Corroborated

Five New York Central railroads from the Rochester-area to the Niagara Frontier.

The July issue of my newsletter of Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum came the other day (Tuesday, July 16th 2013). The newsletter is called “the Semaphore.” (Railroad signals were once semaphores — vertical was “clear,” horizontal was “stop,” and diagonal was “restricting.”)
Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum used to be an early chapter of National Railway Historical Society (NRHS). I think the Rochester Chapter was founded in 1937.
The group recently decided to break with National Railway Historical Society. The Rochester Chapter had various rail-preservation projects NRHS wouldn’t support.
Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum is pretty extensive. It has its own railroad, a preservation-shop, and a slew of equipment. It even operates an old trolley with overhead wire over part of its railroad.
Their railroad is not elaborate. It’s stick-rail, not welded, the old way of doing things; 33-foot lengths of rail bolted together. It’s only good for 10-15 mph.
The organization is volunteer. That is, its railroad was built by volunteers. Its operating-equipment was restored by volunteers.
I’ve belonged to this organization since 1985, mainly to get their newsletter. That’s to keep track of anything that might be of interest to me as a railfan.
Other than that, I’m not involved in club activities, although I’ve attended occasional meetings. I’d attend more, but they usually conflict.
The newsletter had an interesting article I found pleasing. It corroborates much of the alleged “railroad history” I’ve floated in this blog.
New York Central System came to dominate railroading in New York state.
Curiously there were five New York Central lines to get from the Rochester area to the Niagara Frontier.
One, of course, is the New York Central mainline. The others are the “West Shore” (the old New York, West Shore & Buffalo), “Falls Road” to Niagara Falls via Brockport, Medina, and Lockport, the “Hojack,” and the “Peanut.”
I think only the NYC main remains, now owned by CSX. Everything else was pretty much abandoned, although sections of the West Shore are still used.
The Hojack is the old Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg near Lake Ontario.
The RW&O wished to compete with New York Central, although NYC came to control it. I don’t know how.
I’ve read a torrent of opinions where the nickname “Hojack” came from; no one knows for sure. Most plausible is would-be passengers flagging down RW&O trains at flag-stops with “Ho Jack.”
The Hojack became a farm railroad, although Xerox located its plant along it east of Rochester.
The Hojack was so overgrown, crews assigned to it called it “the jungle run.”
West of Rochester, the Hojack was abandoned early. It didn’t serve much.
East of Rochester was only Xerox, and Rochester-to-Xerox was soon abandoned.
The New York, West Shore & Buffalo was financed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, an effort to cut into New York Central’s monopolistic hold on railroad traffic across New York state.
Completed, the West Shore pretty much paralleled the NYC main, often within sight of it, except it didn’t actually go into New York city. It used the west shore of the Hudson river, and ended up in north Jersey across from New York city.
In response to Pennsy’s efforts in New York, and partly because Andrew Carnegie was tired of paying Pennsy’s monopolistic shipping-rates for steel, the South Pennsylvania Railroad was proposed.
It was never built, but much of it was graded, and tunnels dug.
Financier J.P. Morgan decided enough! He gathered all the warring parties on his yacht in Long Island Sound and forged a deal.
The South Pennsylvania Railroad would go unbuilt, and the West Shore would go to New York Central.
The South Pennsylvania effort was abandoned, and pretty much became the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
South Pennsylvania’s tunnels were incorporated in the Turnpike, although they had to be re-dug to accommodate a highway. Probably widened.
One Turnpike tunnel has since been abandoned, and the Turnpike run over the mountain. It’s not a challenging grade, but would be too much for a railroad.
There were quite a few tunnels. The South Pennsylvania was traversing the southern part of Pennsylvania. There were more mountains.
Most of the West Shore has been abandoned, although two portions are still active. West Shore south of Rochester became the Rochester Bypass, and the line along the west shore of the Hudson is used by CSX to access the New York city area.
Regrettably West Shore never became Nickel Plate’s access to New York city. Merging it with New York Central skonked that.
