New to railfanning - Fairport, NY

hi everyone, recently i have been getting into watching trains and making short video clips of freight going by. Lately i have been visiting the fairport canal viewing location but have noticed there is a seperate track off of the mainline, my question what is this stretch of track for? cheers!

Welcome! The single-track line you see is a freight bypass of Rochester. The 2-track main line goes directly into Rochester, while the single track line curves off and goes through Pittsford, Henrietta, North Chili area and rejoins the main just west of Route 259. The Bypass line is known as the CSX West Shore Subdivision and the double-track line is the Rochester Sub.

Hope that helps!
Charlie

thanks for the response charlie! i understand that section of track but i guess i was asking more about the layup by the canal,by the baseball fields and such. I remember seeing autoracks and finding that odd to park such a large freight, i don't know i am still new to a lot of this, any other recommended viewing locations besides fairport and east Rochester? thanks again!

I would recommend that you check out Chili Junction in Riga, which is on the west side of the Rochester area. It is where the West Shore Bypass rejoins the Chicago Line. Attridge Road crosses the Chicago Line just a few hundred feet west of the junction, so it's an easy place to watch CSX. In fact, I spent Saturday evenings there during the spring and summer, which can be viewed here: http://www.american-rails-forums.com/vi ... =80&t=3415

I hope this helps.

The track that had the autoracks on it is or what was left of the westshore line also...They just made the westshore connect with the main there and then left that section as a long siding.

tracksidetellin wrote:thanks for the response charlie! i understand that section of track but i guess i was asking more about the layup by the canal,by the baseball fields and such. I remember seeing autoracks and finding that odd to park such a large freight, i don't know i am still new to a lot of this, any other recommended viewing locations besides fairport and east Rochester? thanks again!

Sounds like you are talking about east of Fairport?
Lyndon road area?

what you are seeing out there is also a remnant of the West Shore..
one track of the west shore is still in place, alongside the mainline, used as a siding.

Once upon a time, 1884, there were two seperate railroads through Fairport,
the New York Central (todays double-track mainline)
and the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, which was built as a competing line.
It was called "The West Shore" for short, because it traveled up the West Shore of the Hudson River,
while the NYC was on the east shore of the Hudson.

The West Shore didnt last long as a seperate, independant railroad, it was quickly bought out by the New York Central,
and was folded into the NYC system in 1885.

Today the West Shore tracks are still active in the Hudson river valley, but most of the West shore route is long abandoned and torn up between Albany and Buffalo..only a few remnants remain..that small stretch of track east of Fairport,
then the single-track bypass that runs from Fairport, through Pittsford, Henrietta, and re-joins the mainline in Chili.
New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, and now CSX have retained that route as a bypass around Rochester.
Local Rochester railfans still refer to this route as "The West Shore" to this day..125 years after the West Shore railroad itself ceased to exist!

I have a webpage here:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/rochester/
that details the history of the different area railroads.

Scot

Another location that I enjoy is Genesee Junction, which is where the West Shore meets the LA&L and the Rochester & Southern. It is located near the intersection of Ballantyne Road (Route 252) and Scottsville Road (Route 383). The junction is accessed via the Genese Valley Greenway. I like to access it from Scottsville Road, just south of the RR crossing. The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville RR is a popular shortline with local fans, so I recommend that you check it out. Here's a sample from a chase last fall: http://forums.railfan.net/forums.cgi?bo ... 1255784328

Welcome to railfanning...

When the calendar comes back around to the late Spring, and there is enough daylight after work to make the trip worthwhile, a bunch of us "Tuesday Night Gang" members hang out near the Route 250 crossing in Fairport. There are usually between six and twelve of us there on any given Tuesday.

I think there are still a couple TNGers who go out to the tracks for Tuesday afternoons, but I'm finished for the season. I'll probably start up again around Memorial Day 2011 if not sooner.

The other suggested locations are fun as well.

Just an added tidbit of information on that track along the canal near the Lyndon Rd baseball fields... It was formerly part of the West Shore which was intact all the way past Wayneport Road for a number of years, also referred to as the "Ice track". In the days before mechanically refrigerated boxcars, wooden boxcars would be re-stocked /loaded with fresh blocks of ice at a large icing facility here along the West Shore main track by the canal.

In later years (1989, I believe) Conrail reduced the length of the West Shore Branch and eliminated the portion from Fairport to Wayneport Rd Junction. They left the siding in place to set out "cripples" (bad order cars) and Track Maintenance Equipment, and renamed it the "J. Fallon Siding".