Adventures with Killian

Linda with dog leaving Livonia Veterinary Hospital. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 was chemo treatment number-three for our beloved dog, this one at Livonia Veterinary Hospital (pictured).
Livonia Veterinary Hospital bought Honeoye Falls Veterinary Hospital (the one we went to), so they are responsible for Killian’s cancer treatments.
Killian’s first two chemos were at Honeoye Falls Veterinary Hospital but administered by Livonia Veterinary Hospital vets.
They apparently come to Honeoye Falls Veterinary Hospital fairly regularly, now that the two practices are affiliated.
It looks like Honeoye Falls Veterinary Hospital is the larger operation.
Honeoye Falls Veterinary Hospital was independent until one of the vets, the business-maven, died in a motorcycle crash.
He was very good, and always asked about my Ducati jacket.
Getting to Livonia Veterinary Hospital meant getting up at 5:20 a.m., so we could eat breakfast, get the garbage out (it was garbage-day), and get there by 7:45 a.m. to drop off the dog.
Livonia Veterinary Hospital is 15-20 miles away out in the sticks, so I was allowing 45 minutes for the trip, which was 15 minutes too much.

Livonia, Avon & Lakeville #38 (sans number-plate) ducks under Bronson Hill Road with southbound excursion. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the Spotmatic.)

They had me driving down Bronson Hill Road, and the old railfan knows Bronson Hill Road used to cross the old Erie branch to Rochester on a rickety wooden bridge.
The Erie’s Rochester branch ran from the mainline through Corning to Rochester, and a sizable segment was taken over by the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville shortline railroad.
The Erie Rochester branch ran south out of Rochester through Avon (“AH-von,” not “AYE-von” [the makeup]), and then went up the hill through Livonia and continued south to Corning.
South of Livonia the line was abandoned, and at first the LA&L was Avon to Livonia.
There also was a short branch to Lakeville near Livonia — Lakeville is at the north end of Conesus lake, one of the Finger Lakes.
LA&L got a corn-syrup processor (or transfer depot) to locate in Lakeville, so they bring in tank-cars of corn-syrup that get transferred to trucks.
That corn-syrup facility is the main shipper on LA&L and has been for years.
At first LA&L ran a passenger excursion service, and even had steam-locomotives.
First was #17, but that was scrapped.
Then was #38, and I think that is still running in Gettysburg.
We rode that excursion and a took a slew of black & white photographs. It was during my attempt to freelance stuff.
They also had a small 44-ton diesel, and many excursions were behind it.
But it was gigantic Lionel set; a chance for the LA&L boys to play with steam-locomotives.
It also was a very funky ride — very rural. Trains with the 44-tonner would only be two coaches; the steam-engine might rate 4-5.
Avon to Livonia was all uphill; a very sharp 2% grade. (Once the brakes failed on a freight-car, and it coasted all the way from Livonia to Avon.)
The line turned east south of Avon into the Triphammer Valley to attack the grade. It passed a small swimming-hole where swimmers often swam nude.
In tiny South Lima (about 10 houses —“LYE-ma,” like lima-beans; not “LEE-ma”) there was a siding where LA&L stored old passenger equipment they never got around to using. It was more derelict than what they had.
After a couple years the passenger-excursion service went defunct, and the LA&L went freight-only.
LA&L also abandoned the line to Livonia, since there weren’t any businesses other than the passenger excursions.
LA&L has since bought the Erie Rochester branch from Avon clear up to Henrietta, plus the old Lehigh-Valley Rochester branch from there to a lumber-yard in south Henrietta, both from Conrail.
The Bronson Hill Road bridge was removed, and the cut filled in — right on top of the tracks; they weren’t removed.
So the only indication the railroad was ever there is the slight hump where the bridge was, the railroad cut on each side, and guard-cables to keep traffic out of the cut.
The tracks weren’t removed, just abandoned, although now, east of Bronson Hill Road to Livonia the tracks are gone.

LA&L and grain-elevator at Bronson Hill Road. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

