Fall Foliage on the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville

LA&L #428 at the north end of the excursion. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“So didja have a good time?” asked a guy in a conductor’s uniform.
“Well, more-or-less,” I said.
“So what can we do to make your ride better?”
“Well, I’d like my wife back.”
The Rochester Genesee Valley Railroad Museum (“jen-uh-SEE”) ran a fall-foliage railfan excursion on the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad (“ah-von;” not the make-up), which runs by its museum.
It’s the first railfan excursion I’ve taken since my wife died two-and-a-half years ago.
It was all I could do to not start crying right there in the coach-seat. I teared up a few times.
The Rochester Genesee Valley Railroad Museum was founded in 1937 as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS). I think it may have been first, a founding chapter.
In 1971 the chapter purchased an old station along Erie Railroad’s branch into Rochester. The station is south of Rochester in the tiny rural town of Industry.
The group restored the station, and put in tracks for railroad equipment.
They began collecting stuff in 1981, old railroad cars and locomotives destined for the scrapper.
In the ‘90s they built a railroad up to the nearby New York Museum of Transportation.
It was finished in 1993, and now a portion has been electrified so trolleys from NYMT can operate over it.
The museum rosters over 40 pieces of railroad equipment, including nine operating diesel-locomotives, two steam locomotives, seven cabooses, seven freightcars, and coaches from New York Central’s Empire State Express which were converted to commuter-service.
Those coaches comprised our excursion, and are in fair shape; a little tattered, but operable.
I am a member of this organization, and have been since 1985. I’m not active; I only joined to get their newsletter.
They hold monthly meetings, but I rarely attend.
Upset with the National Railway Historical Society, the group cut loose in 2010, no longer an NRHS chapter.
I voted for it = cutting loose.
I’ve ridden their railroad, although it ain’t the Pennsy main.
We could only do about 10 mph, and I was in a track-car trailer. A track-car is a small conveyance with a car-engine and railroad wheels.
Track-cars found use on railroads, but now the track-cars are regular pickup trucks, etc., with retractible guide-wheels so they can operate on track. —And use highways to get to a location.
The railroad out of Industry is fairly steep. The New York Museum of Transportation is at a higher elevation.
The railroad pretty much follows the lay-of-the-land, up and down over hill and dale. The group couldn’t afford the cuts and fills a regular railroad might do.
I also rode their railroad years ago in a caboose pulled by a locomotive. My impression was guys operating the equivalent of Lionel trains, except they were real.
Livonia, Avon & Lakeville is a shortline that goes back to 1964.
In fact, the railroad itself goes back to 1853, when it was constructed as the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad, which later became Erie Railroad’s Rochester branch. It connected with the Erie main in Corning (NY).
Tracks between Livonia and Wayland to the south were abandoned in 1956. In fact, the original railroad grade is pretty much obliterated into Corning.
Livonia, Avon & Lakeville was formed because Erie-Lackawanna (a 1960 merger of Erie and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western) proposed abandonment of the line to Livonia from Avon. This included a short branch to Lakeville on Conesus Lake (“koh-NEE-sis”).
The area south of Avon didn’t wanna lose its railroad-service, so local businessmen formed the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville. Operation began in 1965.
LA&L gave railfan excursions at first. The line is quite scenic.

LA&L’s first steam-engine; #17.

But it was kind of a secret. I didn’t ride it myself until 1971.
LA&L had a steam-engine at first, ex-Buffalo Creek & Gauley #17, a 2-8-2 Mikado.
But it broke down and was sidelined before I rode the railroad.
#17 was eventually scrapped.
Time to drag out my early LA&L pictures.
The first railfan excursions I rode were very rudimentary. Perhaps two or three coaches pulled by a tiny 44-ton switcher. My black-and-white pics are that.
A 44-ton switcher weighed about 44 tons, so could be crewed by only one — per union rules.
The LA&L was fairly steep up into Livonia. Expecting a 44-ton switcher to do that was a bit of a stretch.
But it could do it, if few enough coaches were being pulled.
One pic has three coaches.


Northbound out of Livonia. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Southbound around Bullhead Pond in the scenic Triphammer Creek valley. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Out in the farmland, back to Livonia. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Livonia, Avon & Lakeville got another steam-locomotive, #38, a small 2-8-0 Consolidation.
I rode behind it.
It was sort of a teakettle, but fairly strong for a teakettle; about 1900 instead of before the turn-of-the-century.


#38 in Livonia. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Under the Bronson Hill Road bridge on its way to Livonia. (Photo by Bobbalew.)

