LV station in Victor?

[Brad Smith]

Did Victor have a passenger station on the LV and if so, where was it? Someone recently told me it was the 3 story brick building that used to be occupied by McDonald Electric, across the track from library in town, but it's not listed as such anywhere. Anyone know for sure?

[scottychaos]

3 story brick building?
I cant see the building you mean..can you see the building on this aerial pic? There is a building with a "barn-style" roof, but thats probably not it.

http://tinyurl.com/2wfnq2

Im sure Victor must have had a LV station, but its long-gone.

The 1903 topo map:
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/cand03nw.jpg
seems to indicate a structure right at the NE corner of the LV and Maple ave..and that spot would make the most sense for a LV station.
there is currently no building in that corner.

(right across the tracks from the building that used to have a sign saying "Lehigh Valley Hotel" or tavern..or resturant..something like that.)


Scot

[lvrr325]

My Lehigh Valley blueprint D-14-18 of Victor shows a frieght house roughly halfway between Maple Ave. and School St. on the south side of the tracks. There is an unmarked structure on LV property, away from the tracks and at an angle, next to Maple Ave. north of the tracks.

I checked my copy of Upstate Oddesy (The Lehigh Valley RR in Western NY, Hamilton-Dann) and according to that the station was a combination passenger and frieght with agent's quarters. A photo of it is shown and it appears in two other photos of Victor - two stories, wood, with a one story addition on the west end. It looks more like a house than anything else.

It's long since gone, although the NYC and the RS&E depots are still standing and in use.

[joshuahouse]

I've not been there in gosh it must be almost 13 years, but I kind of remember the library itself having been the station, I could be completely wrong here tho.

NOTE, IIRC there was also talk of building a new library at the time, so if they did I may mean the old library.

[TB Diamond]

The Lehigh Valley RR Victor, NY depot was as lvrr325 described in the post above. This structure was destroyed by fire in 1985 shortly prior to the ONCT track removal/realignment project in Victor. By the way, the Victor Library was located in the old R&E, not RS&E depot.
Scott: The hotel you refer to on the east side of Maple Avenue just south of the LVRR MT was the Black Diamond Hotel. Best Friday night fish fry going as I recall.

[Brad Smith]

Thanks for the replies.
The reason I ask is because a friend and I recently rented some retail space in the building. It is roughly 1/2 way between School and Maple streets on Railroad St. and would fit the location mentioned for the freight station. There were clearly dock doors on the east facade, and there is still rail running under Railroad Street near, but not next to, the doors. Most likely though, a wooden platform would have been attached and that could have reached to the track.
The building is currently being sold. Perhaps the abstract will show whether it was a LV building, I'll ask de landlawd after the sale is complete. I was originally thinking of adding some rr decor to honor the building should it be rr related but it now looks like we'll have too much merchandise crowded in to allow for much decor anyhow.

[BR&P]

The 3 story brick building was formerly owned by George W. Haxton & Son Inc, dating back at least to 1943. MacDonald Electric bought it in the early 80's, it may have been vacant or may have had another owner between Haxton and MacDonald. I am unaware of any LV ownership of the building.

The freight house was torn down when Adams Street was created. I don't recall an accidental fire although the fire department may have used it for practice once it was determined that it would be removed. Any depot was gone before that time - to the best of my knowledge that building was only a freight house.

[lvrr325]

According to my data, the building in question dates to at least 1940, is built on what was LV land, and the land was leased from the LV through 1959 or so when it was sold to Haxton. I have the related print; I may have the associated paperwork but I'd have to look it up in my files. The print shows a siding on the north side of the structure.


The info on the station being combined passenger/freight is quoted from Hamilton-Dann in her book.

[TB Diamond]

The information about the Victor LVRR station being destroyed by fire was related to me in Victor in the fall of 1985 by the foreman in charge of the ONCT Victor track removal/realignment project. He related that the structure was burned as a training exercise by the Victor FD. The station had to be removed to make room for the track realignment and for the new Adams Street. And yes, this structure had all the appearance of being only a freight station. Any one-story addition was long gone by the early 1970s by personal observation.
The Victor station still had a freight agent as late as February, 1957, however.

[Brad Smith]

I have now been told the building I asked about was once a flour mill. Clearly, the person who told me it was once "the railroad station" was mistaken, so I'll go with the flour mill story for the time being.
BTW, now that I'm spending time next to the ONC tracks, I'm surprised to find out how often they run. I had the impression from reading these boards that it was a rather rare event, but either they are abnormally busy at the moment or I mis-understood the activity level.

