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| Begun in 1846, the West Side Freight Line was the only freight railroad directly into Manhattan. | ||
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| Some old photos of the West Side Freight Line. These are from a brochure published by the New York Central in 1934 and re-issued by the West Side Rail Line Development Foundation (author was a former member and supporter of this foundation). | ||
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Welcome to our New York Central West Side Freight Line WebSite
Here's a preview of some of the exciting projects we have put together for you: Our feature article is "The West Side Rail Line" You can fly the path of the West Side Freight Line on Google Earth. Start at St Johns Freight House. move up the line to the New York City Postoffice. Then see the 60th Street Rail Yard and "Hudson Yards". See the ferry from Weehawken. See the Customers on the West Side Freight Line A most interesting section is the locomotives that ran on the West Side Rail Line. Other interesting sections include Head End Equipment that ran on the New York Central and who owns Grand Central Terminal. Read about neighbors of the High Line. Finally, you must check out our reference section. See a 1934 pamphlet describing improvements in the New York Central's freight distribution system in Manhattan. It closely approximates the original but some of the pictures have been reordered. |
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| (Photo clipped from an old New York Central Headlight) |
| See KC Jones BLOG about Railroad History |
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Golf in Nice and the French Riviera
Golf in Laurentides / Laurentians Region of Quebec Golf in the Montréal area Golf in Northwest France The U.S. Open Golf Courses on Google Earth WOW, you have come to the right place to buy golf equipment!!! AND, we have the best prices too! |
| See us for A GRADE used GOLF BALLS plus all kinds of golf accessories. |
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We are working on our list of Golf Hotels and Resorts
Some of these are well known because of PGA Tour events held there. Pinehurst; The Greenbrier; and Pebble Beach certainly belong in this catagory. Others are located in towns with even more than golf as an attraction. In this Category is The Otesaga in Cooperstown, New York; Basin Harbor Club on Lake Champlain. |
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| Food Distributor for organic and natural products. Wholesale distribution throughout North America. We are a broker for organic and natural products. We specialize in locating organic products you sometimes can't get from your local distributors. We set you up with a relationship with a supplier. Our ORGANIC FOOD WebSite is not everything we can get, just a robust sample. |
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Not only can you search hotels by city, but you can search by
your favorite chain of hotels.
We can find all the best hotels at the best rates in Nice, Cannes, or Monaco,. |
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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 omissions." |
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| The New York Harbor Railroad is a great resource freight on the New York Central. They cover all the railroads who provided freight service to New York City. Their data on the West Side Freight Line is a great supplement to our site. |
Cheese Pound Cake Bread Pudding Cake |
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About Our President About Our Company About Small Business |
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Shipping Information Terms of Sale |
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Now when you ride Amtrak into Manhattan from upstate New York, you get to see what's on the other side of the Spuyten Duyvil bridge. Since passenger service ended around World War I, not many of us had a chance to ride this section of track. The former West Side Freight Line of the New York Central was earmarked by New York State and Amtrak as the vital link in the proposed connection between Albany and Penn Station. The northern 9.7 mile open cut, tunnel and at-grade sections as far as the new Javits Convention Center were rehabilitated for this service. The southern 1.5 mile elevated section wasn't so lucky. At one point, in the mid-1980's a private group (West Side Rail Line Development Foundation) wanted to operate it for short line freight and possibly tourists.
