Sylvan Beach ROW

While out for a ride this afternoon, I passed through Sylvan Beach on the east end of Oneida Lake. On the way north on Route 13, I made a left turn onto Lakeshore Rd to try to stay near the lake. A short distance past that turn off, I realized I was paralleling what appeared to be an old railroad embankment running east to west right along the lake shore. The embankment was on the north side of Lakeshore Rd, but right next to it - a fair distance south from Route 49 and even further south from the NYO&W mainline ROW. Would this have been some kind of spur line run from the O&W a ways along the north shore for the summer tourist crowd back before the advent of the autombile? (BTW, the embankment is very visible on Google Maps and looks like it may have made a turn at the eastern end and could be the path of Route 13 or would be parallel to it.)

I think what you are looking at is the row of the NYO&W. it was very close to the shore at the east end of Oneida lake
passing through North Bay and Edgewater Beach.

Charles

Not totally familiar with the area, but the embankment would have been either the LVRR E&C branch or the O&W Sylvan Beach loop.

A good track diagram of the Sylvan area is on page 114 of John Tabi's Remembering the New York, Ontario & Western Railway Oswego to Sidney & Branches.

The Lehigh Valley lakeside trackage was located to the south of the Erie Canal and then curved over to Sylvan Junction where it joined the O&W. It then left the O&W just north of the canal.

The O&W lakeside trackage was to the north of the canal.

The O&W crossed the Canal and LV RR at SX Tower then crossed McClanathan Ave then Route 13 at the north side of town. if you turned left on Lake Shore Drive off from Route 13 you would head towards the lake and then in a northerly direction. After the O&W crossed Route 13 it swung around as the road also curved to the west and the O&W would be on your right and the lake on your left. You would parallel the railroad to North Bay (site of North Bay depot). The railroad stayed on the south side of Route 49 until Longs Crossing approximately 1.5 miles west (railroad north) of where Route 49 intersects County Road 68A (the turn off to go down to North Bay railroad depot).

My memory is a little hazy but I think the loop track, taken out years ago which accessed the beach area split at the canal bridge and paralleled Route 13 and swung back onto the main track just north of McClanathan Avenue, probably where you turned left to get onto Lakeshore Drive. If you had turned right you would have crossed the loop, then the mainline and I think also the LV RR somewhere near Harborview Drive where the LV cut over to Vienna and north. The beach depot was about where Eddies Fish Dinner either is or was and there was another depot converted to a house on a side street but I can't recall which street. It is recognizeable by the bay window but otherwise very modified. The police station is a sort of replica of the beach depot built a few years ago.

As best I can tell, Harborview Road *is* the LV because the railbed continues without any change in direction north of Vienna Road / CR-50A. Here's how I have it mapped out (I may be wrong, of course):

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=43.20 ... 05&zoom=13

Russ

I think you are correct about the alignment of the LVRR and Harborview Drive.

CJ

Here is the loop track(once the link opens click on it to make the map larger and legible) from 1898 http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.a ... g&state=NY.
Note that's before the Erie canal outlet was built through the south side of town ( in 1918?) I don't know what impact that had on the loop (or if it was still used by then anyway). JS

Update Edit: "The rails are embedded in the pavement of McClanathan Avenue where the right of way cuts through the village" - this and a picture of it are at http://www.nyow.org/owremains_part1.pdf on pages 10-12 about. Don't know what the date of the web page is, but it looks fairly recent (less than 10 years old?) and well done.

Thanks, everyone. It was definitely the O&W ROW that I saw. I had thought it was still north of Rte 49 at that point, but evidently it crossed the highway a second time west of the 49/13 intersection in Vienna. By the way, the pictorial website dates from 2007 according to the text within.

pumpers wrote: "The rails are embedded in the pavement of McClanathan Avenue where the right of way cuts through the village"

Interesting! Look at the photo here: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.21287,-75.72502&z=20&t=S See the lines on either side of the crosshairs pointing NNW and SSE? They *sure* look like they're aligned with the NYO&W ROW, don't they? And yet, if you look at bit further out, you can see lines running perpendicular to the direction of travel -- as if they had repaved not too long ago. So either 1) they repaved because the rails were starting to poke through ... again, or 2) they repaved after pulling the rails out, BUT their ghosts managed to show through anyway.

I vote for #1. But I'd entertain a vote for #2 or explanation #3. It would help if somebody actually WENT there. I've never been there. Furthest east I got along the railbed was the end of the publicly-owned trail in Cleveland.

The rails at McClanathan Ave. were removed a few years ago. 2009/10? I remember seeing the constructions crews.

The Sylvan Beach station still sits at its original location where the old loop used to be. Athough, it looks nothing like it once did. The only recognizable feature is the old bay window on the side. It's located on 16th Ave in the beach

One of the S.B. L.V. stations can now be found on Lakeshore Drive in Verona Beach. The only other station north of Cazenovia to Camden on the EC & N is the McConellsville station. It is now located in the backyard of a private residence on rt. 13 in Vienna just before Weeden's mini mall on the right if you're heading north.