[lvrr325]

As illustrated it looked more like a two-story house; it had a normal roof that didn't overhang and no canopies, just a small bay on the west end, track side. It did have a railhead level platform that reached from Maple street well to the east (hidden in photo by approaching train) and along the west side of the structure.

It's very likely the LV stopped serving passengers here well before the end of passenger service, and that even stopped in 1961, so I'm sure the platform came up in a hurry. (you should see how horrible of shape parts of the inside of the Geneva station was, they didn't spare any money to maintain the passenger-related stuff at all).


I think if I'd been around when they were burning it, I would have fired up a sawzall and cut the bay out of it and hauled it off on a car trailer. If they need the hole patched, particle board is cheap.

[BR&P]

Brad, some lunch hour go across the street to the library and see what they have for local history. I think every town in the country has a picture of "the old depot" somewhere and maybe we can put this one to rest. I can't state with 100% certainty but I really believe the old shed mentioned above was only a freight house and not the depot.

One point in support of that - a map from about 1907 shows stock pens east of where the Haxton building now stands. This would put them quite close to where the building in question was. Yes livestock was taken for granted back then but I still feel it's unlikely they had people get off the train and immediately encounter a corral and its related odors. Unfortunately the map segment does not include either the suspected freight house or a depot.

[BR&P]

I just got out the track charts and here are a couple points of interest. (They don't help with the depot question itself.)

There are two remaining tracks besides the ONCT main now - one is the ONCT Team Track which extends westward to School St immediately south of the main. (Note that the current ONCT main between Maple and School St is NOT the LV main - that was where Adams Street is now). The other track extends from a switch off the team track, goes south across the drive in front of the Haxton building and goes west only a few feet from the collision shop. This also extends westward to School St but is almost 100% buried. ONCT did use this track until the early 90's.

The map shows a track which went along the north side of the Haxton building which would have accessed the two doors, and another in back (south) but a bit farther away from the building. Both ended roughly where the collision shop is. Just south of the second one the map shows "Coal Bins". this is NOT the same coal structure that used to exist closer to School St.

A third track also left the lead just west of Maple Avenue, following the path of ONCT's lead to Victor Insulator for a little way. It then pointed southwest. The map I have shows it dead ending, but after a gap of about 75 feet right at the property line, there are TWO tracks from the trolley line. Both appear to dead end on the map but the one more to the southeast lines up perfectly with the LV spur. So here's a question - did we have a customer - the stock pens perhaps - which were served by both LV and the R&E? Or was that 75 foot gap actually continuous providing a physical connection between the two lines?

The embankment for those lines off the R&E can still be seen, especially at this time of year. The trolley main is now a hiking path, and the embankment extends northeastward to about MacDonalds fence, west of ONCT's lead to the insulator works.

[TB Diamond]

The Lehigh Valley RR and the R&E did interchange traffic in Victor, so the gap mentioned above was formally a continuous track.

[lvrr325]

Brad, some lunch hour go across the street to the library and see what they have for local history. I think every town in the country has a picture of "the old depot" somewhere and maybe we can put this one to rest. I can't state with 100% certainty but I really believe the old shed mentioned above was only a freight house and not the depot.

Pretty sure that's how Hamilton-Dann put the book together. A lot of the photos are loaned from historical societies, libraries, and other local history books. Two of the Victor photos came from the Victor Town Historian.

"Close to main street the Lehigh purchased a large area for trackage. From the mainline, switches and sidings extended to freight buildings, and as a result of the Lehigh's presence, Victor became a focus for shipment - mainly potatoes. Because of increasing volume of freight, it was necessary for the agent to reside on the premises, so the depot was a combination passenger/freight, a two-story with living quarters for the agent and his family."


There is a later photo showing the Black Diamond, going away, not dated but it appears to be 1930s or 1940's - engine looks to be steam and an auto is just barely visible waiting for it to pass. It seems to have been taken from the roof or second story of a building at School St.

It shows a second structure was next to the tracks 150 feet or so west of the station. Also wood, there are no windows visible; the peak of the roof is slightly higher - the two structures could probably be mistaken for one another. I was never in Victor to see the layout before Adams St. was built, but it could be this is the structure that was burned and the actual station was gone already. It certainly did not have the one-story addition as the station did.