Railroad Forums 

  • Trackage through Sanborn, NY

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1547841  by dj_paige
 
I assume this trackage is used so CSX can connect to the Falls Road and Somerset Railroads. It appears to go from the Tuscarora Wye to Lockport.

Some questions:
Are there customers along the route?
Or is it just used to connect to Falls Road and Somerset? (Is Somerset still running?)
What is the name of this trackage?
What railroad built it?
 #1547960  by DGC-24711
 
dj_paige wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 pm I assume this trackage is used so CSX can connect to the Falls Road and Somerset Railroads. It appears to go from the Tuscarora Wye to Lockport.

Some questions:
Are there customers along the route?
Or is it just used to connect to Falls Road and Somerset? (Is Somerset still running?)
What is the name of this trackage?
What railroad built it?
My father in law ran the switcher inside the GM Radiator Plant, so that would lead me to believe there was something going in/out of there. How much I don't know.
Somerset (coal to the electric plant in Somerset) may be done now, but there's a chemical plant on Mill St in Lockport that gets tanker cars from CSX, and to get to that it's just up the Somerset Sub a bit. If you see that bridge over Upper Mountain Road (formerly Route 93 before it was re-routed West with 31) I saw a single tank car on that bridge a while ago while the CSX was spotting cars around at the Lockport Yard.
Last edited by DGC-24711 on Wed Jul 15, 2020 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1547962  by BR&P
 
The line used to be an important route in NYC, PC and early CR days. Traffic came from Detroit, across Canada, back into the US and east on the Falls Road to join the Water Level Route in Rochester, and of course westbound as well. In the 60's and 70's there were two locals a day from Rochester working the eastern part and at least one on the west end.

If the main line was blocked with a wreck between Buffalo and Rochester, the Falls Road was the logical detour. Yes, Amtrak did operate via that line on a few such detours.
 #1548017  by DGC-24711
 
Here's a video with an example of the southern end of the Somerset Sub still in us:

https://youtu.be/lGuV9Qtmhbk

[edit] I quickly started to think of anyone who has never seen that bridge before that I'd add some reference. The "big green bridge" is how the interurban electric rail went off to Olcott, and the Somerset was built using some of that ROW. It comes off the Niagara Escarpment (to the right in that vid) and West Jackson is the road coming down the escarpment. 18 Mile Creek (the Niagara County version) also is at it's beginnings there.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1295- ... 78.7016188
 #1548172  by dj_paige
 
The SPV Atlas lists this trackage as formerly Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and formerly New York Central. Is this a mistake, or did DLW own it at some time?

Was there a station in Sanborn? If so, approximately where was it?
 #1548189  by BR&P
 
GVT operations end at Lockport (except for handoff of unit corn trains which is done a couple miles west on CSX to avoid tying up the city). Sanborn is west of that.
 #1548223  by clearblock
 
BR&P wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 8:00 am GVT operations end at Lockport (except for handoff of unit corn trains which is done a couple miles west on CSX to avoid tying up the city). Sanborn is west of that.
I believe GVT originally had trackage rights over the line and their crews were qualified to Niagara Yard. I think that ended some time ago but I am not sure when.
 #1548232  by dj_paige
 
So, essentially, the SPV Atlas is plain old wrong when it identifies this trackage as DLWR.
 #1548245  by DGC-24711
 
dj_paige wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 5:05 pm
Was there a station in Sanborn? If so, approximately where was it?
My imagination: At the crossing at NY 429, maybe G Macs Inn had something to do with it. Now I look at Niagara Street and the warehouses on that road makes me think were these at one time served by a siding? Also the buildings behind G Macs like the little tin silos..

This map from 1938 http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/ ... /New+York/ shows double track..