The West Side Rail Line began in 1846 when the Hudson River Railroad started construction north from a riverfront depot at Chambers Street. At the end of 1849, the Hudson River Railroad reached Poughkeepsie. The running time was 2 1/2 hours for this 55-mile trip. By 1851 trains were going as far (144 miles) as East Albany (Rensselaer) and connecting with the West. A bridge soon replaced the ferry at Spuyten Duyvil. In 1861, a new passenger terminal at 30th Street and Tenth Avenue was used first by Abraham Lincoln on the way to his inauguration. His funeral train passed that way again in 1865. The line went along the Hudson River from Spuyten Duyvil to 60th Street. It then took Eleventh Avenue to 33rd Street; Tenth Avenue to West Street; south on West Street (along piers) to Canal; then inland to Hudson Street and the block-long St. John's Terminal. In addition to the yards at 30th Street and 60th Street, there were facilities at 145th St., 41st St., and 17th Street. Because the line traveled over city streets (Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues), the city passed an ordinance requiring trains on streets to be preceded by a person on horseback carrying a red flag (nicknamed "Tenth Avenue Cowboys"). Originally, steam was not allowed south of 30th Street. There were horsecar stops at 23rd, 14th, Christopher and West Streets. In addition, crossing watchmen were required on a 24-hour basis. Even so, this railroad route was known as "Death Avenue" because of the high number of fatalities. The steam era saw engines shrouded in sheet-metal car bodies which hid from view and muffled the motion and hissing and clanking of valve and rod, which otherwise would have awed and frightened the horse leading the procession. In 1923, five Shay geared locomotives replaced 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 steam "dummy" locomotives. Commodore Vanderbilt's 1869 consolidation of rail lines from New York to Buffalo resulted in most passenger service going in 1871 to his new Grand Central Depot with the West Side Rail Line becoming mostly freight. After the consolidation, suburban passenger service continued until 1917 but only went as far as Peekskill. [NOTE 12/26/2010: Newer information shows; (1) that service extended only to Spuyten Duyvil, where a commuter COULD transfer to trains as far as Peekskill and (2) service may have extended beyond 1917. This paragraph will be amended when a firm conclusion is reached] A new freight house at St. John's Park (between Laight and Beech Streets) was opened. This terminal replaced the one at Chambers Street. This building had a statue of Commodore Vanderbilt on it which was moved to Grand Central in 1929. This station was built on the site of St. Johns Park which was owned by St. Johns Church on Varick Street (destroyed by the construction of the West Side Subway). The name was kept when a new terminal was built in 1934 because it was familiar to New Yorkers. The West Side Line was the only freight line directly into Manhattan. By the 1890s, freight stations from Washington Market to Harlem supplied the city with fresh food and transported its manufactured goods to the rest of the nation. There were float docks in the vicinity of the 60th Street and 30th Street yards where car ferries from New Jersey landed. In 1929, between 800 and 900 cars a day in up to 30 to 35 trains went into 60th Street. Less than half of these continued south, mostly at night, in trains with a 30-car maximum. During the day, trains could have 35 cars but could not run during rush hour or on Sunday morning. South of 30th Street, trains could only have 15 cars. In the 1920s, a city commission was formed to solve the traffic problems between automobiles and trains. The New York Central built a new freight terminal at Spring and Washington Streets (one block north of the Holland Tunnel). This terminal connected to the 30th Street Yards by means of an elevated double track line. This line crossed about 40 intersecting streets on overhead bridges. Tracks between 30th Street and the 60th Street Yards were placed in a cut between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. City streets are carried over the line on viaducts. The cut contained a three to five track rail line. The tracks through Riverside Park were covered with an artificial tunnel, adding 32 acres of recreation space. The improvement involved the removal of 105 grade crossings and 640 buildings including one church and two schools. Tracks were finally off the streets by 1941. Heading south from its break with the Hudson Division, the railroad ran between the Hudson River and the Henry Hudson Parkway. It went underneath the approaches to the George Washington bridge which was built in 1932. At 145th Street, the Manhattanville yard on the edge of the river had seven team/freight tracks. The line