D&H Tunnel outside of Binghamton

[CarterB]

Looks to me from early and later topo maps that the "wye" is about a mile East of the Penn Division junction. Maybe a wye all on its own?

[cjvrr]

This location is just west of the famously photographed signals at Afton. It is also east of the split for the Penn Division. Remember the main line was originally the line down to Carbondale. I would think this was the wye for the Penn Division helpers or for turning power coming to / from Binghamton and going from or to Carbondale. Due to the elevation difference between the two lines at Ninevah it may have been difficult to shoehorn a wye into that area.

There is another abandoned wye just north of Starucca Viaduct on the Penn Division, I remember walking it during the tunnel detours in 1985.

Chris

[ChiefTroll]

The wye-shaped grade between Afton and Nineveh is indeed the location of a former D&H wye, named "Grovers." No relation to the creature on Sesame Street, but GR Cabin was named after Grovers. It was mostly used to turn pushers that had pushed over the hill from Binghamton and then pushed a southbound train.

Penn Division trains didn't normally take pushers into Nineveh. They cut off at Lanesboro and turned on the wye just north of there, Cascade Wye (the source of the designation for KY Cabin). There was a Penn Division passenger train, 511 and 512, that connected at Nineveh with A&S trains. At one time their engine was turned on a turntable at Nineveh, but possibly they eventually used Grovers as well.

Gordon Davids

[rayh]

I grew up in Afton, and as a kid I passed Grovers Wye coutless times as our family traveled Rt. 7 to and from Binghamton. At that time the tracks on it were long gone, but I remember being fascinated by why it existed. I would have loved to have seen it in use. I'm assuming they would have used the Challengers as pushers out of Binghamton, just as they did on the Penn Division?

Ray

[zhyachts]

During WWII I lived on my grandparents farm in Tunnel, NY, at the top of the Belden Hill. Most freights had a 2-8-0 in the lead with an 0-8-8-0 pusher. The pushers uncoupled just past the tunnel, on or near the Harpursville trestle, and backed down to Sanitary Springs. I don't think they ever backed all the way to Binghamton except to return to the shop. The Route 7 crossing had the post office on the north east corner, the station on the south west corner and a creamery and feed store near the north west corner. My grandmother was the postmaster and I would deliver and pick up the mail bags when the passenger trains came through. (Ten Wheelers and an occasional Pacific)

I spent a lot of time with the station master, Ernie, and tried to hitch a ride on a pusher, no luck. But my uncle did arrange a cab ride in a Challenger in the Binghamton yards. Pictures and map attached. Kid is me in 1938, later picture show growth hiding the rock walls. Note the difference in portal height. The tracked was lowered a while back for double stacks.

[cwhowell2]

Thanks for the pictures. Any idea when the overgrown one was taken? The band picture below was taken Sunday December 22, 1974 by JJ Young Jr: