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| Dekalb Junction to Ogdensburgh |
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In New York State, a significant portion of the trackage north of the New York Central main line was once part of the
Rome Watertown & Ogdensburgh. At one point it had 643 route miles. The Watertown & Rome was chartered in 1832 to
connect northern New York with the Erie Canal, but it took 17 years before ground was broken near Rome.
After reaching Watertown, the new railroad was immediately extended to Cape Vincent which had its ferry to Canada.
In 1857, the Potsdam & Watertown was built to join what later became the Rutland's line to Ogdensburg.
As well as serving as a connector, it served the agricultural towns of Potsdam, Canton and Gouverneur. In 1861, this line merged into the
W&R, the name of the new railroad was changed to RW&O and a 19-mile line built from DeKalb Junction to Ogdensburg.
The New York Central paid a high price for the RW&O but got a well-built railroad in a fairly populous and non-competitive area. As late as the mid-1950's, most of the RW&O was still in service. Everything east of Oswego was part of the St. Lawrence Division. By 1961, the St. Lawrence Division had merged into the Mohawk Division. The 1916 ETT shows six (6) trains daily in each direction between DeKalb Jct. and Ogdensburg. They were spaced out from about 6 or 7 a.m. to about 6 or 7 p.m., with a typical elapsed time of 40 minutes, including the two intermediate station stops of Heuvelton and Rensselaer Falls. I would imagine that one trainset consisting of an engine and one or two coaches plus a combo mail/baggage car could have handled the entire operation. Pullman sleeper cars were likely attached to early morning northbounds, and to early evening southbounds. By 1956, there was only one passenger run a day left. It was gone by 1961. Apr. 1, 1976 Conrail is created and operations of the Ogdensburg Secondary is signed over to Ogdensburg & Norwood Railway. Apr. 1, 1977 O&NR became St. Lawrence Railroad. 1978 SLRR returned the Ogdensburg Secondary to Conrail. Mar. 1980 Conrail signs operations of the Ogdensburg Secondary to North County Railroad. The Ontario Eastern Railroad ran out of DeKalb Jct. and was operated by the same group that ran ONCT and OMID. The Ontario Eastern Railroad Corp.(ONER) was incorporated in 1981 to take over as designated operator of the Ogdensburg-DeKalb Jct. line. It served a rail-dependent paper mill at Ogdensburg owned by Sonoco Products. (The mill was formerly owned by Diamond National). ONER had one unit of motive power, an ex-D&H RS3. The General Manager, Jim Colpoys, also came from the D&H. The company was an affiliate of Rail Services Associates of Syracuse. RSA also managed the Ontario Midland and the Ontario Central Railroads. ONER even had its own subsidiary, the Jersey Southern R.R., which operated a 4.3 mile branch in South Deerfield Twp., N.J., serving the Seabrook Farms frozen food plant. The paper mill at Ogdensburg struggled on until about 1985, when it closed for good. The road shut down operations, since there was no other business. After about a year, the track was removed. March 1987 seems about right as the date of abandonment. An interesting note is that the contractor who removed the ONER rails was Amish - even in the mid-1980's, the rails went down the same way they went down, with men and horses instead of machines. Before 1920, was probably the peak of passenger traffic, shows about six (6) trains daily in each direction between DeKalb Jct. and Ogdensburg. They were spaced out from about 6 or 7 a.m. to about 6 or 7 p.m., with a typical elapsed time of 40 minutes, including the two intermediate station stops of Heuvelton and Rensselaer Falls. I would imagine that one trainset consisting of an engine and one or two coaches plus a combo mail/baggage car could have handled the entire operation. Also Pullman sleeper cars were likely attached to early morning northbounds, and to early evening southbounds. In 1947 to 1950, they ran a Gas-Electric,steam and early diesel. |
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| Former line started on the West side of the river in Ogdensburg. It went South through Heuvelton and Rensselaer Falls to DeKalb Junction. At DeKalb Junction, it met the old New York Central (now CSX) rail line from Watertown to Massena. In Ogdensburg, a former New York Central branch ran Southwest along the St Lawrence River to Watertown. This branch crossed the river and met the Rutland rail line that ran to Rouses Point. Now this line goes to Norwood where it meets CSX. It is owned by the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority that also owns the international bridge that replaced the car ferries. |
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| Interested in Penn Central? New York Central? Pennsylvania Railroad? New Haven Railroad? or in the smaller Eastern US railroads? Then you will be interested in "What if the Penn Central Merger Did Not Happen". You will also enjoy "Could George Alpert have saved the New Haven?" as well as "What if the New Haven never merged with Penn Central?" | ||
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| New York Central station in Ogdensburg |
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JWH Rapid Response Temporary Housing Our containers will make a great summer camping. We can make your summer camp a great looking building. All the comforts of home at a much less cost. |
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Silk from Ogdensburg to NY City and North Country Silk Factories
4 Days from Vancouver to Prescott. Ferry to Ogdensburg then 18 hours to New York City. The silk mills in Northern New York Silk trains of North America |
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Several years ago I wrote a story on the major railroads of 1950 and what happened to them.
Now I am following up with a closer examination of the New York Central Railroad. This railroad only lasted until 1968 when it merged into Penn Central. But, what was the NY Central Railroad like in 1950? You will also be interested in "What if the Penn Central Merger Did Not Happen" |
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Special Research Section on the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. This section contains information that is unpublished elsewhere! In the early 1870's, the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad had been built from Oswego along the shore of Lake Ontario to the Niagara River (Suspension Bridge). It bypassed Rochester, had no manufacturing industries and first became part of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh which was acquired by the New York Central. |
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Railroads On The Rebound |
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Over the last 50+ years, railroads have changed a lot. Now they are about to change again.