Interstate-390 crosses the Triphammer Valley on a giant concrete viaduct, and also crossed the LA&L line to Livonia.
I noticed the railroad looked used.
And now I see why. A large grain-elevator was located on Bronson Hill Road where it crossed the LA&L. LA&L is shipping grain hoppers out of that elevator. They probably solicited the business.
So now the Livonia line is still active to Bronson Hill Road, where it stubs at the fill-in. It’s active because of that grain elevator.
I didn't notice the old LA&L cut as I drove to the Livonia Veterinary Hospital, but did notice the grain elevator.
We had to return a different way, because we had to go to a doctor’s appointment at Wilmot as a follow-up of Linda’s cancer-treatment.
We were told her treatment was a resounding success — everyone was all smiles, except me, who was probably the happiest. I’m left with my old friend, although I communicate this poorly. I suppose it’s the Hughes tendency to melt into the background, and not show emotion. My paternal grandfather was like that. (It also could be compromised speech.)
My Aunt May, his only remaining child, always calls him “a class act.” My father (who was the oldest) and his younger brother are both dead — there were only three; and MayZ, the Depression child, was a “mistake.”
Returning from Wilmot we got a cellphone call from the Livonia vet while driving.
They said our dog’s blood-count was too low to administer the Doxorubin; but they could administer the Vincristine — which we had to pick up at the Medicine-Shoppe in Canandaigua.
So we changed direction toward Canandaigua, after which we would truck over to Livonia Veterinary Hospital, about 20 miles from Canandaigua.
After leaving off the Vincristine, we returned from Livonia Veterinary Hospital on Bronson Hill Road. I noticed the grain-elevator was at the old Bronson Hill Road overpass location, and that the LA&L was serving it on what remained of the old Livonia line.

Old Livonia railroad-station. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

On the way to Livonia Veterinary Hospital I also drove through Livonia, and noticed the old Livonia railroad station was still standing.
That afternoon, when we went to Livonia Veterinary Hospital at 6:20 p.m. to pick up our dog, the light was perfect, so I drove back through Livonia to shoot the old railroad-station. I guess there’s a restaurant in it now, and the tracks are long-gone.
But the old railroad-crossing crossbucks are still up where a side-street used to cross the tracks. We rode excursions out of that station.
Livonia, was, and still is, a railroad-town. A gigantic painted mural of old #17 is still on an outside wall.

“Killian” is our dog, a rescue Irish-Setter. He has lymphatic cancer.

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). I also am loudly excoriated by all my siblings for preferring a professional camera (like the Nikon D100) instead of a point-and-shoot. This is because I long ago sold photos to nationally published magazines. The “Spotmatic” is my old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by the Nikon D100 digital camera.

“Linda” is my wife of 40+ years. She has lymphatic cancer. It’s treatable — she will survive.

In the early ‘80s I had a fabulous 900SS “Ducati” motorcycle; they’re made in Italy. —It was essentially a race-bike.

“Livonia, Avon & Lakeville #38” was a small Consolidation (2-8-0) steam-locomotive — a teapot, but fairly strong. #17 was a small Mikado, 2-8-2.

“Corning,” New York. The Erie Railroad ran across the southern part of the state — as such it was more hilly and challenging.

“Rochester,” N.Y.

RE: “The Finger Lakes........” —Western N.Y. has a number of long skinny lakes that look like a gigantic hand was pressed upon the land. Conesus is one, but fairly small.

RE: “44-ton diesel.....” —Years ago the limit for a one-person crew on a railroad locomotive was 44 tons. So General Electric marketed a 44-ton diesel railroad locomotive. They were too small to move many cars.

RE: “2% grade........” —For every 100 feet forward, the grade rises two feet. A 2% grade is fairly steep; 1% manageable, although it will slow the train, and may require helpers. 4% is nearly impossible. The limiting factor is always the immense weight of a train. The goal is always to make a railroad as level as possible.

“Henrietta” is a suburb south of Rochester.

The “Lehigh-Valley” railroad ran from Buffalo to New York City, partly in northeastern Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh River valley. It ran south of Rochester, and has been abandoned. It built its extension to Buffalo when anthracite (coal) traffic began to peter out, so it could tap into bridge traffic from the west. (“Bridge traffic” is outside generated traffic from feeder-lines; in this case west of Buffalo.) The extension ran northwest from Sayre, Pa. to Geneva, N.Y., and then west to Buffalo. It was an excellent railroad, but not much originating lineside traffic, and it avoided all the major cities.

“Conrail” was first a government-funded corporation, that inherited all the eastern railroads after they went bankrupt — mainly Penn-Central. Later it went public, but then sold to Norfolk Southern Railroad and CSX Transportation. Norfolk Southern got most of the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad routes, and CSX got the old New York Central. (The mighty Pennsylvania Railroad is no longer in existence. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world. New York Central was also quite large.)

“Wilmot” is Wilmot Cancer Center in Rochester. My wife got her diagnosis and treatment there.

“MayZ” is my father’s younger sister May; born in 1930. Her older brother Robert gave her the name MayZ. Robert was the second; my father “Tom” was the first.

“Doxorubin” and “Vincristine” are anti-cancer chemo drugs, Doxorubin the most toxic.

“The Medicine-Shoppe” is a pharmacy in Canandaigua. It also has an animal pharmacy.

“Crossbucks” are the X-shaped warning sign where a highway crosses a railroad at the same grade. They were originally cross-nailed wooden planks: “crossbucks.” —Later flashing warning-lights were added, often a clanging bell, and often gates that lowered and blocked the highway.