Another (short) piece of the NYC gone

Noticed over the past several days that crews have removed what used to be 4 Main Track between Pixley and Trabold Roads. Add Weckesser Brick to the list of those who USED to use rail but have decided they can do without it. Had not seen a car for them in years, now it's official.

That's a shame, another local industry gives up rail. I noticed crews working in the distance a short while
back when I was sitting trackside off Hinchey Rd. Did CSX already remove the switch, too?

No idea about the switch, I just drove over on I-490 and saw strings of rail which were obviously NOT spiked to any ties. A tractor/backhoe or something similar was down there but I didn't have time to study anything more.

I take it the warehouses and cold storages by Pixley Road are no longer using rail?

I did see that there's a new customer by Union Street - a scrap metal processor - long disconnected from the mainline, new switch was put in around 2015.

The frog at the Pixley siding switch (track #1, a few hundred feet west of the Pixley Rd grade crossing) was removed 2 or 3 years ago.

It's been 5 or 6 years since I've seen any rolling stock - MOW equipment tied down overnight - on the siding.

Well... I hate to speculate, but I would wager that in the next few decades the four track "Water Level Route" across New York State will be single tracked with a few sidings (Bativia, Rochester, Lyons, Syracuse, etc..) to allow very long trains to pass each other.

Inevitable really, things have been going down from four tracks to two tracks (with controlled sidings) to two tracks with no sidings to eventually one track.

Any sidings to serve industries along the "mainline" have been gone for 25 years at least.

They're just preparing the ROW for Emperor Andrew's latest black hole for taxpayer dollars.

If it goes down to a single track, wouldn't this solve the problem for obtaining land for the ROW for HSR?

SST wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:18 pm If it goes down to a single track, wouldn't this solve the problem for obtaining land for the ROW for HSR?

That was what I said in the post above yours.

What the politicians and dreamers don't understand is there is FAR more to making HSR than laying down a track and putting a train on it.