New York Central Penn Yan Branch

Interesting thread. I'm from that area and never imagined that there could have been an interchange in PY between the NYC and PRR. I do remember tracks on both sides of the outlet, however. The south side track ended in back of a warehouse (long gone now) at the head of the lake. The north side ran past Birkett's to a warehouse next to Liberty Street and then a little further on to the west toward the lake.

If I were searching today for the interchange track, I'd start in the old PRR yard since most of that space is still there. Based upon my memory I'd say it would be pretty much impossible to do an interchange track from the PRR track west to Birkett's -- too steep and too close to each other -- unless the track ran by the north side of the mill (NYC on the south side), under the Main Street bridge, and connected with the NYC before the Liberty Street warehouse. It would be steep but might be doable. Another routing possiblity (but one that I have no memory of) would start the track well north of the PRR station, come down in back of the stores on Main Street, curve past Birkett's and join west of there.

Finally, I'd look for the remnants of track running to the east from the PRR yard with an interchange east of town. This might even be on the south side of the PRR bridge across the outlet as there used to be a chemical plant on the south side of the outlet just east of PY that was served by one of the railroads. This would also help to explain the two bridges noted previously. I'm just throwing this out there for consideration.

I'll be in PY in the next few weeks and will try to find some time to poke around a little.

Poppyl

It is too bad that my images of Penn Yan and the map I created are gone, they were hosted on my verizon webspace, which obviously went bye bye when I moved from PA to CT two years ago. I still have some of the Penn Yan photos I took, but not sure that the map still exists anymore. I will check my PC at home tonight.

I was in Penn Yan two weeks ago, didn't really have a chance to do any exploring, but we came in from the North, and there are still a massive number of Center Beam flat cars stored on the track North of Penn Yan towards Bellona.

Again, I would concur with Russ, that the only feasible way that the PRR and NYC connect in Penn Yan was somehow through the Birkett Complex, but I would really have to see a PRR or NYC track chart of the area that showed this to believe it actually existed at one point. Poppyl, anything you can add would be great. I guess sometime, it would be interesting to check into anything at the Penn Yan library or Penn Yan historical society.

I would be curious about how much current traffic is going to/coming from Penn Yan these days. CHECKIT, any updates on that?

BWP

bwparker1 wrote:It is too bad that my images of Penn Yan and the map I created are gone, they were hosted on my verizon webspace, which obviously went bye bye when I moved from PA to CT two years ago. I still have some of the Penn Yan photos I took, but not sure that the map still exists anymore. I will check my PC at home tonight.

BWP

Do you remember the URL (address) of the webpage?
even though its gone, it might still be possible to pull some of it out of the ether!
if you dont remember the specific address, how about the title of the page?
anything that might help google find its former address..

Scot

Scott:

I uploaded them to personal webspace via the Verizon DSL package I had. Something like mysite.verizon.net/brookswhitmoreparker

I tried using google and the internet archive with no luck.

BWP

There was never an interchange with NC/PRR and NYC. However in 1974 the State/PC/Birkett Mills looked into a grade off Seneca St. Downgrade to the old NYC into the Mills. Engineering studies showed the grade too steep (way above 3%). The rest is history.

There was never an interchange with NC/PRR and NYC. However in 1974 the State/PC/Birkett Mills looked into a grade off Seneca St. Downgrade to the old NYC into the Mills. Engineering studies showed the grade too steep (way above 3%). The rest is history.

Nothing in the Sanborn fire maps showing an interchange.

Charles

While I tend to agree with K4, LBagg seems pretty insistent that there was some sort of interchange. I think what is more likely is that somehow, Birkett Mills was served by both railroads, but with different spurs. Perhaps they had some infrastructure up adjacent to the PRR yard.

It's entirely possible that Birkett's had a warehouse up Seneca Street by the PRR tracks but I do not remember such a building. If such a building did exist, I guess one could say that the business was served by both RR's and maybe someone drew the conclusion that meant an interchange track.

With an "easy" interchange about six miles away in Himrod, one might wonder about the need for one in PY from either RR's perspective.

Poppyl

I have records of the idea being aluded to in discussions when Birkett Mills was fighting PC to restore service on the Corkscrew line, but I think the idea was more of a distractive tactic to avoid having to restore the NYC Branch.

During the time between the World Wars (at least) their was no interchange even in Himrod. Far as I can tell the main Northern tier interchanging was in Phelps and Newark; Don't know about Sodus Point.

The earlier discussion about the Spur from block station "Bell" would that be the PY B'port and KP line? Living here and spending many hours researching and drilling the local old timers on train service and track locations, I can't believe I never turned up info on such a thing as a interchange track. Not sure how long Burkett mills has owned the Yates Blogett facility, but that is where they continue to interchange with the PRR /Elmira Branch to this day. They also wearhouse and transload finished goods on North Avenue, presently a carload or two a year that I ever see, but I always thought that facility was to replace the services lost on the NYC line in '72.

Definitely no interchange at Sodus Point as the NYC never had a line serving that community.

There may have been an interchange at Wallington where the West Hojack crossed the PRR at grade, but am not at all sure.

well..after debating this for many years now,
I think we can safely conclude there was never a direct interchange between the PRR and the NYC in Penn Yan!
No one has ever turned up the slightest evidence to support it..and the geography is just flat-out against the idea..

I think its time to put this one to bed!
where did the idea come from in the first place?

Scot

Put it to bed! The idea came from a poster earlier in the thread who appeared to have some legitimate information on such a practice taking place... Hopefully, we can keep the thread alive with current news and info on the rail goings-on in Penn Yan today. - BWP

Has anyone asked with the Yates County Historical Society? Chuck Mitchell would have a very good idea about any of this info.