The Old NYC Peanut Line.

The East Peanut was originally the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Rwy. Constructed in the mid-1800s if recall is correct. The NYC purchased the line in the late 1800s, again if memory serves correctly.

The line was abandoned thus:

Holcomb-Caledonia, 23.15 miles, 14 January 1939

North Tonawanda-Transit, 9.35 miles, 1956

Brixment-Akron Jct., 1.78 miles, 1961

Batavia-Pembroke, 12.82 miles, 1962

Transit-Getzville, 3.56 miles, 1963

Canandaigua-Holcomb, 8.07 miles, 1972

Batavia--P&L Jct. February, 1975.*

Akron Jct.-Transit, 8.6 miles, 07 January 1978

Another segment of the East Peanut survives. It is used by the Rochester & Southern from P&L Jct. to Jones Chemical in Caledonia. The R&S refers to this segment as the Jones Chemical Spur.

* Segment from CSX CP402 to the Lehigh Switch, .75 miles, is utilized by GVT.

Windseeker1 wrote:I was told by members of the Bennett family that the fur farm occasionally received hoppers of feed to the Agway in town.
Back in the day, asparagus were shipped from Ionia to NYC in such quantity that the station there picked up the moniker "Asparagus Junction", a name used now by the antique shop that occupies the station. (Which is for sale for anyone out there with an extra $250K...way over priced!)

Ah yes I remember Agway. It was torn down about 6 or 8 years ago. All that remains of the Peanut Line in my town of Bloomfield is the old station now as a car wash and the road bed the tracks went through.

ScotCP356, there are several guys here who have great map talents, both in drawing their own and in finding and posting maps from other sites. I'm hopeful someone can put up a good one to explain just where these 2 lines went in Canandaigua.

If anyone is interested, the old Peanut line can be reached without trespassing on FGLK property. From Gibson Street, just west of the FGLK crossing turn into the school parking lot, and go to the far end. That's compass north approximately. Go to the corner of the lot closest to FGLK, and walk north parallel to FGLK. Once you're off the graded school lot you'll easily pick up the Peanut ROW, at first right next to FGLK and then curving westward. IIRC there's a small concrete culvert there, as well as a whistle post.

I have frequently seen people using the playground there at times school is not in session so I doubt anyone will have a problem with you being there.

Worked at Holcomb Agway in the mid-1960s. The mill shipped many boxcar loads of wheat in late summer. NYC served the mill at least twice a week during wheat season.

Just to expand on what 0-6-0 said about the Victor 48A Thruway exit a few posts back. It's my understanding that the Pembroke exit was chosen, at least in part, because the bridge over the row for the West Peanut was also already in place. The exit road and toll booths are exactly on the old alignment and you are looking directly east on the ROW when coming to the stop light where the exit meets Route 77. The westbound merge passes under the bridge before curving away to enter the Thruway. The Peanut was straight for several miles after crossing route 5 west of East Pembroke to Akron through the eventual location of the exit.

Thank you for the information. But I believe there is also some rail and other stuff behind some apartments in my town. I believe so but I'm not sure. Also the Peanut line cross my road, which it's now a driveway. But I see some of the road bed that was one time Peanut Line, either going to Canandaigua or going to Ionia. It's pretty interesting! Was it that NYC joked that they can buy the line with bunch of Peanuts, thus giving the name, Peanut Line? Thanks guys!

ScotCP356 wrote:Thank you for the information. But I believe there is also some rail and other stuff behind some apartments in my town. I believe so but I'm not sure. Also the Peanut line cross my road, which it's now a driveway. But I see some of the road bed that was one time Peanut Line, either going to Canandaigua or going to Ionia. It's pretty interesting! Was it that NYC joked that they can buy the line with bunch of Peanuts, thus giving the name, Peanut Line? Thanks guys!

Scot - you are close on the name - at least vs the story I have heard. See the link to the Peanut line history in my post on page 1 for the story I have seen a few places on the web (not that it means it is true, of course)

Here is a good link with the route as a dotted line in the Bloomfield-Holcomb area (and you can click and drag to other areas).
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.90150,-77.41589&z=15&t=T

From I-390 (Genesee Expressway) going west the dotted line is not shown, but you can make it out by the cuts and fills in the topo map (or switching to satellite view you can see it usually). After crossing the Genesee River (say from W. River Rd) even that doesn't work, but from there it was directly adjacent to the Lehigh Valley (which is on the map), on the south side I think, til you reach Caledonia. THen the Peanut Line is still shown on the map either as a RR line or a dotted line - you can follow it to Batavia and then Pembroke (where it shows up as a power line ROW) and on to Tonawanda. Hope I traced it out right. A lot of abandoned lines running east /west in western NY!

JS

TB Diamond wrote:Another segment of the East Peanut survives. It is used by the Rochester & Southern from P&L Jct. to Jones Chemical in Caledonia. The R&S refers to this segment as the Jones Chemical Spur....