was elevated from there to about 125th Street. Any tunnels were wide enough for five tracks. The improvement project was built in conjunction with the West Side Highway. Named the Julius Miller Highway in honor of the Manhattan borough president, it originally ran to Rector Street but decay caused everything south of 60th Street to be torn down. The 60th Street yard had car float bridges, industrial sidings, a freight house, a round house, and an electric generating plant. Switches in this yard were hand-thrown. At 41st Street there was a wye as well as a stub track to several slaughter houses. Tracks began fanning out at 37th Street in anticipation of the 30th Street yard. Tenth Avenue was carried over the already-depressed 30th Street yard area on a viaduct. There were 80 yard, team and warehouse tracks in this area. Capacity of the yard was 1350 cars and there was even a Macy's warehouse supported over the tracks. 233 buildings were demolished to provide space. The elevated section of the West Side Freight Line ran 1.5 miles south from 34th Street. It encircled the Thirtieth Street Yard and climbed a 1.6% grade in order to have sufficient distance to overcome the difference in elevation between the viaduct and the depressed tracks to the north. The width of the elevated structure varies from 35' to 57'. Its minimum clearance over city streets is 14'. The viaduct is of steel with concrete floor construction and the tracks are carried on stone ballast except in the former packing house district where, for sanitary purposes, concrete was used. The viaduct's passage through buildings is a most unusual feature. In the peaked-roof Bell Labs building at Bank Street, it was necessary to support the viaduct on caissons independent of the building in order to eliminate vibrations which might affect instruments. In Greenwich Village, an outdoor mural of the 20th Century Limited hauled by a J3a Hudson, circa 1930, covers the open bays of the rail line as it passes through the West Coast apartment building. The mural was done in 1981 when the former Manhattan Refrigeration Company building on Gansevoort Street was converted to apartments. In Chelsea, a spur served sidings in the Morgan Parcel Post Building (six tracks and necessary platforms to accommodate 36 cars at one time). A plaque on the wall of the Morgan Station, one of the nation's largest automated mail facilities, commemorates it as the site of the 1861 passenger station of the Hudson River RR. The viaduct provided for side tracks right to the door of industries located along the right of way (for instance, Merchants Refrigeration at 16th Street and National Biscuit Company at 18th Street) and passes directly through a number of buildings, several of which were built with this idea in mind. Trackage runs on private right-of-way west of Tenth Avenue then crosses Tenth at 17th Street. It continued alongside Washington Street through Greenwich Village to the terminal. There were frequent facing and trailing crossovers. In later years, much of this trackage was devoted to storing mail cars. St. John's Freight Terminal, with tracks at second floor, permitted public loading and unloading to be done entirely under cover. It had 730,000 square feet of space and was served by eight tracks. It handled freight in both carload and less than carload quantities, inbound and outbound. It was a principal delivery station for "dairy freight". This terminal covered three city blocks and was served by 14 freight elevators and three scales. 150 trucks could load or unload on the first floor. The building was three stories high with offices on the third, but could have been extended to twelve stories. Electrification of the line south to 30th Street was accomplished as part of the 1934 improvements. This accomplished discontinuance of steam operation of trains in the city. While "S" and "T" motors appeared on the line, the main fleet of electric freight locomotives consisted of forty-two class R-2 locomotives, built by ALCO-GE in 1931, which weighed 133 tons and could deliver 3000 horsepower. Switching at 30th Street, 60th Street and on the elevated viaduct was done with diesel electric locomotives. The Central owned forty-one class DES-3 three-power box cab units. When running on third rail trackage, the locomotive could develop 1665 horsepower. The 300-horsepower diesel engine was sufficient for switching. Battery powered operation was suitable only in low horsepower situations. As well as third rail shoes, these locomotives had small pantographs. Many units remained in service until the mid-1950's. Also used to work the yards at 30th and 60th Streets, were seven heavy steeple cab switchers, designated "Q" motors, which were built in 1926. The third rail was taken out in the 1950s after which RS-3 diesels were used extensively on the line. Freights to and from