Peanut Line at WSRR JCT-ROW undisturbed

I've been riding my bike on the WSRR path for many years. Also make a short run on the Peanut. The other day, I guess the sun was in the right place and with no brush growing leaves my mind says, "What that?!" So I stopped and explored this little tiny patch. At first I thought it was just a deer/animal path. But soon I found undisturbed railroad ties perfectly lined up where they should be. Extremely rotted but there.

I thought maybe they cut a new section for the bike path and this patch was the actual mainline but it doesn't line up correctly. I believe this is a connector from the WS to the Peanut. Hopefully my Painted images will post here.

I tried to find the JCT on Erie.Gov but for the life of me I couldn't find it. So I used Acme Mapper. Now that I know what is there, it shows up on the SAT view. Clear as day. Markers A to B is where its at.




This is the opposite view facing ESE. Connector on the left and Peanut straight ahead crossing the WSRR.


This "Painted" picture is facing west. The Peanut line is just after "A" and the WSRR is to the left out of view. Follow the red line and you can see the ties.

Here is the topo:

Penn Central ETT #7, effective May 19, 1974, shows Akron Jct as MP 406.6 on the West Shore, connects to Transit Road Running Track (Peanut)

Just imagine if digital photography had been around sooner. Sure would be neat to see some sort of switching move there, or a train going from one to the other.

I wonder how many kids hung out there......if any.

Using the same Historic Aerials website, it looks like the connection first appears on the 1950 topo. Would both lines have been taken over by the NYCRR by then? In other words, the connection may not have been an interchange between the two original railroads. The connection could allow partial access to one of the abandoned lines.

I wouldn't take that 1950 as any proof of anything. I've seen lines on early maps disappear by 1930 and then re-appear in the 1950s.

The WS was picked up by the NYC soon after being built.

Should probably post as a separate thread but my question is related directly to this thread.
In regards to this connection between the Peanut to the WS, and the Gyp mines - what was the relationship between the Gyp facility in Oakfield and the mine in Clarence off Clarence Center Rd?
Looking for threads on the forum on this topic.

Was Oakfield a mine or manufacturing facility and would gyp have been taken via the peanut from CC rd Then to the WS to oak field or totally unrelated?
Asking for patience in straightening my thinking out .
Mark

Unrelated

The gypsum plant in Clarence Center was operated by National Gypsum. The Oakfield Plant was owned by USG - United States Gypsum. The USG plant manufactured Gypsum wallboard and various other products and operated its own paper mill making the thick cardboard like rolls used to make wallboard as well as a an attached coal fired power plant. The Plant converted to gas in l972 resulting in the loss of coal loads. The paper mill is still in business shipping truckloads of paper to other plants but the wallboard/mine facilities have been leveled. The last rail shipments were boxcars of waste paper for the paper mill. In its heyday, USG had enough rail traffic in and out to keep its own 0-6-0 switcher and finished up with a side rod 45 tonner until the late Seventies. The part of the Peanut west of Akron Junction went through Clarence Center to a small lumber yard on Transit Road in East Amherst. The USRA System Plan for Conrail lists 293 Carloads for Clarence Center in 1973 most of which I assume pertained to National Gypsum There were two other contemporary gypsum companies along the West Shore a short distance west of USG. Niagara Gypsum had a mine and wallboard plant which closed in 1929 and Oakfield Gypsum products which lasted until 1938. They produced Gypsum products like plaster and stucco but not wall board. They also were leveled after closing with nothing remaining.

Until at least 1973 and possibly later, the Weyerhaeuser corrugated box plant on the NYC/PC Charlotte branch in Rochester used to ship large bales of scrap paper to Oakfield. These bales were the trim and spoilage from the box-making machines. I think the volume was a car or two a week just from that location.

Thanks for the background on the gypsum .
Original query related to when I saw mention of a connection at Akron from the peanut to the wsrr got to mistakenly thinking the two gyp facilities were related so would have used the connection to ship between them.
But I digress———-
The lumber yard at transit I’m familiar with - was Jureks lumber. Storage yard in back still has remnants of ties in the ground , when we took down an old garage at our fire hall just up the road we came across many beams with the Transit Fire Co name burned into them, older guys told how all the lumber came in by rail on the peanut and they had to go get it with their farm trucks .
Of course built it themselves.

Have to search this forum again about the abandonment dates of the line between Newstead and the Tonawandas.

Thanks again
Mark

Batavia - Pembroke 12.82 miles 1962
Brixment - Akron Junction 1.78 miles 1951
Transit - Getzville 3.56 miles 1963
North Tonawanda - Transit 9.35 miles 1956
Akron Junction - Transit 8.60 miles January 7. 1978

Per this timetable I’m reading that eastbound traffic from NT to Transit ended in ‘56 , with all traffic westbound to Transit finally ending in ‘78.
With the thruway being constructed in 1952 (using then the peanut ROW for the Pembrook exchange ) traffic had to then come off the WSRR at Akron Junction to Transit per the connection highlighted by the beginning of this thread ?????

But wasn't the WSRR EB abandoned in this area in the ‘60’s?

Help me as I’m confused

Mark

West Shore dates:

Byron - Oakfield 10.24 1963
Akron Junction - Transit 8.6 1978
Oakfield - Williamsville 22.1 1984

So looking at these dates it appears any service in this area between oak field , the gypsum plants ,etc would have had to go west toward Williamsville?
And when we say Williamsville, is it implied that goes up to Harlem Rd?