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Disclaimer: As the New York Central system-wide timetable, Form 1001, used to read: "Subject to change without notice, not responsible for errors and ommissions." |
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May 2, 1957 Last steam locomotive operates on the New York Central as 2-8-2
Class H -7a 1977 drops its fires at Riverside Yard in Cincinnati.
The New York Central System's fleet of class H (2-8-2 type) locomotives was built in the 1910s and 1920s for main line freight service, but most were soon supplanted in that role by the Mohawks (4-8-2 type) and, on the Boston & Albany, the Berkshires (2-8-4 type). Nevertheless they soldiered on into the beginnings of the diesel era in local freight, branch line or yard transfer service. Indeed, a class H7 2-8-2 was the last steam locomotive to be operated by the New York Central. June 30, 1956. Last run of Niagara 6015 in passenger service, train no. 416, Indianapolis to Cincinnati on account of a diesel failure. Departed Indianapolis 34 minutes late, arrived Cincinnati 6 minutes late. July 2, 1956. Returned to Indianapolis in freight service, train CC-3. Final run. The seven A-2a's built for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie in 1948 was the last steam order for both Alco and the New York Central. Nearly a century of steam locomotive history ended on September 25, 1952 when the last steam locomotive to be repaired there, J-1 "Hudson" No. 5270, left the New York Central's West Albany Shops. L3a "Mohawk", 4-8-2, steam locomotive, #3001 built in 1940, it is the largest piece of NYC steam equipment left in existence. The Centrals last steam run in New York state was on August 7, 1953 with locomotive No. 6020 taking train #185 out of Harmon. Employees Timetable, No. 71 from the Mohawk and Hudson Divisions dated Sunday, April 29, 1951 lists Train 185 as a MILK TRAIN with a footnote stating "Will not carry passengers". Train 185 was a New York - Utica milk train that ran via Rensselaer Yard. It departed Croton at 10.50 a.m. My Electric Division and New York Terminal District Time Table shows No. 185 originating at 60th Street on the NYTD. From roster books, there were 351 steam locos on the roster as of 1-1-1956. There were still 15 classes and 9 wheel arrangements. Quite likely most of these ran at least some revenue miles in 1955 which was the last year steam was used to any considearable extent. Within the first months of 1956 all of the fastest, newest and most powerful engines were retired. It was always easier to pay off new diesels by assigning them to the busiest traffic. All 49 remaining Js as well as 6 remaining niagaras and 7 P&LE 2-8-4s were retired in this period. By 1-1-57 122 engines remained mostly older types for local and switching service. This dropped to 27 by 1-1-58 and 25 by 1-1-59. There is a big difference between engines shown as still being on the roster and supposedly serviceable but sitting in dead lines and engines under steam that were actually working whether in switching or pulling trains out on the road. Of the 122 engines remaining by 1-1-57 how many were actually in steam? I believe most if not all were stored serviceable either in roundhouses or sitting outside in case there was a sudden upturn in business and they ran short of diesels. If not, they could not use that particular locomotive. On the Michigan Central's Canada Southern or Canada Division as late as February 1957 2-8-0's and 0-8-0's in action. By the end of April 1957 they were all done. |
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See some of the grain elevators that once were a part of Buffalo's past.
The Buffalo Creek, or the "Crik" as it is often fondly referred to, was the
main railroad that served nearly all of Buffalo's grain elevators --
those not controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad and others.
The Buffalo Creek was founded in 1868 and was used as a local terminal
switching road completely within the city limits. It's main purpose was to
service waterfront industries, but mostly the grain elevators.