the mainline were handled frequently by ALCO FAs. A 1950 employee timetable shows two mail trains originating daily from 30th Street Yard. Milk trains terminated at 60th Street. By 1957, scheduled milk trains had disappeared. No scheduled trains went below 30th Street as this was switching territory only. Speed limit on the viaduct was 10 miles per hour. North to the drawbridge ranged between 30 and 45 MPH. The entire line contained numerous restrictions for both cars and engines.The Great Depression began the decline of freight traffic. There was a surge during World War II but truck competition forced the closing of the Spring Street Terminal in the 1950s and cutting the line back to Leroy Street. When the New York Central RR was merged into the Penn Central, the West Side Freight Line still served the Gansevoort Market and New York's printing and garment industries. The Central tried many innovations such as the Flexi-Van site at 151st Street for handling of the mails. As trucks captured more business, the line was removed south of Bank Street to allow construction of the West Village housing. In 1991, the line was cut back another five blocks to Gansevoort Street. When the Penn Central went bankrupt, many plans were drawn up to sell its vast West Side real estate holdings. Most of the real estate survived until Conrail took over freight operations in 1976. In 1979, the 30th Street Yards were sold to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority for the construction of the Convention Center and the Long Island RR's West Side Storage Yard. The elevated portion of the line (known as Conrail's West 30th Street Secondary Track) last saw a train in April, 1980 when three freight cars of frozen turkeys were delivered. Shortly thereafter, the access ramp to the elevated line was removed to allow construction of the Convention Center. When the ramp was rebuilt, service was not restored. In 1982, Conrail abandoned freight service south of 60th Street. The last train on the northern portion of the line before its recent upgrade for Amtrak was in 1983 when the "New York Times" received a load of newsprint. Upgrading the line meant rebuilding the drawbridge built in 1900 when Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem River were widened to form the Harlem River Ship Canal. Its steam-operated motor had been replaced with an electric one in 1963. It had remained out of service since 1983 when a hit-and-run collision left it in the open position and would have required extensive rehabilitation. This 610-foot bridge consists of three fixed sections - two on the Manhattan side and one on the Bronx side. They are connected by a 290-foot-long center section that pivots on a central tower and rotates almost 65 degrees to open a 100-foot channel on either side. Depending on tides, there is often only five feet of clearance from the water line to the bridge. Amtrak and New York State spent a great deal of money on the West Side Connector Project by purchasing the line from Metro-North's Hudson Division at Spuyten Duyvil to 34th Street and rehabilitating one then two tracks to 60 miles-per-hour passenger standards. A Penn Station connection - a tunnel under the new Long Island West Side Storage Yard - was required. Now, all Amtrak trains going to Grand Central Terminal have been rerouted to Penn Station. This provides same-station transfer between upstate and northeast corridor points. The project will cut about 15 minutes from the Albany to New York City trip. |
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Google Earth© Consultants Google Earth© streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic detail. This is not like any map you have ever seen. This is a 3D model of the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more. You can zoom from space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place, city to city, even country to country. Google Earth© is a tool that could be useful in your business. If you have a travel agency or real estate business, there are many applications. Google Earth© presentations can be done on your computer or be sent to a prospective client. U Buy Vacations can help you prepare presentations in Google Earth©. We offer professional consulting in creating Google Earth© applications. Contact us today! See some examples of our work If you have "GOOGLE EARTH©" installed on your computer, you can "fly" these routes with these "PLACEMARKs" West Side Freight Line |
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| St Johns Freight House | ||
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Photo above is of the St Johns Park Freight House. These are from a brochure published by
the New York Central in 1934 and re-issued by the West Side Rail Line Development
Foundation (author was a former member and supporter of this foundation).
