over Mamaroneck Avenue.

I would like to explore the area near West Farms, but there seems to be no legal way to get to the area where the NYW&B crossed under E. 174th, where this catenary bridge is.

-any Bronx bus drivers on this forum, with a camera. who could walk around behind the bus shop and shoot a picture for us?
-or wait for winter and do a telephoto shot through the fence.

Roger

Correct me if my bearings are a bit off, but isn't the catenary bridge shown in in pg. 107 of Robert Bang's book on the NYW&B catenary bridge #1?

[And there seems to be a wee little bit more than just the catenary bridge there, right before the overpass there is a little stub of something sticking up and out of the bushes.


[Call me crazy, but I REALLY want to start some sort of campaign similar to the one to save the overpass in Pelham, since this is the only purely NYW&B catenary bridge left, the last unmodified, unaltered remain of the "million dollar a mile railway". I expect naysay with this idea, but I say screw it, it is at least worth TRYING.]

Here is an interesting historical piece from The Railroad Gazette of 1907. The New Haven purchased a portion of the land for the West Farms Junction from William Waldorf Astor, son of John Jacob Astor and founder of the Waldorf Hotel which later became the Waldorf-Astoria.