Railroad cross the Northway at grade near Albany?

Did the D&H cross the Northway or I-787 somewhere at-grade? Something in the recesses of my brain says... maybe?

-otto-

"I ain't a native," as they say, but the NYC's old Troy and Schenectady Branch crossing near the Mohawk River bridge is the only crossing I can recall on the Northway. I think I read somewhere that it was the only grade crossing on the entire Interstate Highway System.

The NYC Troy & Schenectady (T&S) Branch definitely crossed I-87 at grade at that location. I recall reading some threads that covered this pretty extensively back over the years on rr.net. May not still be available -- but it was talked about a lot.

Note that D&H did operate the Troy end of this line after Conrail came to be, primarily to serve the Ford plant at Green Island (see linked site for details).

Troy & Schenectady Railroad


Location of the T&S crossing at grade on Interstate 87

Thanks for the info!

You bet.

By the way while I never worked the jobs that went on that line, I knew several who did. Apparantly there is a substantial grade on that right-of-way, so that the travelling switcher could only handle a few cars at a time -- one reason, I guess, why the Troy & Schenectady was not chosen as a freight route of any consequence by New York Central, and why it ended up being abandoned. I mean, the West Albany grade was bad enough ....

During the period (early 1960's) that the line crossed Interstate 87 (ETT from 1965 has a typo “89”) at Dunsbach Ferry, the following instruction appeared in the Employee Time Table under “special instruction 103 public crossings at grade: Manually controlled traffic signals:” "Trains or engine must stop in rear of stop sign and a member of crew must operate pushbuttons in manual control box. After traffic signals have been operating for at least twenty seconds train or engine may proceed over crossing, signals must be restored to normal position after movement over highway has been completed.”

Just to avoid confusion, D&H operation of this branch was 10+ years after the I-87 crossing was cut.

kinlock wrote:Just to avoid confusion, D&H operation of this branch was 10+ years after the I-87 crossing was cut.

Ya this is true.