The Buffalo Creek was controlled by both the Lehigh Valley and Erie Railroads and offered connecting service with every major railroad that serviced Buffalo. In this manner, grain was able to get in and out of Buffalo by rail in quantities just as large as if by freighter. See more of the railroads of Buffalo. See more pictures of the Buffalo Creek here. |
| See this ALCO-GE Model HH660 High Hood Switching Locomotive that started work for the Buffalo Creek in 1940. |
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The former Buffalo Creek (BCK) mainline is now the CSX mainline
between CP437 and CP2, (between what was once Tower 47 and BC Tower
in pre-Conrail days. The Buffalo Creek RR bridge over the
Buffalo River is in use. The adjacent
Nickel Plate bridge is permanently raised.
When Conrail was formed in 1976 the Buffalo Creek RR went along into it with the EL and LV. |
| Here's busy section of Buffalo from the early 1930s. A small switching engine from the Buffalo Creek Railroad is making a delivery to one of the many warehouses. The Buffalo Creek was the workhorse for the grain industry in Buffalo and was the liason between this section of the city and the major railroads that delivered grain and other products to be milled and/or stored in Buffalo's grain elevators. The General Mills elevator can be seen in the upper left corner of this image. The truck in the foreground is more than likely loaded with sacks of flour or some other type of grain product. |
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From the October 1968 "Official Guide of the Railways":
BUFFALO CREEK RAILROAD (Erie Lackawanna Railway and Lehigh Valley Railroad Co., Lessees.) C.M. Johnke, Superintendent, 824 Ohio St. Buffalo, N.Y. 14203 A Terminal Switching Railroad serving waterfront and other industries, for carload freight only. Operates 5.66 miles with a total trackage of 34.22 miles and connects with all railroads in the City of Buffalo. Its switching charges for road haul movements are collected by connecting carriers for whom the Buffalo Creek performs the terminal switching service. It receives from and delivers to all direct connections, without preference, providing the same service to industries located on the Buffalo Creek, as though located on the road of the line carrier. Connections: B.& O. R.R. Erie Lackawanna Ry. Lehigh Valley R.R. South Buffalo Ry. Can. Nat. Rwys.* Chesapeake and Ohio Ry. (Northern Region)* N. and W. Ry.* * Listed as "Via Erie Lack., L.V. or PC" The 1964 Guide, of course, listed Pennsylvania and New York Central as connections. |
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Before the redredging of the Welland Canal in the mid/late1950's,
the size of ships travelling between Lakes Ontario and Erie was limited.
Thus much of the marine traffic from the western lakes (Michigan, Huron and
Superior) got as far east as Buffalo on Lake Erie and then had to be
transshipped via rail. This is why Buffalo became a major port and had so
many railroads entering the city. With the redredging of the Welland Canal
(and the opening of the
St. Lawrence Seaway) Buffalo's importance as a port rapidly decreased.
The flour sack on the logo is a reference to one of the primary commodities that was carried by the BCK. Grain is one of the major cargoes carried on the Great Lakes (as well as iron ore, coal & limestone). Much of this grain was offloaded and milled in Buffalo. At one time Buffalo was home to the world's largest cereal packing plant and was a center of the flour and feed milling industries. |
| The University of Wisconsin Library has a great photo of the yard from the Ohio Street bridge (1971). |
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| Troy and Albany Passenger Trains in 1939 |
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The "Information Superhighway", sometimes called the Internet, has
several "discussion groups". One or more of these are railroad related.
Some of the computer "chatter" on the Internet relates to the
old railroads of New York and New England. Joe Brennan of New York City
found some interesting facts from his 1939 NY Central timetable.
Regarding the Boston and Maine train 59, "The Minute Man", 1939...
