Why did the Erie terminate at Dansville

[Fireman43]

Abbreviated subject heading but more specifically I've always been curious why the Dansville/Mt Morris then Erie terminated at Dansville. Ive searched around the forum with out luck. Actually I suppose the RR. was built back from Dansville to interchange with another line?

Although " down in the valley" was it ever proposed to expand?
Mark

[nydepot]

Ruber's D&MM book explains they wanted to continue down the valley and connect with the Erie around Canaseraga. This would have resulted in several trestles in the Canaseraga-Poag's Hole area.

Charles

[pumpers]

Maybe the surveyors for the RR didn't like what they saw when they got to the region just north of Canaserega (now known as Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area), and never got around to finishing their work.

[RailKevin]

I am a little confused as I thought the Erie's electric line from Rochester ended at Mount Morris. Did it continue to Dansville on it's own ROW, or via trackage rights/purchase of DMM?

[Fireman43]

I can imagine they decided good time to pack it in and go home “Nope can’t get there from here “
In regards to surveying I still can’t begin to fathom how surveys were done at that time. I was looking at a display at the Holland Land office museum in Batavia explaining how they used lengths of chains to pace off sections of land over valleys and hills - and how were pretty accurate.

But still ..........
Mark

[D Alex]

For longer distance, surveying by then utilized the same sort of telescope-and-staff method common until newer electronic systems became available. Surveyors did essentially all of the western states 150 years ago this way, so something as simple as a railroad isn't a big deal. A "chain" is really just a unit of measurement; actual chains were only used in shorter measurements,

[Fireman43]

Thanks for info.

Guess I keep thinking though how difficult of sighting through trees any distance a somewhat level course.

Mark

[scottychaos]

I am a little confused as I thought the Erie's electric line from Rochester ended at Mount Morris. Did it continue to Dansville on it's own ROW, or via trackage rights/purchase of DMM?

No, and no.
The Erie electric line ended in Mount Morris, the Erie never extended to Dansville.

the DMM never extended south (or east, or west) from Dansville just because of geography, too steep to get up and over the hills.
North was the only realistic way in or out for a railroad.

Scot

[nydepot]

I found my photocopy. Excuse the highlighting - my ninth grade self thought this was important to know. I guess it was

Proposed Access to Dansville.jpg (232 KiB) Viewed 2342 times

[Fireman43]

Now we know !
Amazing what we save only to find out years later why we did . Have to get out my map Again to take a closer look at this proposed route.

[scottychaos]

Some DMM history and maps:

https://scotlawrence.github.io/GW/DMMpage.html

Scot

[Fireman43]

Scot,
I have liked following your web posting over the years but so many of the links on RR net appear to have been severed.

Is that a RRNET issue?

I see a common issue with so many other posters.
Mark

[charlie6017]

For what it's worth, the link Scot posted works fine for me. Is it possibly security settings on your browser?

Charlie

[scottychaos]

Scot,
I have liked following your web posting over the years but so many of the links on RR net appear to have been severed.

Is that a RRNET issue?

I see a common issue with so many other posters.
Mark

Thanks to Mark's question, I just discovered that I do have some dead links on that page..
It's because I had to move all my webpages a few years ago, and I missed updating some links..
(I had to update many dozens, perhaps over a hundred links..)
Now that I know they are there, I will go and fix them! thanks for the heads-up!

The three links on the bottom of that page are bad, here are the correct links:

Continue on to page 2, Genesee & Wyoming
https://scotlawrence.github.io/GW/GWpage.html

Back to D&MM - G&W - R&S Survivors main page.
https://scotlawrence.github.io/GW/

return to Scot's main page
https://sites.google.com/site/scotlawrence/

thanks,
Scot

[Fireman43]

I can read his post but what happens at bottom of this link try to go to his MAIN PAGE.

also reading threads a number of years years old on RRNET are broken.

Maybe me

I get all excited thinking ok here is my answer
......