Line through downtown Niagara Falls

[Schaffner]

I read some time back that the line that ran right through downtown Niagara Falls was scheduled to be abandoned. This is the line that paralleled the river a few blocks away right next to a lot of the tourist attractions. I did get to see one freight on it one day, and it was kind of surreal to see a train treading its way down a right of way next to hundreds of pedestrians.

Anyway, is this line still in service? I beleive it was a CP line.

[Ken V]

Unfortunately, the line was torn up quite a few years ago. Once used by New York Central and later Conrail, the line was sold to CN and CP jointly in the mid 1980's and used by CP up until abandonment.

[atsf sp]

Heres a pic of a CP and STLH GP9 on it in '98.

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[NS VIA FAN]

Here’s a view from approximately the same location last week. The track now ends in front of the Sheraton Hotel. Just beyond the Portage Rd. bridge the new FallsView Casino is sitting on the abandoned right of way and now a walking trail at Clifton Hill.

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[atsf sp]

When i went to Niagara Falls when I was younger, I saw a good number of trains on this branch. I went back to the same hotel ofwhich my picture was taken and I was dissapointed to see the ROW torn up. Down at the powerplant down the line there are old hoppers just rusting away. The old RR bridge is now a walking bridge. The CN yard in Niagara Falls is still very active though along with the border crossing.

[NS VIA FAN]

Amtrak once had a train that used this section of track "The Niagara Rainbow” which operated on 225 miles of Conrail (xPenn Central, xNYC) track across Southern Ontario between Detroit and Niagara Falls then onto New York City. It was discontinued in 1979.

Here's the Amtrak Timetable for October 1978. This was entirely an Amtrak operation, there was no VIA involvement.

Amtk NF TT.jpg

[Kaback9]

This thread just answered a long standing mystery that my father an I have been trying to solve since our visit to Niagra falls in 2005, our Hotel overlooked what looked like to me to be a former ROW, when I got home I did some research but nothing ever came of it. So Thankyou!

[NS VIA FAN]

Amtrak once had a train that used this section of track "The Niagara Rainbow” which operated on 225 miles of Conrail (xPenn Central, xNYC) track across Southern Ontario between Detroit and Niagara Falls then onto New York City. It was discontinued in 1979.

Here’s Amtrak’s Niagara Rainbow on Conrail at St. Thomas, Ontario in November 1977.

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[erie2521]

My only ride on that piece of track was New Year's Day 1945. I was on an Army Hospital train which originated on Staten Island. Our routing you would kill for today. SIRT to the CNJ and eventually up to the West Shore which we took to Hoffmans. Then the main line to Rochester, Falls Road to Suspension Bridge and then onto this stretch on our way to Chicago. By the time we got to Niagara Falls, it was dusk and it was snowing giving us a very pretty winter view of the Falls. Most of the fellows on the train had never seen the Falls before.
The snow kept up until by the time we got to St. Thomas, it was drifting under our car and shorting the lights out.

[buddah]

Amtrak once had a train that used this section of track "The Niagara Rainbow” which operated on 225 miles of Conrail (xPenn Central, xNYC) track across Southern Ontario between Detroit and Niagara Falls then onto New York City. It was discontinued in 1979.

Here's the Amtrak Timetable for October 1978. This was entirely an Amtrak operation, there was no VIA involvement.

Amtk NF TT.jpg

WOW !!! are u serious.. I never knew about this route and it was totally a Amtrak funded and maintained route, that's different! I noticed on that timetable that Amtrak had a Windsor stop, so did they have there own Windsor station? any other Canadian stations owned by Amtrak? how was customs taken care off? you just opened up a world of questions from me... the only thing I know for sure it that it must have been when Amtrak was still using MCS in detroit.

Check for my soon to be topic posted in the Amtrak section after further investigation....

[NS VIA FAN]

WOW !!! are u serious.. I never knew about this route and it was totally a Amtrak funded and maintained route, that's different! I noticed on that timetable that Amtrak had a Windsor stop, so did they have there own Windsor station? any other Canadian stations owned by Amtrak? how was customs taken care off? you just opened up a world of questions from me... the only thing I know for sure it that it must have been when Amtrak was still using MCS in detroit...

When I rode the Niagara Rainbow in 1977 from Detroit to Fort Erie (ran via Ft Erie then, not Niagara Falls) I was seated in a car reserved for passengers de-training or boarding in Canada. When we stopped at the former Penn Central (originally the MC/NYC & CPR) Station in Windsor, the Canadian Customs Inspector boarded and asked me the usual questions. I do not believe through US passengers traveling between Detroit and Buffalo/NYC were inspected. The passengers boarding in Canada were also seated in this car and would be inspected by US officials when the train re-entered the US. You were required to stay in this car and the snack-bar attendant would come back occasionally to take orders.

Remember…..this was the original Michigan Central/New York Central route and if you traveled between Detroit and New York City or Boston back then, you went through Canada. Numerous trains per day, some with sleeping cars only and thousands of passengers.....and most not even realizing they were in Canada! How simple things were pre 9-11.

Here’s a link to an interesting book on the subject: “New York Central’s Canadian Streamliners” (scroll about half down the list)

http://www.tracksidecanada.on.ca/catalo ... REAMLINERS

[george matthews]

the new FallsView Casino is sitting on the abandoned right of way

What a horrible looking building.

[Tommy Meehan]

Great information and wonderful pix in this thread.

I was at Niagara Falls last Sept. with the girlfriend. We stayed in a hotel right across from the pedestrian bridge into the NY state park. Buffalo Avenue and something street. We walked along the area where the old right-of-way was but I never knew it had been there.

One question, the old Niagara Rainbow that ran on that track, that's New York, how'd it get into Canada?

I used to see the Rainbow all the time, back in the mid-70s, but all the way on the other side of NYS, at Peekskill, ten miles out of Croton-Harmon.

[lakeshoredave]

i remember seeing a decent amount of cp trains on the route through niagara falls. it was a single track line, so they ran trains in spurts. it sure was an interesting setup how cp tried to run trains through that town.

[thbmile40]

It used to be a double track, the second track was removed in the mid to late 80's.