Albany Main

[AMFan]

Not to imply anything to get excited about, but a co-worker of mine who is a resident in Slingerlands saw a NS crew cab hi rail truck on the north end 3 or 4 weeks ago. He says that there were 4 or 5 guys in the cab.
I poked around Delmar/Elsmere yesterday and there was evidence that something had been through, as some vegetation had been knocked down and small trees knocked over, so something has been down the line.
Any speculation on what this could have been about? I'm hoping that NS was told it's about to be ripped up and maybe there is one last chance that they will take it.

[Albanymain]

While I'm praying this is good news... with our luck they were just looking at the track to put a bid on it or something for tear out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[DelawareHudson]

Unfortunately, I saw something today that may indicate that it was just a "post mortem" run for salvage purposes.

The control box for the GC signals at Voorheesville Avenue, one block east of the former diamonds, has suddenly disappeared. All that is left is a bunch of wires where this metal cabinet had stood for years. I will keep an eye for anything else that seems to suddenly vanish.

I'm not sure which is worse, losing the AM or Colonie.

This has not been a good few weeks.

[AMFan]

I think losing the AM is actually worse, as it is part of the orginal AS and is an actual route that will not return if ripped up, as history has shown everywhere else. I am not a pessimist by nature but I think the loss of the trackage means the loss of a railroad route forever. I couldn't help but think of how screwed up things are in this nation with regards to transportation when I got behind a tractor trailer the other day in Vermont, sucking diesel smoke from a poorly running truck, unable to pass for 20 or so miles, while paralleling either inactive trackage or abandoned right of ways. It isn't ironic, it just plain stinks.

[DelawareHudson]

Further inspection indicates that the gates from the signals at Voorheesville Avenue have also been removed, as has the electric meter. Driving down over Hilton Road, Font Grove Road, and Upper Font Grove Road, all the electric meters are gone. These had still been in place until very recently. Doesn't look good.

I want to see how they're going to make a rail trail over the Normanskill Bridge. The closer the abandonment comes to completion, the angrier I get. I think it's one of the most foolish business decisions I've ever seen a corporation make. CP from Calgary is treading on very thin ice to think they can make a decision about a line that is so far away. Just another company where the accountants call the shots. I'm not suggesting that the AM was ever going to make a big difference revenue wise, but any idea of commuter rail, whether it were the AM itself, or the Saratoga proposal, would now be made excruciatingly more difficult. When the original Saratoga proposal was made a few years ago, CP was planning to fix the AM to allow for congestion relief from Crescent Junction to Albany. What do they do now if that proposal ever comes to fruition? I also think the route could make an excellent route for some sort of dinner train in conjunction with a commuter rail line. One of the big obstacles to commuter rail was congestion on the largely single tracked routes it would have had to navigate. With the AM, there's an almost unused rail line where a demonstration could have been staged with much lower costs, even with a $6 million price tag to fix the Normanskill approaches and bridge.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Did I say I thought the idea was stupid? Ok, end of rant for today.

[DelawareHudson]

Interesting article in the TU today about containers at the Port Of Albany. Like I said, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/st ... =4/30/2004

[Jack Shufelt]

FWIW, two spike pullers were operating east from Voorheesville on Tuesday May 25.

So, it looks like the rails will be gone soon.

Jack Shufelt

[AMFan]

I snooped around Slingerlands Thursday afternoon, the contractors were just east of the Slingerlands firehouse pulling spikes with a small machine.
In V'ville by the diamonds, some of the better ties were painted for salvage. Hard to believe this is happening, like a bad dream, only this is real.

[DonPevsner]

What is the rationale for keeping the line Voorheesville-Delanson
(mainline junction) and scrapping the rest?

[DelawareHudson]

The current reason for keeping any of it is to serve the Guilderland Industrial Park. There are still a few freight customers there, and there is also an auto unloading facility there which can accomodate up to 100 (rail)cars of autoracks, IIRC. The irony to this whole story is that all the 30 car trains coming up the east end carrying all those autoracks about 4 years back are no longer there at all, with the contract not having been renewed when it expired about a year later. All that sudden traffic drew a lot of attention to the line, which when it had 4 cars being carried on it didn't get anyone's attention.

