Erie's River Jct. line (near Swains)

[tk48states]

When I was a kid we used to ski at Swain, NY on Erie's Buffalo line, this was back in the 50's and there were a lot of freights going by. It wasn't until later I found out that most of the traffic was actually headed west to the mainline taking the cutoff at River Jct. Two years ago I got back to Swain on my Yamaha dual sport and decided to find that cutoff which had been abandoned by Conrail. Found it and follwed it through farmlands above the Genesee River, even found an abandoned Conrail caboose in the middle of nowhere. Of course the big trestles are gone, even the hiway overpasses but I'm wondering if the WNY and Penn wishes this line were still in existence.
If it was the climb over TipTop could be avoided with all that heavy coal or maybe today's high powered units are enough to negate the advantage of a lower line. Back then it was mostly Alco FA's pulling the tonnage. Wish I had some photos.

[BR&P]

Tell us more about the caboose in the middle of nowhere.

[tk48states]

If you follow the old roadbed south from what was River Jct, the CP is there now ,there's a farm right on the roadbed but go south about 3-4 miles and there right at the bottom of a farmer's field is a blue Conrail steel caboose. As I recall the trucks are still on it but it's lying right on the ground, no rail. I sure was surprised thinking the wrecking crew just left it there or maybe a landowner bought it but there are no buildings nearby and it appears to be just abandoned.
Another way to see it is go east out of Fillmore on county road to a removed overpass , follow Erie roadbed north half mile or so and there she sits.

[RailKevin]

I may have found the caboose on maps.live.com. Follow a car route east from Fillmore, then go north on Ballard Road, then go east on Don Knibble Road. The caboose (or whatever it is) appears to be just north of where DK Road crosses the ROW.

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to create a link to the Bird's Eye photo. You will have to look the old-fashioned way!

[Luther Brefo]

I followed the steps provided by RailKevin and present my findings below:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&c ... &enctype=1

Is the caboose the "item" by the pond?

[Brad Smith]

I'm wondering if the WNY and Penn wishes this line were still in existence.

Just an educated guess, but I would think-no. Bill Burt spoke at the ELHS dinner in Jamestown some years ago. He mentioned the maximum capacity of the existing line would be on the order of 14 trains per day. Since they're not near that at this point, I would think the River Line, with all it's maintenance headaches, would be as much a liability to them as it was to CR.

Also in Bill Burt's masterpiece on the River Line in the ELHS "Diamond", he mentioned CR abandon the line after a number of autoracks derailed in a narrow cut. There is a huge cut a little ways up from the mystery object in Luther's picture post, maybe this is where the infamous event took place. That would make that caboose kind of like those roadside memorial markers you see on the highway.

[RussNelson]

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.47964,-78 ... %2CCaboose

Clicking on Luther's link just got me to a search page, not a map. Try clicking on this link. It puts a cross-hair right on the caboose.

[wdburt1]

If you want to see Erie's River Line in its glory, find a certain photo taken looking backward from the cab of an Alco FA on NY-99 accelerating off the Genesee River Viaduct. This photo is in the Erie Railroad Magazine, in a 1950 feature article about that train.

50 MPH railroad except 30 over the big bridges. A long tangent between North Cuba and Rockville. Those days will never come back.

Practically gradeless, yes. But 7 miles longer than the old main. Even in the Sixties, diesels had equalized the running time River Line vs. old main line. (Cuba Summit: 0.77% ruling grade facing eastbound trains.)

The price of grade reduction was excessive maintenance due to building the railroad as a cut-and-fill project across a difficult topography with soil conditions that Erie's chief engineer in 1906 chose to overcome. (See the P&WV for a similar story.) That was a good bet from about 1925, when the newly constructed roadbed began to settle down, to about 1975, when signs of distress began to emerge, precipitated by the rot of the wooden trestles inside the big fills and undermaintained drainage.

G.W. Maxwell told me he would keep it, but Chessie, late in the game, asked USRA merely to let it lease the line for two years, which I assume is how long they thought it would take them to make the old main line suitable. Their decision was a rational one.

As a kid, I loved the River Line, but I wouldn't want to operate it.

WDB

[railwatcher]

I am sure that the caboose in question is actually visable from the county rd. that travels from Fillmore to Short Tract. Can be seen from the road, looking south at the downhill lie across the field at the edge of the woods.

[wdburt1]

There are two former Conrail cabooses located on or near the old River Line near Fillmore. One is near the old Knibloe Road grade crossing. The other is visible from County Route 4, near the former east end of the Rush Creek Viaduct. If I recall correctly, both were purchased for use as hunting cabins by the individual who acquired the abandoned line from Conrail.

WDB