St. John's Park was abandoned when some of the High Line ROW below Bank St. was sold for housing. But had traffic there dried up by then? Was there any debate over it at the time? The line was only about 20 years old at that time. When St. John's was in service, there were about 8 tracks running into it-- how was it switched? And what kind of stuff was shipped to St. John's. Also, the line served Nabisco, Armour--when did they stop using the line? And did the RR serve Bell Labs (now Westbeth) whose building it ran through? |
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Abandoned Railroads of the US - All Things Related to Abandoned Railroads
Thousands of miles of railroads have been abandoned in the United States, much of it in the last 30 years. All of these railroad lines have a history and a story. This club is dedicated to the preservation of the history of each of these former railroad lines. Please join and contribute. |
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Once upon a time, milk trains were important New York Central Milk Business Creamery in South Columbia, New York There were two basic types of milk trains – the very slow all-stops local that picked up milk cans from rural platforms and delivered them to a local creamery, and those that moved consolidated carloads from these creameries to big city bottling plants. Individual cars sometimes moved on lesser trains. These were dedicated trains of purpose-built cars carrying milk. Early on, all milk was shipped in cans, which lead to specialized "can cars" with larger side doors to facilitate loading and unloading (some roads just used baggage cars). In later years, bulk carriers with glass-lined tanks were used. Speed was the key to preventing spoilage, so milk cars were set up for high speed service, featuring the same types of trucks, brakes, communication & steam lines as found on passenger cars. |
| VISIT OUR TICKET BOOTH We can find you tickets for all the great music, sports and cultural events. We have the best prices and most availability of any ticket seller |
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| (Photo clipped from an old New York Central Headlight) |
English |
Traveling in Europe? You will probably need to make a FERRY RESERVATION. Also available in French Stop by and see our Reservations Center. |
French |
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| Click on picture above to visit the 60th Street Yards |
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HUDSON YARDS A proposal by the New York City Department of Planning |
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Customers on the West Side Freight Line
Some customers used the St Johns Freight Terminal while others had sidings directly off the line. Customers using sidings included: Spear & Company; R C Williams & Co. (groceries); Merchants Refrigerating Co; National Biscuit; Cudahy Packing Co (meats); Armour & Co (meats); Wilson & Co (meats); Swift & Co (meats); Bell Telephone; Mahattan Refigerating Co Customers using the freight terminal included: Borden Co; Colod Corp; Libby,McNeil & Libby; Sealright Corp; Shannon Bros; Magazine Shippers Assn; Universal Carloading & Dist; F W Woolworth; Western Carloading. |
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Neighbors of the High Line
The High Line (West Side Freight Line) was not the only railroad activity on the west side. The Erie Railroad car floats served their 28th Street Yard, car floats served the Lehigh Valley Railroad at 27th Street, and the New York Central's car floats served 60th Street. Then there were passenger ferries from New Jersey too. See more about the 60th Street yard. Donald Trump recently opened up a stretch of Riverside Park between 59th and 74th Street, alongside a recent development of his where the old West Side Rail Yards used to be. Amtrak tracks still run underground here, but freight tracks used to be right at grade here and this was, as most waterfront areas in New York used to be, a vital area for shipping and commerce. Those days are gone, but twisted, decaying wreckage remains. Find out more about other car float operations in the New York harbor. |
| REFERENCE |
| List of New York Railroads |
| New York City |
| New York Central |
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Friends of the Highline Includes some great pictures! |
| A walk along the High Line |
| "Paradise Lost" (from the Village Voice) |
| 1967 accident on West Side Freight Line. Head-on collision |
| Railway Stations |
| Industrial and Offline Terminal Railroads NY City area |
| West Side freight pictures: old and great! |
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A great site, lot of NY Central and New York State Author & Publisher: Richard O. Aichele |
| Climb aboard the High Line |
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JWH Rapid Response Temporary Housing On site containers become residential accommodation, offices and much more! Services we provide are: Transportation to your site. Site preparation for your portable shelter. Assembly of your portable shelter. Subsequent enhancements or moving of your portable shelter. |
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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 carloads of foodstuffs and fuel are delivered by the railroads
daily in New York City and vicinity? The railroads deliver approximately 4,000 carloads of foodstuffs and fuel in New York City and suburbs every twenty-four hours, on the average. Like alert racing thoroughbreds at the post, these powerful titans wait for the "go" signal. A century of engineering research has gone into the production of the modern steam locomotive. |
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| What ever happened to my Penn Central stock? |
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Penn Central gobbled up the stock of New York Central, Pennsylvania and New Haven Railroads.
But what ever happened to the company and the stock? Is it worth anything?
