One of the LV email lists got a message forwarded in from a gentleman who lives in Etna who says he remembers "as a young boy, during the early 1940's of seeing flat bed train cars loaded with military equipment... jeeps, tanks, and other military equipment."
Sounds like your typical military train to me.
By that date, the line only went as far south/west as East Ithaca, were it 1938 or earlier I suppose such a train could have joined the freight bypass at Van Etten and headed up to the Seneca Depot. But that wasn't possible during WWII.
Now there is a National Guard Armory today, they used to have the train shows there, and it's not very far from the abandoned ROW of the branch - but it wouldn't appear to me to have been there in the 1940s, it seems like a newer facility. But perhaps that replaces an earlier armory closer to the city? Certainly Syracuse and Rochester both have an old Armory downtown. It's the only destination (or origin) for such a train that I can imagine.
But even there, unless the thing was right on top of the branch it seems odd they'd run it out that way and not go down the hill and load it up to go out on the mainline, or come in that way and vice versa. Unless the idea was to confuse/avoid spies.
Figured I'd cross post here and see if anyone can shed some light on this -
Sounds like your typical military train to me.
By that date, the line only went as far south/west as East Ithaca, were it 1938 or earlier I suppose such a train could have joined the freight bypass at Van Etten and headed up to the Seneca Depot. But that wasn't possible during WWII.
Now there is a National Guard Armory today, they used to have the train shows there, and it's not very far from the abandoned ROW of the branch - but it wouldn't appear to me to have been there in the 1940s, it seems like a newer facility. But perhaps that replaces an earlier armory closer to the city? Certainly Syracuse and Rochester both have an old Armory downtown. It's the only destination (or origin) for such a train that I can imagine.
But even there, unless the thing was right on top of the branch it seems odd they'd run it out that way and not go down the hill and load it up to go out on the mainline, or come in that way and vice versa. Unless the idea was to confuse/avoid spies.
Figured I'd cross post here and see if anyone can shed some light on this -