Boston 3:50--Troy 8:45 (all times p.m.) Troy 9:02--Albany 9:22 Albany 9:45--Chicago Study reveals the facts of the matter to be a New York Central Troy--Albany local as the link. He notes that train 5611 shown in the full B&M timetable for the line, running just the last 16 miles to Troy, shown are Troy 8:22 and then the same times Troy--Albany. It requires a turn to the Rutland RR page to find this is Rutland train 56 from Rutland to Troy, running as B&M 5611 on the B&M's tracks. B&M 59 passed just one sleeper to the NYC at Troy. The B&M parlor came off at Troy along with the coaches. Thus everyone other than sleeper passengers had to change at Troy to coaches on the NYC local, and then again at Albany. The Rutland train 56 (B&M 5611) was only coaches and ended at Troy, so their passengers changed too-- this is not made explicit in the Rutland timetable but is seen in the equipment list. Turning to the NY Central itself... The Troy--Albany locals are listed in a little table printed sideways, just a list of depart times from each city with "approximate running time 25 minutes". We see the 9:02 Troy time. This local carried the B&M sleeper, besides local coaches. The NY Central train Albany--Chicago was NYC 19, "Lake Shore Limited". Interestingly, it carried not only the sleeper leaving Boston North Station 3:50 via the B&M, but also one leaving Boston South Station at exactly the same time via the NYC's Boston and Albany. The B&A train also had a second sleeper to Chicago taken by NYC 17 "The Wolverine", leaving Albany 45 minutes earlier but arriving Chicago 15 minutes later. The B&A sleeper into 19 sat at Albany for 55 minutes (a tight 10 minutes into 17), while the B&M sleeper spent 17 minutes at Troy and 23 minutes at Albany. B&A coach passengers had to change at Albany as against two changes for the B&M coach passengers. The Rutland train 56 advertised a connection south to New York, unlike the connection west for the "Minute Man". This could have meant a reasonable if unadvertised Boston-New York route via B&M, but the Rutland connection is shown as arriving Grand Central at a very late 4:45 a.m. The time leaving Albany is not shown, and only the NYC timetable reveals it to be 1:15 a.m., just 7 minutes shy of four hours at Albany! The only earlier connecting train south was the West Shore 12:30 a.m., which reached Weehawken 4:25 a.m. and foot of 42d St at 4:40 a.m., no big advantage over the Grand Central train unless a ferry ride under the stars sounds good; and the Grand Central train also offered sleepers. Two other B&M trains connected at Troy for Albany, with waits of 15 and 20 minutes respectively. In 1934, the B&M sleeper (arriving Albany 9:10) is picked up by NYC 47 "The Detroiter" at Albany 9:43 and dropped at Buffalo, not a scheduled passenger stop for 47, where it is then picked up by 19 "Lake Shore Limited" about an hour later. The reason seems to be that 19 had to drop cars from New York to the Adirondacks at Utica; taking the B&M car at Buffalo is simpler than juggling the cars at Albany or Utica. However, coach passengers off the B&M and Troy local had to wait at Albany for 19, since 47 has no coaches, only pullmans! Thus the B&M's sleeper and coach passengers rode separate trains from Albany to Buffalo, but neither had to get out and change at Buffalo. In 1940, all timetabled B&M passenger trains went via Troy. The trackage from Mechanicville to Rotterdam Junction was for freight service and it shows D&H trains as "scheduled". Troy was essentially a passenger only route, except for one local freight a day. Main interchange with D&H was Mechanicville and with NYC at Rotterdam Jct. There were thru freights from DeWitt (Syracuse) until the traffic left the B&M to run Conrail via Worcester. B&M also ran a train or two into Selkirk yard once a day; ran up to Rotterdam Jct, switched ends and went into Selkirk. They had several engines equipped with NYC style train control for this service. |
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New Haven Railroad Speeds and Trackage Rights |
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Passenger speeds With the advent of "Acela", there is a lot of interest in speeds on the New Haven from New York to Boston. See a great historical list here! Trackage rights The New Haven had trackage rights on several other railroads. See what we have put together historically. |
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Victoria Station was a restaurant, not a railroad station. Other railroad-related restaurants in Connecticut: Yankee Silversmith Inn / Restaurant has the "Silversmith Parlour Car", an old coach or dining car which serves as part of the dining room. Right on Rt 5 in Wallingford, off the Wilbur Cross Pkwy. The car at the Yankee Silversmith restaurant in Wallingford CT was originally a Philadelphia & Reading coach. It later was purchased by the Belfast & Moosehead Lake, and from there it came to Wallingford I think during the 1960s. Pizzaworks in Old Saybrook is housed in the former Saybrook freight house (relocated slightly from a different track alignment years ago). They have trains running around and part of the old canopy/platform visible inside. Amtrak station is about 20 feet north of the restaurant and the platforms 20 feet south. Trains go flying by at nearly 100 mph. In Cromwell CT there is a seasonal ice cream stand in an ex Amtrak, exx PC, exxx PRR steel caboose, no number available. Find out more on the train stations (and former stations) of Connecticut. |
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| Stores and Mass Transit |
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Here is a possibility.
