Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the Penn Central, up until its 1976 inclusion in Conrail. Visit the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #29563  by nessman
 
I was doing some research on the Hojack line in Monroe County. According to property records on the county clerk's website, just about all of it was sold off to to private parties from the mid 80's to the mid 90's by the Owasco River Railway (reserving easements for utitilies of course).

Was the Owasco River Railway a paper railroad created to deal with former NYC and PC abandoned railroad properties? What purpose do they serve?
 #361437  by scharnhorst
 
nessman wrote:I was doing some research on the Hojack line in Monroe County. According to property records on the county clerk's website, just about all of it was sold off to to private parties from the mid 80's to the mid 90's by the Owasco River Railway (reserving easements for utitilies of course).

Was the Owasco River Railway a paper railroad created to deal with former NYC and PC abandoned railroad properties? What purpose do they serve?
The Owasco River Railroad was a real Railroad located in Auburn, NY it was abandoned long befor the Penn Central was formed the Rails were removed in the 1970's the end of the line as well as there Yard are located just 2 Blocks from where I grew up. Penn Central keeped the name and used it as a holding company for varyed propertys.

 #362080  by scharnhorst
 
RussNelson wrote:Is this the route of the ORRR? http://xrl.us/usyc (Link to mapper.acme.com)
Thats the Finger Lakes Line but the ORRR went strat off the curve behind the building on the corner of Arteral West and State Street it then curved behind the hardware store across from the Chineese Resterant and continued up the Owasco Outlet till it hit North Street where it curved on street trackage up Osborne Street and passed infrount of Wegmans it then went up a 10% grade infrount of Wegmans up Osborne Street and curved off on to what is Mill Street where it had an 8 track stub Yard that dead ended next to the dam.

 #362116  by RussNelson
 
I don't know the town or the landmarks so I can't follow your path. Could you try this procedure?
Visit this url in another window: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.93075,-76.56053&z=17&t=H
Grab and move the image with your mouse, and position the crosshairs on the railbed.
Press Mark.
Repeat last two steps until satisfied.
Right-click on "Link to this page" and select "Copy link location"
Come back to this window, post a reply, and paste the URL into your reply.

 #362242  by scharnhorst
 
updated map below
Last edited by scharnhorst on Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

 #362256  by scharnhorst
 
Image

Hope this works.

The Blue Line at the Northwest corner of the photo is the FGLK Line ex CR/PC/NYC. The red Line is the Owasco River Railroad. The First small building it passes is Curley's Restaurant the line then crossed where Route 5 is then passes a lumber company (South West of the red line) then crosses Route 20 and then crossed over North Street then followed along the outlet on a trestle then crossed over Genesee Street and came on to Dry Land onto Osborne Street where it passed the D.M. Osborne Implement Factory where Wegmans is now the Line Split with the Track going up a 10% grade up Osborne Street next to the T Shaped building where it entered a Stub Yard on what is now Mill Street. There were 3 Big Mills there on on the other opposite bank of the outlet one next to the yard and one at the Switchback stub off of the Yard.

The section of track that curves to the South the switches back into where Wegmans is this was where the D.M. Osborne Plant there was the tracks were between a huge U Shaped building. There were between 30 to 40 sidings servicing other customers between the Osborne plant and the NYC Connection the ORR went as far as putting switches on the trestles to service industries from the back side on the opposite bank of the outlet its self.

Common communities that this little 2 mile line hauled were: Grain, Flour, Farm Equipment, Equipment Greece, Coal, Lumber, and other Mill ground Products. They used a 3 truck Shay for the most part of there operations oddly enough the 1st shay that they used was sold to the Marcellus & Otisco Lake Railroad. The 2ed Shay was leased from the NYC.

The ORRR was chartered by the Lehigh Valley Railroad who owned the right of way the line was then split 50/50 between the NYC with the ORRR Offices remaining in the Lehigh Valley Station on the 2ed floor and the NYC providing the Locomotive Power for the Line. I guess you could call this a shared assist Line??

Re:

 #801041  by scharnhorst
 
RussNelson wrote:Thanks! That's much better than what I was suggesting. Here's how it is in my database:
http://rutlandtrail.org/list.cgi?owasco ... d.ny.track

Updated to the update!

Hay Russ by following your Map going Southwest the ORRR ended by the Dam next to Osborne Street follow your lletters P,J,T,I,O,H,R,G,N,F,U,E. thats the whole railroad right there. The rest of your letters starting at MDQCLBSA are not the railroad this is a sewar line and access road that was built in 1997.
 #805747  by lvrr325
 
Per M&OL history they never bought a shay but leased one from the NYC, they went through a couple as one had a structural defect of some sort.
 #810300  by dansapo
 
lvrr325 wrote:Per M&OL history they never bought a shay but leased one from the NYC, they went through a couple as one had a structural defect of some sort.
M&OL had 2 shay's( nyc 1896) 7185 and 7187(nyc 1898).7185 was returned to NYC due to a damaged frame.Falling into a turntable pit will that.*sarcasm*M&OL did indeed buy 7187 in 1943 and it was later sold to (1947) local scrapper in Syracuse.
 #810573  by TB Diamond
 
The Owasco River Railway was incorporated on 02 June 1881 and was completed in 1882.

The origional ORRy route was in the streets bordering the Owasco River and was powered by horses. The line laid in the Owasco River bed was built later and did away with the hazards of street running.

The New York Central Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad bought the ORRy 50/50 in the earlly 1930s. At the time a 0-4-0 saddeltanker No. 3 was being utilized on the line which was shortly thereafter replaced by a pair of Shay locomotives. NYC crews were called for the ORRy jobs and the Shays were maintained and hostled by the LVRR at the Auburn roundhouse. The Shays were replaced by NYC No. 506, a Cummings centercab circa the mid 1940s. This unit in turn was replaced by an Alco DRS of 600 or 900 hp.

Information via correspondence from Herbert V. Trice.
 #824199  by scharnhorst
 
scharnhorst wrote:
RussNelson wrote:Thanks! That's much better than what I was suggesting. Here's how it is in my database:
http://rutlandtrail.org/list.cgi?owasco ... d.ny.track

Updated to the update!

Hay Russ by following your Map going Southwest the ORRR ended by the Dam next to Osborne Street follow your lletters P,J,T,I,O,H,R,G,N,F,U,E. thats the whole railroad right there. The rest of your letters starting at MDQCLBSA are not the railroad this is a sewar line and access road that was built in 1997.