Even during the ‘70s Penn-Central and Conrail were using the Falls line to get trains directly to Niagara Falls. A train to Detroit or Chicago via Ontario, Canada might use the Falls line, cross into Ontario, then reenter the U.S.A. at Detroit. That was more direct than going around Lake Erie.
Somewhere I have a crude black-and-white photograph taken in Fall, 1966 of a New York Central freight led by dirty Alco FAs diverting off the NYC main onto the Falls line.
The Falls line was built as Lockport & Niagara Falls, and acquired by NYC in 1853.
I think the Falls Road went all the way into downtown Rochester, but New York Central built a later junction on the city’s west side. My picture was at that junction.
The article implies CSX still operates the line from Niagara Falls out to Lockport, which means there must be a viable freight-source (or destination) out there in Lockport. Lockport was where the original Erie Canal used seven locks to climb the Niagara Escarpment. Now the State Barge Canal does it in three.
Conrail abandoned the trackage into Rochester in 1994, and sold the remaining trackage Brockport-to-Lockport to Genesee Valley Transportation in 1996.
I’ve always thought the Falls Road right-of-way from Brockport into Rochester would make a good rail-commuter line. Something similar was done to an old railroad line in south Jersey. It’s very successful.
The article is titled “Six Ways to Sunday,” and six NYC branches are shown on the map. But only five go to the Niagara Frontier.
The sixth line is the “Auburn Road,” which as I understand it was the first railroad across New York from Syracuse to Rochester.
But it’s roundabout. It hit various small towns west of Syracuse, like Auburn, Clifton Springs, Geneva and Canandaigua. (Geneva and Canandaigua are now cities; Auburn might be too.) —It stops in Rochester.
The article also mentions the Direct Railroad from Rochester to Syracuse. The “Direct” took a challenge the Auburn avoided, crossing the Irondequoit Defile.
The Auburn was built about 1830, and skirts the Defile to the south.
The “Direct” was built in the 1850s, and crosses the Defile on a fill.
The Irondequoit Defile was once the outlet of the Genesee River, but ice-age glaciers blocked that. The Defile is not that deep, but wide.
On average the fill is about 30-50 feet, but at one point, over Irondequoit Creek, it’s 80-100 feet.
I find mention of the “Direct Railroad” rewarding. It corroborates what I’ve published in this blog. Thoughts about the Irondequoit Defile are mine. I know grading in 1830 was rudimentary. The Irondequoit Defile would have been impossible.
I suspect the “Direct Railroad” faced another difficult grading challenge, the vast Montezuma Swamp north of Geneva. The Auburn avoided that.
Much of the Auburn is operated by Finger-Lakes Railway, a shortline. It can do okay because it doesn’t operate under big-railroad work-rules.
But north of Canandaigua the Auburn no longer exists.
A tiny segment exists in Victor, but it connects to another shortline on what used to be Lehigh Valley’s mainline through Victor.
Lehigh Valley is also defunct. It’s not shown on the map, and the Auburn is abandoned into Rochester.
Lehigh Valley had a branch into Rochester, and in my opinion was the best railroad across Western New York — except it avoids traffic-generators like Rochester and Syracuse.
Most interesting to me is the “Peanut,” since I cross its old right-of-way four times just taking my dog to the park. If I use the back way to Canandaigua, I cross it two more times, and could cross it once more if I drove into Canandaigua from the north.
Years ago I took a hot-air balloon ride west of Canandaigua. What stood out was the right-of-way of the Peanut, which determined farm-field borders.
The Peanut doesn’t go from Rochester, but it starts in the area.
The Peanut was built in the 1850s as the Canandaigua & Niagara Falls. And the Semaphore says so, which agrees with what I published in this blog.
The Semaphore also states the nickname “Peanut” originated with a NYC executive when the line was merged in 1858. That the Canandaigua & Niagara Falls was a peanut-sized railroad compared to the mighty New York Central mainline.
That also agrees with what I’ve said.
