Railroad Forums 

  • Remnants of the Burden Iron Works Troy, NY

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1494027  by BR&P
 
Fascinating yet sad at the smokestack industry that has been lost. Somehow computer chips, call centers and on-line shopping just have nowhere near the attraction of blast furnaces, saw mills, coal mines and oil refineries.
 #1494065  by D Alex
 
BR&P wrote:Fascinating yet sad at the smokestack industry that has been lost. Somehow computer chips, call centers and on-line shopping just have nowhere near the attraction of blast furnaces, saw mills, coal mines and oil refineries.
Well, there ARE still places where such industries still exist. You can certainly move to Gary Indiana if you wish to experience the kind of air pollution and grime that Troy had in years gone past. Pittsburgh also used to be this way, so bad that even today if you wish to plant vegetables in your garden, you need to remove the top foot of soil then replace it with bagged soil due to all the heavy metals in the dirt. Seriously, I doubt very many of us want to go back to the former 'craphole' towns like Troy used to be....
 #1494072  by Railjunkie
 
D Alex wrote:
BR&P wrote:Fascinating yet sad at the smokestack industry that has been lost. Somehow computer chips, call centers and on-line shopping just have nowhere near the attraction of blast furnaces, saw mills, coal mines and oil refineries.
Well, there ARE still places where such industries still exist. You can certainly move to Gary Indiana if you wish to experience the kind of air pollution and grime that Troy had in years gone past. Pittsburgh also used to be this way, so bad that even today if you wish to plant vegetables in your garden, you need to remove the top foot of soil then replace it with bagged soil due to all the heavy metals in the dirt. Seriously, I doubt very many of us want to go back to the former 'craphole' towns like Troy used to be....

Troy still is a dump. Likely be in a better position if jobs like this were still around. Up and down both the Hudson and Mohawk the loss of factories with good paying jobs has had a bad effect on NYS and the country in general.
 #1494195  by lvrr325
 
New York has political issues which tend to preclude big industry from coming in, or staying in. Most of that is a topic for some other forum, but it should be briefly noted in this discussion.

Just for example, what was Carrier's large factory is now a vacant lot, and multiple GM facilities are either vacant or demolished as well.
 #1494198  by BR&P
 
D Alex wrote: Well, there ARE still places where such industries still exist. You can certainly move to Gary Indiana if you wish to experience the kind of air pollution and grime that Troy had in years gone past. Pittsburgh also used to be this way, so bad that even today if you wish to plant vegetables in your garden, you need to remove the top foot of soil then replace it with bagged soil due to all the heavy metals in the dirt. Seriously, I doubt very many of us want to go back to the former 'craphole' towns like Troy used to be....
Nobody wants Troy to be as rank as it was in the past. But how many rail carloads does a call center generate? Or a computer chip lab? Or to use your example, which city today will provide a railfan with more to see - Troy NY, or Gary IN?
 #1494240  by sd80mac
 
lvrr325 wrote:Just for example, what was Carrier's large factory is now a vacant lot, and multiple GM facilities are either vacant or demolished as well.
Kodak is perfect example too..
 #1494243  by BR&P
 
sd80mac wrote:
Kodak is perfect example too..
Exactly! I have not seen it on this forum, but I'm told the Kodak switchers have been sold and have departed the property. :( But hey, they are not burning coal any more so some people would think that's a good thing.
 #1494244  by sd80mac
 
BR&P wrote: Exactly! I have not seen it on this forum, but I'm told the Kodak switchers have been sold and have departed the property. :( But hey, they are not burning coal any more so some people would think that's a good thing.
Thought that switcher with racing scheme were intend to be donated to RGVR museum???
 #1494260  by BR&P
 
sd80mac wrote: Thought that switcher with racing scheme were intend to be donated to RGVR museum???
I have no idea what the disposition is on the units, just heard they're gone and on the move to somewhere. And that is second-hand info, I can't swear it's accurate.
 #1494275  by RichCoffey
 
Well maybe not South Troy but at least the downtown seems a far cry from a “dump” - wth their annual Victorian Strolls and so much great old architecture. I remember it being a scary place decades ago… I think they are doing a great job of revitalizing the city without destroying their past. My observations were meant to document that.

Interested In Gary Indiana? Try these links:
http://desertedplaces.blogspot.com/2016 ... diana.html
https://www.abandonedamerica.us/gary-indiana
 #1494296  by Wayside
 
I used to get called for an extra Troy yard job engineer on occasion in the early 1980s. There were only a handful customers that got service in those days, one of them being the Portec facility in So Troy where they machined reclaimed rail car axles into the makings of insulated rail joints. Most often we would bang out the work in less than four hours, and then hit the road. Burden was just a ghost by then, of course.
 #1494327  by BR&P
 
Borntrager's book "Keeping The Railroad Running" mentions his time as Superintendent of the Mohawk-Hudson in the 40's. Troy was busy then - what railroad wasn't? When he arranged to have a new crew washroom built for the guys, the various crews set up a rotating schedule for keeping it clean one week at a time per crew. That gives an idea of how much rail traffic has been lost over the years, and you can do the same math in any other city you care to name.
 #1494560  by SST
 
I was down in Dubois, Pa for dinner and drinks at the Doolittle Depot [ https://www.thedepotatdoolittles.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;] . Pretty nice place. When I got out of my car, it smelled like burning coal. I figured the business across the street may have been burning coal. Thought it was appropriate while surrounded with all the railcars.

Yesterday, I found a Rail to Trail path near the hotel called Wolf Run [http://www.bikekinetix.com/t_pa/pa_rail ... _trail.php] along Rt 219. B&P runs along side of it. As I rode my bike north I came upon a residence that clearly was burning coal. Thick yellow smoke coming out the chimney.

I immediately started wondering what Buffalo[or any other city] must have been like during its peak with homes burning coal along with the railroads locomotives.