Port Morris Branch Melrose - Oak Point NYC PC CR CSX

Yes, CSX still owns the Port Morris Branch. Part of it is still used for head room while switching out Manhattan Beer.

The Port Morris Branch definitely does NOT go into Manhattan.

Port Morris Branch was disconnected from the Metro-North Harlem Line sometime after 2002. If any stub is left, it is accessed from the old New Haven Oak Point Yard side of things.

Otto Vondrak wrote:The Port Morris Branch definitely does NOT go into Manhattan.

Correct, but Manhattan Beer is a customer off the south end of Oak Point Yard, and a portion of the branch is still used for head room for switching.

The rest of the line has been formally abandoned. I don't know if CSX still owns the ROW or whether there were any reversionary rights.

Ray Hessinger
Albany, NY

And that raises the interesting question of who assumes the responsibility for the security and maintenance of the St. Mary's Tunnel.

The tunnel is probably an example now of benign neglect.....

Metro-North extended the platform for Melrose station directly over the area where the switch to the Port Morris branch came off. If CSX was ever going to reactive the line, they'd have to remove the station first!

The Branch became redundant with the opening of the Oak Point Link. There seems to be no practical use for the Branch at this time.

-otto-

If memory serves me, the move was a "complex evolution", as they say in the Navy, until the Oak Point Link was built and activated. No need for the St. Mary's trackage anymore.

This line has since become a dumping ground for trash. Lack of drainage has loads of water in the cut at places as well. The tunnel under st. marys, last time I took a look maybe 3 years ago, was home to some homeless people and migrating birds (found a large yellow bird in there that I later found out is from Canada and lives in caves, thus it's use of the tunnel in migration). It's truly a filthy place...

I heard the MTA was going to or did buy this property to preserve for perhaps some future commuter link? Can't imagine what use they would have for it, but...

i ran into some workers at the park last winter who told me they are bricking the tunnel entrances.. i haven't been back up there recently to see if that has happened or not.

Port Morris yard under Melrose Ave connected NYC Harlem Hudson lines with NH was owned by NYC. Enterred into Oak Point yard in an open cut beneath the Ward's Tip Top Bread bakery on Southern Blvd then under Bruckner Blvd. The other end went over to MO which I think is behind Cardinal Hayes High School and up to the City Ice Building on 161 st Street. Back in the late 60's a fellow who worked for my Dad by day and for the RR at night took me (about 13 years old) over there for the railroading time of my life. I ran the switcher NYC 9679. Alas no pictures. Anyone know anything about this engine?

Port Morris yard under Melrose Ave connected NYC Harlem Hudson lines with NH was owned by NYC. Enterred into Oak Point yard in an open cut beneath the Ward's Tip Top Bread bakery on Southern Blvd then under Bruckner Blvd. The other end went over to MO which I think is behind Cardinal Hayes High School and up to the City Ice Building on 161 st Street. Back in the late 60's a fellow who worked for my Dad by day and for the RR at night took me (about 13 years old) over there for the railroading time of my life. I ran the switcher NYC 9679. Alas no pictures. Anyone know anything about this engine?

Did the alignment of the Port Morris branch follow those curved warehouse-type buildings just east of the Melrose station? Piled high with junked cars now...

Yes
Noel Weaver

With the platform extension at Melrose and the removal of the switch, is the branch considered abandoned? Are there any plans for its disposition or future use, or are there any current uses for it (freight customers, storage, wye, etc.). I remember in the sometimes heated discussions about Penn access for MNRR on that thread, it was learned that the branch comes in beneath the Hells Gate approach, so that rules that out.