Railroad Forums 

  • New life for Schenectady Plant

  • Discussion of products from the American Locomotive Company. A web site with current Alco 251 information can be found here: Fairbanks-Morse/Alco 251.
Discussion of products from the American Locomotive Company. A web site with current Alco 251 information can be found here: Fairbanks-Morse/Alco 251.

Moderator: Alcoman

 #367765  by snitkofj
 
Schenectady has hired a developer who is supposed to conver the property into condos and comercial space. they say some buildings will be retained, and new buildings will be built to fit in with the exisiting buildings and take the site's history into account. or something along those lines (end paraphrase of 45 sec. news bite)

 #367782  by Alcoman
 
I heard this on TV today and from what Channel 6 reported, ALL present building will be torn down. In addition, the current companies such as STS Steel will be kicked out.
Not the right way to go! They should keep it as an industrial site and try to get more industrial users to come in. It has access to rail service. In fact, STS Steel wanted rail service reconnected and the city refused to do anything but tell them they would have to pay for it. Industry quite often bring in high paying jobs which in turn provides more business for local stores.
The City has a very high property tax rate and they can't keep business on State Street or Erie Blvd very long. I doubt that building stores will help them out since they can't keep what they have in place. Property taxes for home owners is just as high so building more homes is not the answer either since that area is a "brown field".
I would however be in favor of a "ALCO" museum built there as part of a plan to retain some structures including the main assembly area.
Just my 2 cents!

 #368038  by traingeek8223
 
I just about through up when I found out about this. I'm 100% for a museaum, but local politions would have nothing of it. No one in this town cares any thing about history any more and it really is a shame. Looks like all we can do now is shed some tears and pray the deal falls through.

 #368164  by U-Haul
 
If there are no jobs then why are more housing units needed? Schenectady New York is not the boom town it once was.
 #368182  by snitkofj
 
yeah, they are through the roof, I know first hand.

Some sort of museum down there would be nice, but the museum the city already has wants to leave. The RS-3 they had restored has broken windows, head lights, and a cab full of snow at the moment.

 #368185  by Alcoman
 
U-Haul wrote:If there are no jobs then why are more housing units needed? Schenectady New York is not the boom town it once was.
They DON'T need anymore housing. The housing market in this area is doing poorly right now. As traingeek pointed out, it is being done to make all the State and city bigwigs look good.
High taxes has been an issue with this town going back 50 years because the city of schenectady always has a big budgetand never enough money. I don't thing they know what balanced budget looks like.

A few years ago, there was alot of hoopla about rebuilding the Amtrak station and nothing has been done since.

Getting back on topic; I thinks an Alco museum would be a great tourist attraction for Schenectady. The office could be used for administrative functions while one of the large assembly line buildings could hold
locomotive and other artifacts and displays. Its nice to dream....

 #369139  by Alcoman
 
It's not Super Steel. SS is located in Scotia, not Schenectady.
Its STS Steel I am refering to. They are in the Alco plant itself.

 #369231  by Luther Brefo
 
Alcoman wrote:It's not Super Steel. SS is located in Scotia, not Schenectady.
Its STS Steel I am refering to. They are in the Alco plant itself.
Thank you for the clarification. Are there any local efforts to perhaps preserve any structures on the property?

 #369341  by Luther Brefo
 
scottychaos wrote:The title of this thread should be "DEATH for Schenectady plant". :(

there is no "new life" for the plant in this story.

Scot
I was misled too. Upon reading that title, thoughts of NRE and FM teaming up to re-open Schenectady came into mind.

Just think about a re-introduced Century Line with the new Tier 3 compliant 2M7 Prime Mover. (2007, M is 1000 in Roman Numerals) :)

A man can dream, right?
Last edited by Luther Brefo on Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

 #371967  by N. Todd
 
Haha, they did the same thing in Portland, Oregon in the late 90's. Ripped out a frieght yard/engine terminal and the surrounding warehouses, not to mention a turntable- and replace all of it with "luxury condos", $750K to buy, right next to some noisy trains, when you can get a real suburban house... Stupid how the city or developer bragged about how they replaced the roundhouse with a 15-storey building. Portland also hates businesses, especially industry and nails you with property taxes.
 #394271  by gawlikfj
 
Can you go to the Senators & Congressmen in the State for help in perserving the Alco Plant, like Steamtown did with their problem in
Scranton,Pa ?
I read this story in Railpace last night and its been bothering me ever since.
I hope this helps and Alco will be perserved.
 #396698  by gawlikfj
 
Is anything being done for the Alco Plant ?
Its bothering me not hearing something.