Ever hear of American Premier Underwriters? |
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Our HAND TOOL WebSite is intended in aiding you to locate HAND TOOL suppliers. You may search by product or by manufacturer. We add both products and manufacturers, so keep checking back. | In addition we are a full service MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operational Supplies) supplier. If you are in the construction or farming business, we are your source. |
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ec-bp.com The Forum for Supply Chain Integration
ec-bp was established in 2005 as the advocate for lowering the barriers to the adoption of EDI, and our email newsletter has been published every month since that time. Our focus has expanded beyond EDI to encompas the full gamut of supply chain practices and technologies. In addition, our readership has grown to become the largest of any similarly focused publication, and has expanded to include more than 90,000 professionals involved in nearly every aspect of the supply chain. Today’s supply chain is more than simple transport of EDI documents. The complexity of maintaining compliance with trading partners, managing the ever increasing amount of data, and analyzing that data to drive constant improvement in processes and service take supply chain professionals far beyond the basics of mapping EDI documents. |
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| Grand Central Terminal and the New York City Subway |
This page is our gateway to New York City. Find out about the
New York Central Railroad's
Grand Central Terminal.
Explore the fabulous
New York City Subway System. Learn who
Robert Moses. was and his impact on New York City.
Understand
New York City transit planning,
West Side Freight Line (the "High Line") and
St Johns terminal. The
New Haven Railroad and the
Long Island Railroad reached into New York City. Did you know the
Lehigh Valley Railroad even went into New York City (by ferry).
Learn about the
Jenney Plan to bring commuters into New York City and finally explore
mysterious track 61 at Grand Central Terminal
with its relationship to
Presidents of the United States.
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The New York Central Railroad
See some historic photographs of the New York Central Railroad. First-generation diesels! Passenger and freight runs. Much more! |
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The West Shore got as close to New York City as across the river in New Jersey.
Passengers took a ferry while freight went across the river on car floats.
Click on the picture to see more on ferries and car floats.
NYC had two ferry routes to the West Shore Weehawhen terminal. The "regular" route was from the foot of W.42nd St. (also the terminal of the 42nd St. crosstown and 10th Ave. streetcar lines), and one to Cortlandt St., adjacent to the CNJ's Liberty St. ferry terminal. Adjacent to the West Shore Ferry at Cortlandt Street Manhattan was the Starrin lines shipping. They had barges full of freight cars in this area but there were no tracks in lower manhattan. These were "station carfloats" -- almost like a "floating team track", they had a (usually sheltered) platform down the middle, where cars could be unloaded and the contents moved onto shore. They were especially common on the Lower W. Side, adjacent to the old Washington Market. |
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New York City Post Office THE old Pennsylvania Station, built in 1910 from Seventh to Eighth Avenue and 31st to 33rd Street, is still one of New York's most famous buildings, even though it was destroyed more than 40 years ago. Equally famous is the nearby huge General Post Office. Madison Square Garden with a "Penn Station" in its basement is totally inferior architecturally to either building. The Pennsylvania Railroad worked hard at getting the General Post Office located nearby Penn Station because revenue from carrying the mail was important. When trains began to run under the Hudson River in 1910, the new General Post Office was still in construction but was ready to handle 250 tons of mail a day with an intricate network of spiral chutes, conveyor belts, elevators, automatic tilting platforms and pneumatic tubes. This building is famous for the quote on the front: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." There is a huge lobby for patrons and the rest of the building is a lot of offices for postal departments behind old-fashioned wire-and-glass doors. The rear facade of the 1913 building - now covered by a 1935 extension to Ninth Avenue - was the side where trucks picked up and delivered mail, via a street running through the block. The connection to the West Side Freight Line was into the parcel post building. Renamed in 1982 the James A. Farley Building, the post office is due for major renovations, if plans by the Empire State Development Corporation come through. A general design was set out by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 2001: slice the building in half at the middle, restoring the old vehicular opening from 31st to 33rd Street. This would leave the post office in place behind its giant colonnade but