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  • Rensselaer, NY, Questions

  • Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.
Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1427200  by John Laubenheimer
 
I have some questions regarding Rensellaer.

1) Where was New York Central's station in Rensellaer vs. today's AMTRAK station?

1a) Some trains which did not stop in Albany changed crews and performed service at the Rensellaer yard, and used the Livingstone Avenue Bridge to continue. Was the yard located at the site of today's AMTRAK station?

2) Where did the line to the Maiden Lane Bridge break off from todays track layout? And, where was the line in relation to AMTRAK WAY (the road heading to the shops)?

3) Are there any remnants left of the Maiden Lane route? ROW, abandoned ties, bridge piers, etc.

4) Where did the POST line (from Boston) come in? Same location as todays, or slightly different? IIRC, it used to be double tracked.

Thanks in advance .....
 #1427464  by Pat Fahey
 
Hi John
Try this web site it deal with track maps of the Boston & Albany RR , hopefully the maps will help in answering your questions .
http://www.zededev.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; B&A Track charts .
 #1427756  by jamoldover
 
John Laubenheimer wrote:I have some questions regarding Rensellaer.

1) Where was New York Central's station in Rensellaer vs. today's AMTRAK station?

1a) Some trains which did not stop in Albany changed crews and performed service at the Rensellaer yard, and used the Livingstone Avenue Bridge to continue. Was the yard located at the site of today's AMTRAK station?

2) Where did the line to the Maiden Lane Bridge break off from todays track layout? And, where was the line in relation to AMTRAK WAY (the road heading to the shops)?

3) Are there any remnants left of the Maiden Lane route? ROW, abandoned ties, bridge piers, etc.

4) Where did the POST line (from Boston) come in? Same location as todays, or slightly different? IIRC, it used to be double tracked.

Thanks in advance .....
The extract from the NYC Valuation Map collection linked below should help - I'm missing the rest of the pieces to the east/south, but this should give you an idea of the junction area.

https://goo.gl/photos/sA2T8WsWdmn9DtMo9
 #1433790  by Railjunkie
 
The yard was were the current Amtrak station and yard is now, the Post road came in about the same spot as it does now. The Amtrak shops and now vacant lot that was the high school was the B&A roundhouse and shops were located. NYCRR shops were in West Albany. Best guess the lead to Madien lane was about the south end of the current platforms at the Albany Renselear station. It ran basically through the Duncan Donuts on Broadway. All of the ROW to the bridge has been developed and you would never know there was a second rr bridge over the Hudson. LAB still stands and is used daily but she is old and miserable and most likely needs to be replaced. The Madien lane bridge was the newer of the two.
 #1433817  by J.D. Lang
 
This topic is of great interest to me. Back in the early 60's I used to take the train from Pittsfield MA. to Syracuse NY a few times. I would take the Beeliner Budd car from Pittsfield to Albany and change trains at the old Albany Union Station for Syracuse. We used to cross the Maiden Lane bridge after coming off of the Post Rd. branch. My guess to where the bridge was is in this Google map. Again it is only my guess as there is nothing there today that looks anything like it did back then.
Possible Route.jpg
Possible Route.jpg (217.44 KiB) Viewed 8322 times
J.L.
 #1433879  by Railjunkie
 
Good guess on the bridge but I think it was a little further south. Before 787 was put in there was a large NYC yard there along the river, the D&H and NYC both made stops in Albany. There is a black and white photo out there that shows the yard the station and the bridge an ex boss had a copy of it hanging in his office. Look for historic aerials Im sure there are some out there.
 #1433941  by Statkowski
 
A great research tool for "forgotten/missing" rail lines is the Historic USGS map site (http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/)

Just type in your location, a current map will pop up, click on a spot, and all the available (i.e., historic) maps for that locale will show up on the bottom border. Click on the one you want and it'll overlay the current map on display. Great for following abandoned lines. Some are more detailed than others.
 #1433991  by J.D. Lang
 
Statkowski wrote:A great research tool for "forgotten/missing" rail lines is the Historic USGS map site (http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/)

Just type in your location, a current map will pop up, click on a spot, and all the available (i.e., historic) maps for that locale will show up on the bottom border. Click on the one you want and it'll overlay the current map on display. Great for following abandoned lines. Some are more detailed than others.
Thanks for the link. Great resource.

J.L.
 #1434403  by Statkowski
 
If you really want undocumented lore, try the Beech Creek District of the Pennsylvania Division. It wasn't Main Line, it wasn't heavy-duty passenger service, so it wasn't well documented. Disconnected branches accessed only via trackage rights, including the highest elevation on the New York Central Railroad (not to be confused with System or Lines).
 #1438665  by TCurtin
 
A great book that will show and tell you everything you want to know about Albany and Renssalaer is Trackside in the Albany N.Y. Gateway 1949-1974 with Gerritt Bruins. It was pubublished in 1998 and is likely out of print but that doesn't mean you couldn't find one at a large dealer like Ron's Books (which I would try first).
 #1438735  by Noel Weaver
 
The book mentioned in the previous post is a Morning Sun Book. These books are basically reproductions of various slide collections with lots of very interesting photos. I do not think that in most cases they are good sources of historic information. I don't think I have any Morning Sun Books in my collection that do not have errors in them, some of them are full of errors. You might get something worthwhile from a caption but I think there may be better sources for information. Unfortunately before my time and Rensselaer was not part of my territory. BEWARE
Noel Weaver
 #1438916  by TCurtin
 
Well, I share your opinion on that matter. Being closely involved in the production of one of the top notch historical society journals I know what's it's like to be frustrated over missing and/or wrong information (eg dates, locations, train numbers, and so on) on slides. Thus I am as sensitive to wrong photo captions as anybody you will find.

However, that said, for a record of what used to be in Albany and Renssalaer this book is the best source I know of
 #1469346  by Engineer Spike
 
The Boston and Maine Historical Society had a series of old movies that had been converted to VHS. One of them dates from the late 1930s, based on the content. Of course most of the material was B&M, but there were some shots from various railfan trips. One was a trip to Albany. There were shots of D&H switching on the lower level of Albany station. One shot aims up and shows a NYC Hudson coming of Maiden Lane Bridge, and into the station. Based on the background scenery, Maiden Lane came over between the D&H building and the station.