Up until June of 2000, the west end of the AM had been left unmaintained since 1995 and placed "out of service," and the Park was served from Kenwood Yard. Attempting to blame most of it on very high creek waters of that year, CP decided to embargo the east end of the line because of years of runoff damage and soil shifting around the approaches and piers of the Normanskill Bridge, something that had been going on for 100 years. There IS some minor structural compromise to the bridge itself, and the autoracks at the time had been traversing it with no apparent problem, but ultimately a 5 ton weight limit on the bridge was imposed, and that ended the use of the east end. The west end was then hurriedly rehabbed, and the connector in Voorheesville to CSX was repaired to allow a detour via CSX Selkirk during the west end rebuild. All in all, the whole bridge repair was deemed too expensive, and the east end was abandoned in favor of the west end.

This is a very sad end to an ancient link to rail history. I always let the railroads off on the expense issue, but abandonment of this particular line is a major slap in the face to rail history. It's a criminal shame that there is no support whatsoever to keep this line intact. CP may be doing a decent job of running what's left of the business end of the D&H, but this closure is not a wise move to anyone who lives in the area. There is too much value in many of these rail lines that are abandoned, this one in particular. Ironic that every spike pulled on a rail line is like adding one to a coffin. I cannot say I'm happy at all about this. Not one bit.

[CREngineer]

As someone who literally grew up in Delmar along and on the Albany Main, i decided to go check out the dismantling this evening. Sadly, the spike pulling machines and the boltmaster (assuming mechanized technology is being used) have made it thru Slingerlands, Delmar, and Elsmere heading North towards KN. The rails are just standing there on their own now. Every few ties a spike or two remains, but almost every joint has been taken apart.

I guess what amazes me, is that here in NYS which is a progressive state when it comes to railroads in general, there is no Rail Bank legislation. Think about it: in 1982, the Ausable Branch was there, the Ticonderoga Branch was there, a great deal of the old Chateguay Branch was still there, the Harlem Line was intact to Chatham, the Maybrook was intact to Maybrook Yard (minus the bridge), and due to the taxes the railroads were required to pay, they tore out the railroad instead of preserving it for the future. Once gone, they are almost never replaced (a few exceptions: Post Road, Track 2 Albany to CP125, and of course the Harlem to Wassaic) .

While i have great memories, and some not so great pictures that i took along the Albany Main both on the ground and aboard trains, they will never replace the history being lost to future generations by not having a railroad in their backyard to watch.

[Albanymain]

So it has happened, my favorite rail line is gone. At this point I'm just numb, no more anger, frustration or confusion. I have taken a job out of Albany, no more commuting into the city so who cares what traffic is like, I hope the west end of Albany County turns into another Clifton Park. When yuppie pukes are sitting on the Delmar Bypass in gridlock, choking on BMW exaust, maybe someone will say hmmm a commuter rail line would be great, unfortunately it will be a bike trail (maybe). Maybe the "man with a tan" Mayor Jennings will figure out how to revitalize the city, and maybe he can magically fix the parking problem (not really a problem if you are high enough up in State Government) and maybe pigs will fly out of my butt.

Nice job guys, this ranks right up there with covering the waterfront with 787, building that masoleum to wasteful spending up on the hill and all the other shortsighted crap ever done in the city. Strange that the only County/city enterprise that has been a big success is the Knick and the two main players in that got in trouble with the law.

Oh well the Albany Main will live forever in my layout room and I guess thats ok.

And to CP, its bad enough your home country gets free national defense from the fact we are your neighbor to the south and then you stiff us in Iraq, now you got to crap in my backyard! thanks, I'll be keeping my tourist dollars right here in the USA and you can bet I'll be avoiding as much as possible, buying Canadian products and services. People bitch about American companies coming into other countries and exploiting the native workforce and taking all the profit out and leaving nothing behind, this is differet for CP how?

Sorry for the politics but it is all politics.

[NYSW3614]

Sorry Mr. Loree, they know not what they do.

Way to go CPR, New York State, and Albany County.