Rotterdam Jct, NY west shore

Back in the early 1900's the West Shore and the Boston and Maine interchanged passenger trains at Rotterdam by RJ tower. There was a wye at the jct to allow the West Shore trains to connect ot the NYC going over the Hoffmans bridge to the Mohawk Div. Does any one have a copy or photo of RJ interlocking plant and train station ? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Conductorbob

I think tha bridge over the Mohawk at Hoffmans was done later by the NYC. This may have been part of the deal with the cutoff from the B&A to Selkirk. This was all done to avoid W. Albany hill and lack of yard space in the city. All that was needed was a simple switch into the Boston and Maine.

The physical connection between the NYC & B&M at 'RJ' is a facing point switch toward the west. This allowed straight-a-way moves from the NYC to the B&M for eastward trains. During my time on the Mohawk in the '60s one train {BY-4} ran daily from Dewitt to Mechanicville with a Mohawk Crew. Additionally the Bow Train for Public Service of New Hampshire ran about five trips per month using this route. It's my understanding there were three scheduled trains in this service as recently as the late '40s.

In an atempt at maintaining equity between NYC & B&M crews, the B&M ran two trains per day between Mechanicville & Selkirk with their crews and power...usually two RS-3's. The move at 'RJ' was to pull out on the bridge between 'RJ' and 'NA' (Hoffmans) and run around the train when freight traffic off the West Shore permitted.

Immediately upon diverging at the switch to the B&M at 'RJ' there was a rather substantial down grade going east. At this same point the West Shore was on an ascending grade. The point to understand is that the further one went east the greater the disparity in elevation between the two carriers. I can not state there was no wye in this quadrant of the connection, but it would seem the difference in elevation would make it a physical challanging location. This connection switch was located at the top of a vertical curve. Approximately 35-40 carlengths down a tangent on the B&M was a Triple Arm Absolute Block Signal. It was common practice with the Bow Train (first unit coal train with ABD Brakes) when stopping at this Signal to simply balance the train over the switch at 'RJ' and stop without use of the automatic brake.

There never was a wye at RJ due -- as mentioned -- to the difference in elevation between the B&M and the WS.

There was also an NY-series freight that ran Dewitt to Mickyville with Mohawk crews.

In addition to the downgrade on the B&M with the home signal right by route 5-S, there was a private crossing (Scrafford Lane) about halfway down that had to be kept clear.

The run-through from DWT was gone pre-PC merger.

The reference to a wye at Rotterdam was not to the B&M ,but a West Shore to the Hoffmans bridge to the NYC going east bound. Shlustig mentioned about having to cut the train for the private crossing(Scraffiord lane), this was done so the owner of the farm could get out. It was reported that when the trains were cut, the Conrail, B&M police raided his farm once and found alot of "stuff" that "fell out of the boxcars" in his barns. Who knows. Going into and out of the B&m was some grade. I held the night job out of Sekirk in 1978 as Conductor and the trains were SEBM and BMSE. What a great job it was. I did run some thru trains to Dewitt every once in a while from the B&M, but that business is all gone now that they are partnered with the NS and CP. I was told that the tracks to the B&M are or going to be torn up since the interlocking plant caught fire . By the way, does anyone have a interlocking chart or track layout of RJ interlocking showing the psgr station and the rest of the area? Thanks. Conductor bob

You can see some of it from the Thruway. Pan Am still uses the yard there, I presume for some light interchange with CSX, although last weekend all I could see were cars likely for one customer there. In the past though it's been full of cars.

The former West Shore to the west is hikable (a legit NYS trail), so one may be able to look for evidence of the wye in question.

lvrr325 wrote:You can see some of it from the Thruway. Pan Am still uses the yard there, I presume for some light interchange with CSX, although last weekend all I could see were cars likely for one customer there. In the past though it's been full of cars.

The former West Shore to the west is hikable (a legit NYS trail), so one may be able to look for evidence of the wye in question.

Go ahead and wear out your shoe leather, one person in particular on here was on the railroad in that region for a long time and he stated "There never was a wye at RJ". Keep walking but do it safely and stay away from active railroad tracks.
Noel Weaver

A reference in a previous post indicated NY-series trains to the B&M @ RJ. This may have been true at some point in prosporus times past. In the late 60's and early 70's one train daily , BY-4, operated Dewitt to Mechanisville. This was usually a moderate sized train operated to "Mickeyville" with a Mohawk crew ,qualified on the D&H and B&M, with three four axle units. It was always my understanding from older staff officers on the division this was the last of what once was three trains daily. Freight from NY-4, NY-6, & NY-8 was taken at DeWitt for that days BY-4. This gave thru service to the B&M for freight from Englewood (NY-4) St Louis (NY-6) & Blue Island (NY-8) to B&M points. Other trains from the west made drops, or terminated at DeWitt, with freight for the B&M but these three NY-series trains are how that freight made it to New England without using the B&A.

Rotterdam Jct. was a viable gateway to the east but I'm certain every Traffic Official on the system atempted to solicate traffic to that region thru Worcester or Beacon Park. Every car of freight delivered at RJ resulting in the NYC short-hauling itself and lost revenues.