You take public transit to the home improvment store, buy all the stuff that you want,
and have them deliver it with their large flat bed trucks.
One place that we deal with does that for free. Even if they charged you a fee,
it would likely be less than operating and maintaining a truck for such runs.
Or, if you want to go to the grocery store, you could buy all the stuff that you want,
and have them deliver it, again, free or fee, still most likely cheaper than running a
car all around town. As a plus, the delivery service also employs people,
which we all like to see.
And this is "exactly" the way it used to be! Customers would call the grocery store and they would deliver the order or they would take the trolley (later the bus) downtown, shop at the large department stores, take the packages to a special customer lounge/waiting area/shipping area/storage locker/post office department to be delivered to their home the next day or so, and then perhaps have lunch at the store's lunch counter before taking the trolley or bus back home. Now, the customer could still take the bus there, but it only runs every two hours (or every 4 or only once a day in other areas of the city), the department stores don't have the waiting area or the delivery service or the lunch counter, and..for some reason the department stores are all going broke and closing departments and even entire stores. I'm not sure which one started cutting back first, the public transit or the downtown merchants, but they each needed the other to lure the customers in and, without one the other was no longer viable. If the stores don't deliver, I have to drive my car to take my purchases home, so public transit suffers (but the parking lot operators win). If the trolley doesn't run where and when I need, I have to drive so I may as well take my purchases with me anyway, leaving the delivery service sporadically used and looking like a real good place for the store to cut costs. It's called "infrastructure", and you can't eliminate one part of it without losing the rest as the dominoes topple...it's also hard to build it a piece at a time, of course, because each part needs the other part(s) to justify building it in the first place. It grew up naturally before we had good roads and good individual transportation. I really don't see how we're "ever" going to recover that environment until eventually, perhaps, when our fossil fuels run out in a few hundred or thousand years. |
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| Coal Towers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Coal tower at Cedar Hill in New Haven (photo by the author) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On U.S. 12 between New Buffalo and Michigan
City (Conrail) there is a huge old coaling tower (spans two tracks). I have
wondered why it was never torn down. Recently, an Internet discussion group
brought up the subject of old coaling towers. Most remaining coal and sand
towers are all of heavily reinforced concrete and seem to have been built after
1940 or so, when railroads were trying to cut freight transit time by
eliminating yarding of trains and engines wherever possible. These towers were
built over the mainline and usually included sanding and watering facilities
(If you look closely around the base of the tower you'll probably still see a
concrete pad where the water column once stood). The only reason they're still
around today is they were so strongly built that the mainline would have to be
shut down for at least a couple of days so it could be removed. It's cheaper to
leave it there! Besides the large concrete tower in the New Haven RR's Cedar
Hill (New Haven, Conn) which I know
well, there are others (my partial list) at:
For more about coal towers, see Coal Towers - Coaling Stations for Railroad/Railway Steam Locomotives Circa 1908 - 1915 |
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Maybrook yard coal tower unused in 1968. Photo by Roger Liller See more on the New Haven's Maybrook Yard |
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Signal Stations on the Hudson and Mohawk Division New York Central Railroad |
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| Tower | Location | Call | Line |
| SS 37 | Peekskill -a) | KN | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 43 | Garrison -a) | BC | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 50 | Beacon -a) | F | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
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SS 54 (draw) |
New Hamburg -a) | BU | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 58 |
DeLaval -a) East of Poughkeepsie |
PO | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 60 | Poughkeepsie | WS | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 71 | Barrytown -a) | BA | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 81 | Hudson | HN | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 84 | Hudson -a) | UD | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
| SS 90 |
Stuyvesant -a) Hudson River Connecting RR |
XN | Hudson: Harmon to Rensselaer |
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Troy -a) | UN |
