Newton Falls Rail Renaissance?

According to the news out of Albany this week, the North Country Economic Council received a fair chunk of change to revitalize the rails to Newton Falls. See the article.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/cuomo-g ... cts-044944

... which is kinda crazy, since I know of only one customer on the line ... the Newton Falls Paper Plant. Maybe they could be shipping granite out of Benson Mines? Or maybe they've got some use for slightly iron-bearing sand, of which they have about 600 acres, 15' deep.

It sounds like a worthwhile thing to do. We need it as a rail line far more than we need a 5,000th trail option for people in the Adirondacks to use.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... /711279874

-Will improve the viability of the paper mill and allow them to significantly expand operations.
-Will make millions of tons of crushed granite, a byproduct of mining at Benson Mines, to be commercially viable.
-Environmental remediation at a portion of the site will be finished relatively soon and be available for reuse, one of the few industrial zoned areas in the Adirondacks.
-Slack Chemical and Climax Paperboard depend on the portion of the line in Jefferson County.
-Harrisville Dry Kiln and the talc mine at Natural Bridge are mentioned as possible customers.
-It will preserve rail infrastructure for the future.

There are 4,999 rail trails inside the blue line? I'm not aware of the existence of even one. http://rutlandtrail.org/gmap.cgi?allrailtrails

The rail-trail in the Queensbury area is partly within the Blue Line, but that is the only one I'm aware of.

I was talking about trails in general. There are tons of trails throughout the Adirondacks.

Leo_Ames wrote:I was talking about trails in general. There are tons of trails throughout the Adirondacks.

And a few folks who feel that pulling up rails for their own benefit is a good thing...

joshuahouse wrote:The rail-trail in the Queensbury area is partly within the Blue Line, but that is the only one I'm aware of.

Oh, yes, you're quite right. The blue line is just north of Farm to Market Road.

Leo_Ames wrote:I was talking about trails in general. There are tons of trails throughout the Adirondacks.

Indeed, you weren't talking about rail trails. But there are a bunch of abandoned railroads which could easily be made into rail-trails; no need to abandon the longest working railroad within the blue line.

Somebody claims to have ridden a rail bike this weekend between Oswegatchie Crossing and the far side of Benson Mines. As far as they could see, the rails are now completely open from Carthage to Newton Falls.

I'm pretty sure that there's been work going on there.

Maybe some routine brush clearing along over the years... but sounds like the line just needs an overall rehab - ties/ballast, alignment, etc. At around $225k/mile in funding, that'll be a huge boost... likely bring it up to class 2 standards.

I had heard back in May that work had commenced on getting the Newton Falls branch back in service and that they were pretty far along, but I haven't been up there to see for myself. Now they just need to find customers, otherwise it will be just a huge waste of money.

RussNelson wrote:... which is kinda crazy, since I know of only one customer on the line ... the Newton Falls Paper Plant. Maybe they could be shipping granite out of Benson Mines? Or maybe they've got some use for slightly iron-bearing sand, of which they have about 600 acres, 15' deep.

Is this a sandstone formation sand? Suitable to use in fracking?

This is the leftovers of Benson MInes (former iron mine), and there is no fracking in NYS

oibu wrote:This is the leftovers of Benson MInes (former iron mine), and there is no fracking in NYS

I am well aware of that. But frack sand could be exported to places that allow fracking. Where I lack knowledge (well, actually only one of the many places where I lack knowledge!) is whether or not this sand would be suitable to being mined and shipped to PA, Ohio, and other states that allow fracking.