create a new midblock entryway for a subgrade station. The proposed Moynihan Station has been called a "flagship transit facility," a conversion of the Farley Post Office across the street from Penn Station to a commuting hub with skylights and open-air platforms. When complete by 2010, Moynihan Station would provide 400,000 square feet of additional space for a new train station as well as hundreds of thousands of square feet for private development. Though the track and platforms at Penn will likely remain the same, LIRR riders will have new street entrances on the west side of Eighth Avenue and mid-block on 31st and 33rd Streets. The station will be easier to navigate, with broad concourses naturally lit by skylights above a high ceiling. It will connect underground to the existing Penn Station. Citing financial difficulties, Amtrak pulled out of occupying the station and the state is currently negotiating with NJ Transit to be the main tenant. It's also possible the LIRR could move some of its operations there. Tracks run beneath the building. The station handles more than 550,000 daily commuters. The current Penn Station, a three-level subterranean complex, was put together after the demolition of the original building in 1963. The LIRR section was renovated 11 years ago at a cost of $190 million. |
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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! Travel and other greatlinks! |
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NEXT STOP ON THE HIGH LINE: AN EXHIBITION AT GRAND CENTRAL'S VANDERBILT HALL July 10-26, 2005 Exhibition Airs a Multitude of Ideas for Converting a West Side Elevated Railroad into Public Open Space |
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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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Until the West Side was electrified and grade-separated in the 1930's,
steam power as big as L Class ran to 72nd Street. They were all coal
fired. Trains on 10th Avenue were handled by "dummy" engines -
totally enclosed Shay geared steam locomotives.
Nearly all the freight traffic from the west on the NYC came across the swing bridge at Spuyten Duyvil. The only other access was via car float. The bridge was double track then, and steam powered. A local would leave an occasional car of coal on the side track at the bridge. The bridge tender carted the coal in a wheelbarrow out to the coal bin and boiler on the swing span. After the West Side was electrified, the NYC had an unusual arrangement for engine crews in freight service. Passenger trains changed engines and crews at Harmon, but the freight trains only changed engines (motors). One engine crew would take a freight train with an R motor from 33rd St or 72nd St to Harmon. Then the same engine crew would take over a steam locomotive for the rest of the trip to Selkirk, West Albany or Troy. |
| St Johns Freight House | ||
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Photos above of the St Johns Park Freight House. These are from a brochure published by
the New York Central in 1934 and re-issued by the West Side Rail Line Development
Foundation (author was a former member and supporter of this foundation).
St. John's Park was abandoned when some of the High Line ROW below Bank St. was sold for housing. But had traffic there dried up by then? Was there any debate over it at the time? The line was only about 20 years old at that time. When St. John's was in service, there were about 8 tracks running into it-- how was it switched? And what kind of stuff was shipped to St. John's. Also, the line served Nabisco, Armour--when did they stop using the line? And did the RR serve Bell Labs (now Westbeth) whose building it ran through? St. John's Park Freight House was in service in 1961, and it was out of service in 1964, based on the time-table special instructions. In October, 1964, the easternmost (south, by geography) overhead clearance was Bell Labs on Washington Street. St. John's Park was switched with diesel-electric switching locomotives. When it was first opened, they were the tri-power motors. After those were retired in the 1950's, the prevaling yard engines in New York City were Alco S-1's and S-3's. St. John's Park Station was a large covered freight house for LCL freight (Less-than-Car Load). It handled all sorts of merchandise in small shipments. The railroad never served Bell Labs. The building was there first, so the NYC had to design and construct the opening for the tracks with great care to avoid vibrations that would affect the delicate instrumentation used on research projects in the building. They used some very advanced, for the time, isolation bearings to prevent transmission of vibrations from the track to the building. The "Close Overhead Clearances" in the time-table only shows Tracks 1 and 2 at Bell Labs. If they had a sidetrack, it would have shown as such, because it would have had to be covered. Tracks 1 and 2 were the through tracks between St. John's Park and West 105th Street. From West 105th St to Spuyten Duyvil the two tracks became actual "Main Tracks" by time-table designation. |
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