FWIW much of the rail along the Jones Chem Spur (former Peanut main thru Caledonia) is dated between 1906 - 1912.

100+ years old and still in service(!)

...FB

BR&P wrote: A VERY tiny part of the line is still used today by Finger Lakes Ry. West of Rt 332, the track goes onto the old Peanut roadbed, and stays on that until just past Gibson St where it rejoins the old Auburn Road alignment.

Are you referring to the part that takes the southwest bridge over Greig Terrace in Canadaigua (I guess the original AUburn Road used the other one)?

For those that are asking about Canadaigua, it is all pretty clear if you look at the map link posted earlier today and go over there (in Topo mode) -- the Auburn Rd makes a big-right-side up U through town, more or less, with the Peanut Line branching near the bottom left of the U near W Gibson St to head northwest. JS

pumpers wrote:

ScotCP356 wrote:Thank you for the information. But I believe there is also some rail and other stuff behind some apartments in my town. I believe so but I'm not sure. Also the Peanut line cross my road, which it's now a driveway. But I see some of the road bed that was one time Peanut Line, either going to Canandaigua or going to Ionia. It's pretty interesting! Was it that NYC joked that they can buy the line with bunch of Peanuts, thus giving the name, Peanut Line? Thanks guys!

Scot - you are close on the name - at least vs the story I have heard. See the link to the Peanut line history in my post on page 1 for the story I have seen a few places on the web (not that it means it is true, of course)

Here is a good link with the route as a dotted line in the Bloomfield-Holcomb area (and you can click and drag to other areas).
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.90150,-77.41589&z=15&t=T

From I-390 (Genesee Expressway) going west the dotted line is not shown, but you can make it out by the cuts and fills in the topo map (or switching to satellite view you can see it usually). After crossing the Genesee River (say from W. River Rd) even that doesn't work, but from there it was directly adjacent to the Lehigh Valley (which is on the map), on the south side I think, til you reach Caledonia. THen the Peanut Line is still shown on the map either as a RR line or a dotted line - you can follow it to Batavia and then Pembroke (where it shows up as a power line ROW) and on to Tonawanda. Hope I traced it out right. A lot of abandoned lines running east /west in western NY!

JS

I knew the story was going like that but I wasn't sure at all. I saw the map of the line. Its really interesting.

pumpers wrote: Are you referring to the part that takes the southwest bridge over Greig Terrace in Canadaigua (I guess the original AUburn Road used the other one)?

That's right. The unused bridge is from the Auburn Road, the parallel active bridge was the Peanut. I'm not sure why they reconfigured it. Most likely it was either because of some defect in the Auburn Road bridge and it was easier to just use the other one, or maybe it was to allow a gentler track configuration just west of the 332 crossing behind City Hall.

I have a map at the bottom of my FGLK page:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/FGLK/

That shows Canandaigua..
its not very high-resolution for the Canandaigua area!
but it gives a good overview of the area and the rail lines..
Four different lines once radiated outward from Canandaigua:

From Canandaigua:
1. PRR to Stanley (PRR branch terminated in Canandaigua)
2. NYC Auburn road East (to Geneva)
3. NYC Auburn road West (to Victor)
4. NYC Peanut west..Peanut also terminated in Canandaigua. (or began! depending on which way you were going)

(dont forget to "mouse over" that map to toggle between the two eras!

P&L Junction 1904:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/ ... ionmap.jpg

P&L Junction 2007:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/ ... p-2007.jpg

(If you open the two P&L junction maps in two separate browser windows, they "line up" and you can toggle between them,
like the Batavia and FGLK maps)

Leroy 1904:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/ ... roymap.jpg

I already posted the Batavia map previously in this thread, (also a "mouse-over" map)
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychao ... tavia.html

Peanut on the Rochester Railroads map:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/rochester/

(that page has started to throw a java error..I dont know why! do I need to update something on the page?
but its a "safe" page..just something about java)

and I think those are all the maps I have that deal with the Peanut specifically..
all the maps:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/maps/

Scot

One additional railroad that operated through Canandaigua:

5. Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway to Rochester & Geneva (Interurban, abandoned 1930).

On the west end, the Peanut Line terminated at the interlocking "Erie 3" which is on the old NYC Niagara Falls branch just south of the Tonawanda Creek/Barge Canal drawbridge.

There is a short remnant of trackage remaining between the interlocking and Wales Ave. in Tonawanda, however I think the Wales grade crossing is paved over.

This track was also used by the LV for trains on their Niagara Falls branch; traveling east from Wales Ave. the LV branched off the Peanut to the right at Tonawanda Jct. There is an unnamed road from Creekside Dr. to a water treatment plant, that passes right over the location where Tonawanda Jct. once stood.

From this point the Peanut ran east along the north edge of Ellicott Creek Park, crossed Niagara Falls Blvd. (south edge of St. Christopher parking lot) and was pretty much a straight track to near Akron Jct. where it crossed the West Shore.

FGLK run both Auburn and peanut line, but how much of track is peanut line?