Railroad Forums 

  • North County/South County Trails (ex-NYC Putnam Division)

  • General discussion related to Rail Trails nationwide, including proposed rail trail routes. The official site of the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy can be found here: www.railstotrails.org.
General discussion related to Rail Trails nationwide, including proposed rail trail routes. The official site of the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy can be found here: www.railstotrails.org.

Moderator: railtrailbiker

 #1288050  by RichCoffey
 
Image

Map, Short Video, Photos, etc.
http://rc-pedalpoint.blogspot.com/2014/ ... wster.html

Did You Know?
In 1972, A teenager stole a Diesel Switcher in Brewster and took it on a joyride - and finally ended up crashing it- Yikes!!

___
PS
I hope to sniff out the Branch Line to the Mine sometime - there’s a video on YouTube and it looks to be rideable on my Mountain Bike.
 #1288069  by RussNelson
 
The Tarrytown Lakes Extension is a pleasant ride, although not completely paved. I rode it to the then-current end of the trail last summer, where there was a bridge without a deck and orange snow fencing. Looking at aerial photos, I see no reason why the trail couldn't be extended, so maybe it will be?

There's also a bit of railbed which is unpaved, but seems to currently be used as a footpath, the Mohansic Branch. They were going to build a state mental hospital in what is now FDR State Park. Because of concerns about development so close to Croton Reservoir polluting NYC's water supply, they abandoned the hospital construction. I am unsure about whether the railbed actually saw rails. I've seen claims that it did, and that they used it to bring construction supplies in. I've also seen claims that it was graded north of NY-35. It takes off of the trail in Yorktown Heights just south of Hanover Street. Followed Downing Drive to NY-118 where it crossed at grade and continued to Baldwin Road.

Look here: http://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=en& ... e=standard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1405503  by Jeff Smith
 
Nice remembrance of the efforts to preserve the ROW: WestFair Communications
Remembering the Putnam Line and its champions
...
But all that changed in 1981 when Conrail, the successor of the New York Central, filed for abandonment, meaning no service restoration ever and granting Conrail rights to pull up the tracks and sell the real estate. The abandonment filing started a “clock’’ giving governmental agencies narrow time frames to opt to purchase the line
...
In Yonkers, Mayor Angelo R. Martinelli hosted an emergency meeting with shippers on The Put. I was an assistant to the mayor at the time and would work with him on the issue for the near term and, years later, as a consultant for Westchester County.
...
Martinelli appealed to DelBello and Deputy County Executive Roger Biagi. They moved immediately to stop the clock and with it, Conrail’s plans to sell the 14- mile right of way parcel by parcel.
...
In 1991, County Executive Andrew P. O’Rourke and his deputy Biagi were determined to acquire the line for public use. A new plan was made, negotiations resumed and 90 days later, on the Friday of Labor Day weekend that year, a deal was struck in the county executive’s office in White Plains.

The route of the former Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad was preserved. Forever. After 10 years.
...
 #1405516  by RussNelson
 
RussNelson wrote:The Tarrytown Lakes Extension is a pleasant ride, although not completely paved. I rode it to the then-current end of the trail last summer, where there was a bridge without a deck and orange snow fencing. Looking at aerial photos, I see no reason why the trail couldn't be extended, so maybe it will be?
It has been extended, but only to Country House Road. At least you can ride all the way around the Tarrytown Reservoir now.

So if the entire right-of-way was preserved, what about the junkyard at the west end of Lamont Street in Elmsford? Are they trespassers?
 #1423768  by Jeff Smith
 
http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Rail- ... n-up,61959" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Possible extension:
Environmental activists in the northwest Bronx want the city’s Parks Department to buy the land and turn it into a hiking and biking trail, or greenway. It would pick up where the trails of Van Cortlandt Park leave off, and would lead southward, passing close to Broadway, with its shops and restaurants.

The trail “would be a real economic boom,” said Laura Spalter, the chairwoman of the environment and sanitation committee of Community Board 8. “You could bike or hike and then go have lunch at a restaurant on Broadway.”

The land is owned by CSX Transportation, a major railroad. While talks on buying the land have stalled, CSX agreed last week to clean up the trash by the end of April, Spalter told The Press last week.

CSX has been willing to sell, but for a price that the Parks Department says it cannot afford. CSX had been asking $10 million for the land, although a spokesman recently said it would review the price.
 #1528495  by unichris
 
RussNelson wrote: Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:05 pmThe Tarrytown Lakes Extension is a pleasant ride, although not completely paved. I rode it to the then-current end of the trail last summer, where there was a bridge without a deck and orange snow fencing. Looking at aerial photos, I see no reason why the trail couldn't be extended, so maybe it will be?
At this point it's paved until across the street from the lake's parking lot. There's then a gravel path that's fairly rideable ending at a housing development near the intersection of Tower Hill Rd and Wilson Park Drive. The original trestle and later round-the-valley (later reservoir) Put routing would have gone north through KyKuit, of course that's a no bike park today, and the ROW effectively vanished long ago when the Rockefeller's relocated the Put to its present route east of the ridge. That said, the unsigned Andre Brook Trail does begin in a construction site along Wilson Park Drive, though apart from the first half file across ten million dollar back yards its really a hiking trail that soon descends steeply. Not sure the official outlet but I came out of a meadow literally into the football stands at Sleepy Hollow High School, and after exiting that was able to resume riding in order to explore a bit of the Old Croton Aqueduct - which although never a rail line, feels a lot like one.
There's also a bit of railbed which is unpaved, but seems to currently be used as a footpath, the Mohansic Branch. They were going to build a state mental hospital in what is now FDR State Park. Because of concerns about development so close to Croton Reservoir polluting NYC's water supply, they abandoned the hospital construction. I am unsure about whether the railbed actually saw rails. I've seen claims that it did, and that they used it to bring construction supplies in. I've also seen claims that it was graded north of NY-35. It takes off of the trail in Yorktown Heights just south of Hanover Street. Followed Downing Drive to NY-118 where it crossed at grade and continued to Baldwin Road.
This is apparently being built as a trail now by an organization in Yorktown Heights. Have been curious about it, but with no current rail service to Yorktown Heights I'm only ever there midway through a long ride with concerns about getting through to active MNR at Brewster or back to NYC or Pleasantville or Tarrytown by not much after dark very much in mind.