As I understand it, the Canandaigua & Niagara Falls’ intent was to move Pennsylvania coal delivered to Canandaigua directly to the Niagara Frontier, stealing from a less direct routing via the Auburn and the NYC main.
But it never became dominant. It became a farm railroad, serving the little towns it passed through.
Quite a bit of the Peanut was abandoned in 1939, including the segment north of my house.
A section from the Niagara Frontier to Caledonia (“kal-uh-DON-yuh;” as in “don’t”) was active until Conrail abandoned Batavia to Caledonia in 1982.
A stub from Canandaigua to an Agway in nearby Holcomb was operated into the ‘70s. I remember a dirty Penn-Central Alco RS-3 switching the Agway.
Holcomb seceded long ago from adjacent Bloomfield village. It has since reincorporated with Bloomfield village. The Agway has been torn down. I live about four miles from Bloomfield village.
The Peanut crossed the major intersection in Holcomb. It had to be flagged.
The Peanut also crossed the major intersection in Ionia (“eye OWN-yuh”), but that’s part of the 1939 abandonment. The Ionia station still stands.
I’ve traced quite a bit of the Peanut. I’ve walked the old right-of-way north of my house (about two miles north).
The Peanut had various grading challenges.
North of my house is on a huge fill, and rivers had to be bridged.
That Holcomb RS-3 would have faced a short stiff grade getting back to Canandaigua.
West of Holcomb was another short stiff grade, but that was part of the 1939 abandonment. I’m not even sure where the railroad was, except I see the remains of a highway crossing.
The stone abutments for a crossing of Honeoye Creek (“HONE-eee-oy;” as in “boy”) in Honeoye Falls still stand. —I think the railroad-bridge was covered; I’ve seen old postcards.
I’ve traced the Peanut west of Honeoye Falls, but after that I haven’t.
The Peanut probably never should have been built. Promoters cashing in on the Nineteenth Century railroad craze. —Shipping coal directly from Canandaigua to the Niagara Frontier, instead of ziggity-zag via the Auburn and the NYC main.
People from small towns along the proposed route invested in the railroad. Proposed railroads were rerouted if more investment came from an alternate town.
Small towns wanted rail shipping. Investors wanted to make a killing.
But it was all pie-in-the-sky. Stealing coal-traffic from an established route, and/or growing tiny towns like Ionia, Holcomb, and Caledonia.
And so the Peanut came into being, silly but worth tracing. What I do is hike the old right-of-way, imagining trains chuffing lazily through beautiful countryside, hauling perhaps a car or two for delivery to a small-town team-track.
I used to do this as a teenager. I traced an abandoned farm railroad in south Jersey. Even found a few track spikes I still have. The railroad was Philadelphia, Marlton & Medford.
I dreamed of modeling the PMMR in HO-gauge; gigantic 4-8-8-4 articulateds hauling perhaps three 40-foot wooden boxcars of Jersey tomatoes for Campbell Soup in Camden.
On a railroad that made so little money it couldn’t afford to operate an elderly 4-4-0.
Which is why it was torn up — abandoned.
But the Semaphore repeating the same railroad history I’ve published in this blog makes me feel better. I felt pretty sure about what I said; I read it somewhere, but I don’t remember where.

• New York Central went down the eastern shore of the Hudson river into New York city.
• “Nickel Plate” is the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, called the “Nickel Plate” long ago by a New York Central executive because it was so competitive. The railroad eventually renamed itself “Nickel Plate.” Norfolk & Western Railroad bought the Nickel Plate years ago, and N&W has since merged with Southern Railway, to become Norfolk Southern. Nickel Plate never actually attained New York city; it stopped at Buffalo, NY.
• Small towns often had only “team-tracks,” where railroad-cars would be parked for unloading onto horse-and-wagon (later trucks).
• HO-gauge (half O-gauge) is 16.5 millimeters (0.64961 inches) between the rails. HO-gauge has become the most popular model-railroad gauge.
• “Campbell Soup” had its plant in Camden, NJ, across from Philadelphia, PA. It located there because of the prolific vegetable output of south Jersey.