It is all about a combination of economic factors and climate factors. Since 1950 , railroads have consolidated. Freight moved from a "box car mentality" to a "unit train,mentality". Passenger went from a robust business to a "caretaker" arrangement called AMTRAK. This happened as everybody could drive for free on the Interstate Highway System or fly on an airline system where the government subsidized both airlines and airports. In the meantime, railroad express and railroad post offices went "down the tubes". The old Post Office Department and the Railway Express Agency could not adjust to the new way. UPS and Fex Ex could. |
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Carbon Calculator
What's the most environmentally-friendly way to transport goods? The answer is freight rail. The EPA estimates that every ton-mile of freight that moves by rail instead of by highway reduces greenhouse emissions by two-thirds. But what does that really mean? Our easy-to-use carbon calculator will estimate the amount of carbon dioxide that can be prevented from entering our environment just by using freight rail instead of trucks. We'll even tell you how many seedlings you'd need to plant to have the same effect. |
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The Global Highway: Interchange to Everywhere A portal to the World. The Global Highway leads everywhere! Follow it to wherever you might want to go. We have something for everyone! |
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Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority The Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority owns two shortline railroads that are operated by a private contractor d/b/a the New York and Ogdensburg Railway Company. This railroad serves the Port of Ogdensburg and connects with CSX, thus providing total intermodal service for industries of Northern and Central New York, as well as Eastern Ontario, Canada |
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A car float ran at Ogdensburg between the New York Central terminal at Ogdensburg N.Y., and the Canadian Pacific terminal at Prescott, Ont. |
| Ogdensburg Car Ferry |
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If CNR and CPR interchanged freight with the
NYC Ottawa branch, what was the purpose of the CPR freight car ferry
to Ogdensburg? It lasted till approximately 1970, but how much freight
did it really carry?
The Ogdensburg-Prescott carferry is a New York Central "unremarked operation". The tug and bargeused at the end were built as a pair in 1930. There are photos available from 1948 that show mostly coal being moved. However there is a photo in George Hilton's book "Great Lakes Carferries" which shows a more mixed load. The 1955 traffic figures were: from CP 3030 loads, 2625 empties and to the CP 3150 loads and 503 empties. Apparently this traffic was un-balanced and used more by the CP. From the CP was very likely paper products and perhaps some lumber and a bit of oil product in addition to the empties being returned to the Central "at the nearest junction point". CP received coal, but also chemicals, produce, and a variety of manufactured goods in box cars. The completion of the bridge over the St. Lawrence pretty much killed it off. A railroad receives no revenue for switching operations of which this could have been considered one, and an expensive one at that, so the PC together with the CP no doubt killed this operation off as fast as they could once an alternative was available to justify its termination. Now that we know the car ferry carried mostly coal traffic, the next question is: which route into Ogdensburg did the NYC use to get to and from the ferry? Was it the line from DeKalb Jct or the line up from Philadelphia? I know there was a local which served the line from Philadephia, but what about the line from DeKalb Jct? Did the yard switcher in Ogdensburg also go to DeKalb Jct to bring back cars? This is only a guess, but if the DeKalb - Ogdensburg track was kept in longer, could it have been the primary track used and the one out of Philadelphia was the track that was for local traffic? Especially since after the abandonment along the river, a small spur was maintained. It was a shorter route as well. At one point freight between Watertown and Ogdensburg was sent via DeKalb Jct. Any freight service at that time for the line to Phila. was handled by a mixed train. In 1956 the pattern had been changed. A freight ran on the former U&BR line between Philadelphia and Ogdensburg. A local ran from Ogdensburg to DeKalb Jct and back. There was a switch engine assigned to Ogdensburg, at least in steam days. By 1954 there wasn't as much traffic left except for a few industries, the car float, and the one passenger train which probably just sat at the station all day until it was time to leave. Very interesting that in the last years they used two locomotives for the freight from Watertown to Ogdensburg, and then spilt them up. This must mean that the freight was timed to arrive when the car ferry was due to arrive so that there would be a switch engine in town. Summary of the Ogdensburg/Dekalb Line: 1862 - opened by Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg RR 1891, Mar. 14 - leased by NYC 1913, Apr. 16 - becomes NYC 1968, Feb. 1 - becomes PNYC 1969, Oct. 1 - becomes PC 1976, Apr. 1 - becomes Conrail, but is operated by Ogdensburg & Norwood Ry 1977, Apr. 1 - operated by St. Lawrence RR 1978 - back to Conrail 1980, March - operated by North Country Ry 1981, March - back to Conrail 1981, Dec. 10 - sold to Ontario Eastern RR 1985 - abandoned 1986(7) - rails removed |
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Greenland's ice caps are melting! Find out more about Global Warming at our Ominous Ecology WebSite. |
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A trip around New York State with stories about the railroads
encountered. Albany to Utica was an important piece of the original New York Central and is now just as important to CONRAIL and to AMTRAK. The Schenectady to Saratoga railroad reached the small town of Ballston Spa in 1832. Soon the Rensselaer & Saratoga would also pull in. Eventually, these would fall under the Delaware & Hudson. Several street car lines also ran into the spa too. Mechanicville: Rail Town. |
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