Upcoming Putnam Division Anniversaries

From Otto's NYC Putnam Division Page:

http://otto.tsny.com/nycrr/nyc_putnam.html

In March 1958, the commission approved the railroad's petition. The last train would run on Thursday, May 29th. Leaving Sedgwick Avenue terminal in the Bronx for the last time, train #947 was jammed with last riders and well-wishers. They started their three-day weekend with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" and partaking in bottled goods. Along the route, flags were waved and hats removed as if was a funeral train.

After the last train, a passenger shuttle "around the horn" continued to operate from Grand Central to Brewster. From Brewster, the train switched onto the Put and made all stops to Lake Mahopac, then switch over to the Harlem Division branch and then back onto the Harlem Division main line at Golden Bridge, and then return to Grand Central. This operation ended in April 1959.

In 4 days, we'll have the 49th anniversary of the end of Put through service. Has anyone thought or heard anything about a commemeration of the Put's 50th anniversay of cessation of service?

Also, you never hear much about the Lake Mahopac branch anymore - is much of anything left?

Sarge,

If you go to LINCOLNDALE where the station survives as a business, it is hard to locate the ROW to the NW as it has become incredibly grown up. Try tracing the line from the station back towards 684, and you will see remnants abouding.

The station looks wierd because it's definately a station and it looks like it fell from the sky when you see where it's situated at the base of a hill.

D/

Short sections of grade can clearly be seen at Myrtle Avenue in Mahopac. This was a branch to the mines.

Thanks to the "trailways" the Put ROW is remarkably intact. About the only spot I can think of where it has been seriously rubbed out is the area south of Millwood, due to Taconic Pkwy. reconstruction.

Also, --- in really incredibly --- the ROW of the Getty Sw. branch is not difficult to trace in most places

My, My is it that many years ago? I rode the last trains on that Thursday,
May 29, 1958 and still have the movies that I took from and of the trains.
They are now on video tape and I look at them occasionally. Lots of
memories.
The general feeling at that time was that the line itself would not last too
much longer and indeed that became the fact a few short years later.
Noel Weaver

Thanks Dieter. Checked Google Earth, the bridge over the NYC reservior system is still there, and I was able to trace it up to Lincolndale. Do you have any details on the business, address of the old station there? Somehow I envisioned the the ROW heading in a different direction (N up Route 100 vs. the more westerly direction it seems to take). From their the ROW seems to go up to Shenorock along the east edge, and then up to Mahopac. Lincolndale doesn't look too developed, but Shenorock does. I wonder how the branch line would have fared today....

In any case, I hope they do something to commemarate the anniversary. I'm old enough to remember the stub freight operations, but passenger service ended before my time (1961).

The last train from Sedgwick Avenue had a CBS TV news crew aboard, and the footage was run on the 11 PM news that night. 49 years ago? WOW!!

I was a heartbroken third-grader, riding at the invitation of the engineer (Bill Kennedy), wearing the cap of the Assistant Conductor... That got me noticed and interviewed by the CBS crew!

I owe many of my best memories and the inspiration for what eventually became a career, to the friendship of NYC people on the PUT, and to Bill Kennedy in particular.

Sarge, I'll dig on the business there, I know it's a realtors' office. Yes, the area has been built up and it's likely NOTHING compared to things to come in the area if they don't get a grip on overdevelopment.

If creative management came into play at the State level (Yeah, RIGHT!) the idea reinstating passenger service isn't far fetched. Anyone who thinks that's a silly idea should go to Fairfield County and suggest removing the New Canaan branch to save money....

The station at Lincolndale is made of heavy stone, such as the stations at Chappaqua and Pleasantville. It's significantly larger than a lot of the area New York Central Stations, like someone had local clout, OR nobody had any idea of ending service there. Little stations in Ardsley, the survivor in Millwood and the well-tended survivor at Yorktown I think show that the railroad wasn't that dedicated to service on the line. Outside of the station (library) at Pocantico Hills, I bet Lincolndale is the largest station on the line, even though it's on a branch. Then again, that's a hell of a large station for a branch!

D/

Thanks again, Dieter. The google sat shot led me to believe what you're describing was the station. I think the comparison to Pocantico Hills is not apt, though. Lincolndale was a branch of the Harlem Division, not of the Put, while PH was Put proper.

Let's keep the topic to the 50th anniversary and division/branch remnants, though, in deference to the moderators. As much as I like to think limited reactivation would be nice, and as much as we get hammered for it there was a separate topic on it before (I think it was yours ). We should move that discussion there.

Dieter wrote:If creative management came into play at the State level (Yeah, RIGHT!) the idea reinstating passenger service isn't far fetched. Anyone who thinks that's a silly idea should go to Fairfield County and suggest removing the New Canaan branch to save money....

Sorry to be mentally slow, but I don't get any logical connection between the Put and the New Haven's New Canaan branch. As far as "creative management" and "reinstating service" go I'm afraid the management would have to be very, very creative indeed. There are complex legal issues --- I don't understand them but I know they exist --- governing attempts to resurrect any abandoned rail like once it's really abandoned. This is why Connecticut and possibly other states have done "railbanking." Also, as neat as it could be to see such a resurrection, I'm not sure there is any real need for a third railroad line paralelling the Harlem and Hudson. This whole business strikes me as a pipedream a little like the one you hear 600 or 700 miles south of here. You know, "The south will rise again." But I repeat, a Put would be nice to see, however unrealistic.

Outside of the station (library) at Pocantico Hills, . . .

Is there a Pocantico Hills library that's an ex-Put staition? Or did you mean to say "Briarcliff Manor?" I'm asking out of genuine curiosity.

A couple of years ago Otto posted on one these forums some absolutely spectacular Put photos, including some great color steam shots. As I recall what happened, the owner ordered them removed after a couple of days. I sincerely hope we will be able to have them re-posted at some point, because everybody --- well, at least every Put admirer --- should have a chance to see those!!

A while back I was in Yorktown on business one day and had a chance to visit the Yorktown Museum which contains an HO diorama of the line between about Amawalk and Kitchawan. I am always particularly fascinated by model layouts that seek to accurately reproduce a real place and time; and this one succeeds quite nicely. Those who have never seen it should make a point to. I don't know who constructed it but I give him/her/them (as the case may be!) good marks.

The museum keeps rather short hours --- I think if you Google "Yorktown Museum" you will get their web site which contains their current days & hours.

Can anybody comment on how accurate their reproduction of the tracks and buildings in the village of Yorktown is?

The layout at the Yorktown Museum is fairly accurate, if not compressed. But all the essential pieces are there. I worked on that layout a few years ago and really need to return. There is currently no one working on that layout. The equipment is old and tired.

Here's a link to the museum. Your support is appreciated.

http://www.yorktownmuseum.org/

Shameless plug for book with Put content due out this fall:

http://nywbry.com/forgotten/

-otto-

Otto....Hope that it will be out in time for the Syracuse train show in November. If it is and it is there, you have a customer.

The book should be at your favorite book dealer by September. In the meantime you can pre-order from Ron's Books: www.ronsbooks.com

-otto-