Rensselaer to Troy ( from SS 100) |
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Green Island (D&H Tower) |
GY |
Schenectady to Troy ( from SS 8) |
| SS 98 | Rensselaer -a) |
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Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 99 | Rensselaer -a) | RS | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 100 |
Rensselaer -a) yard |
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Rensselaer to Syracuse |
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SS 101 (draw) |
Albany Passenger Bridge -a) Maiden Lane |
EE | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| A | Albany Yard -a) | A | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| B | Albany Yard -a) | B | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| D |
Albany Freight Bridge -a) Current Amtrak |
D | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 1 | Albany Viaduct -a) | Z | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 3 | Jones Crossing -a) | JC | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 7 | Carman -a) | AS | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 8 | Schenectady -a) | SC | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 11 |
Hoffmans -a) West Shore crossover to RJ |
NA | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 16 | Fonda -a) | VN | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 19 | Palatine Bridge -a) | BD | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 22 | St Johnsville (West) | JU | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 24 | Little Falls | FS | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 26 |
Herkimer -a) Branch to Poland |
KI | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 29 |
Schuyler Junction -a) West Shore Crossover to Harbor |
J | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 30 | Utica (East)-a) | UA | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 31 |
Utica (West) -a) Adirondack Div St Lawrence Div |
WU | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 34 |
Rome -a) To Camden and Richland |
FY | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 39 | Oneida -a) | RX | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 41 | Canastota | CS | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 44 |
Kirkville -a) West Shore crossover |
RV | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| SS 47 | East Syracuse | WI | Rensselaer to Syracuse |
| mp 132 | Selkirk Jct -a) | SK | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 138 | Unionville |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 142 |
Vorheesville -a) D&H Crossing |
NS | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
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Carman -a) Main line connection |
AS | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 152 |
South Schenectady D&H Crossing |
NE | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 159 |
Rotterdam Junction -a) Main Line connection at SS11 |
RJ | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 226 |
Harbor Main Line connection at J |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 231 | Utica |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 232 | DL&W Crossing |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 233 | New York Mills | NF | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 238 |
Clarks Mills NYO&W Connection |
AK | West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 257 |
Canastota Lehigh Valley Crossing |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| mp 267 |
Kirkville Main line connection |
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West Shore Ravena to Syracuse |
| (a- open day and night in 1949 | |||
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RailwayStation.com has provided a
1942 Quiz Book on Railroads and Railroading. Here's some interesting questions and answers: |
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How many trains are operated daily on the American railroads? An estimate based on operations in 1941 put the number of passenger trains at 15,500 and the number of freight trains at 19.500 daily. On this basis, a passenger train starts on its run somewhere in the United States every 5.6 seconds, and a freight train starts on its run somewhere in the United States every 4.4 seconds, day and night, on the average. |
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Traveling in Europe? You will probably need to make a FERRY RESERVATION. Stop by and see our Reservations Center. |
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| Interested in Short Lines, see the Shortline Index |
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There is a
"Snow Belt"
in New York State that runs above Syracuse and Utica.
It goes East from Oswego to at least Boonville. Here's the station at Boonville.
Find out more about OMINOUS WEATHER |
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Troop Train Photo Album
Cost is $9.99 Photos of a trip from Texas to New York City (World War II) as an armored division brings its equipment and troops to the port. |
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