I remember once getting its engineer to “lay rubber,” that is spin the driving-wheels. Breaking traction of a steel driving-wheel on a steel railhead was fairly easy.
The engineer just yanked back the throttle and it “laid rubber.”
#38 was eventually sold, and I think is still in use.
Meanwhile Livonia, Avon & Lakeville’s freight-business was growing.
It was being cultivated.
Representatives were trying to drum up lineside business, especially those needing rail-service.
The greatest accomplishment was getting Sweeteners-Plus to locate out in Lakeville.
Sweeteners-Plus is a distributor of corn-syrup.
LA&L would deliver tankcars of corn-syrup to Sweeteners-Plus, then Sweeteners-Plus would distribute it to tank-truck.
Corn-syrup is used to make soda-pop.
But LA&L didn’t stop there. It later went on to get a grain-elevator to install lineside on its line to Livonia.
Farmers would truck their grain to that elevator, and the elevator loaded covered hopper-cars for the railroad.
The elevator is off Bronson Hill Road, where the line to Livonia went under a rickety wooden overpass.
That overpass was eventually filled in, and the line east of there to Livonia abandoned.
In my ancient picture of #38 approaching that overpass, the bridge was still there.
LA&L discontinued its passenger excursions due to ballooning insurance costs.
Not too long ago Barilla, a pasta manufacturer, was considering building a giant factory in western NY.
It would require delivery of grain in covered-hoppers, railroad-service.
LA&L got Barilla to build north of Avon, and would supply the covered-hoppers.
By now LA&L was becoming serious. Conrail sought abandonment of the old Erie Rochester branch from Avon north to Rochester. LA&L got it, connected to its original line in Avon.
LA&L also got control of an old Lehigh Valley branch to Rochester. That branch was partially abandoned, as was Lehigh Valley, but it served a large lumber-yard south of Rochester.
LA&L could serve that lumber-yard.
Both lines, both Erie and Lehigh Valley, were gone into Rochester, so LA&L got trackage-rights on the old Rochester Bypass, originally West Shore, so it could get freightcars from CSX. (The Bypass is CSX.)
LA&L’s website has an LA&L freight crossing the Genesee on the old West Shore bridge.


Crossing the Genesee River on the Bypass.

Livonia, Avon & Lakeville became an Alco bastion.
Alco is American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, NY, a long-time manufacturer of railroad steam-locomotives.
American Locomotive Company is merger of several earlier steam-locomotive manufacturers.
When railroads started changing to diesel-electric locomotives American Locomotive Company started building diesels, and changed its name to Alco.
Alcos were pretty good, more economical with fuel than EMD diesels (EMD was General Motors’ Electromotive Division); EMD was the premier diesel-locomotive manufacturer at first — and for many years.
But Alco was using traction-motors and other electrical equipment manufactured by General Electric. GE decided to bring out its own railroad locomotive, discontinuing supply to Alco.
Alco had to discontinue building railroad locomotives, and many of its engines were scrapped as they aged.
Yet LA&L remains true to Alco. I think all of its locomotives are Alco.
So a railfan excursion with Alco locomotives is worth doing.
I dropped off my dog in Canandaigua, and then made the long trip to Lakeville, where the excursion would load.
The trip took 40 minutes — I had allowed an hour. So I was alone when I got there; didn’t know anyone. Except another railfan who worked at Transit as a mechanic. This guy is a chatterbox. He’s at all railfan gigs.
We struck up a conversation — one-sided of course. He was supposed to ride the excursion prior to mine, but missed it because he had forgotten his ticket. He had to drive all the way back to his apartment to get it.
Needless-to-say I heard that story hundreds of times, repeated to every person he could buttonhole, including complete strangers.
But at least I knew someone at this shindig.
But I missed my wife.
Other than that, I knew no one, so had no one to talk to.
And who says my wife would have been interested? She wasn’t a railfan, yet accompanied me on most of my railfan gigs.
So now I always feel bad we never did anything she was interested in. In fact, she was only interested in being with me.
I was at a bereavement-group meeting the other day, and a lady said she always went to the car-races at a speedway in Canandaigua.
“Did you follow this at all?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said. I’m more inclined to think it was her deceased husband, and she just went along.
As she continued to attend, she picked up a few things, and could thereby become interested.
But car-racing and trains are not female gigs.
So now I’m told this denotes sexism on my part.
After my wife retired she started doing crafts: quilts and knitted rag-rugs.
Would that we attended craft fairs; I’m sure there were plenty, but we never did.
I always had my railfanning to pursue.
It was a nice excursion, despite not being allowed to ride in the vestibules.
I’ve ridden railfan excursions that were horrible. I did one that got in at 3 a.m.
The steam-locomotive ran out of fuel = coal. We had to be rescued by diesels.
The locomotive tenders — there were two — had to be refilled with water, from a single piddly fire-hydrant. Two giant tenders; it took almost three hours.
Other excursions couldn’t exceed 10 mph, which ain’ no fun. The LA&L excursion was doing about 40; clipping right along.
And I didn’t notice “clickity-clack.” Has LA&L switched to welded rail instead of bolted?
I wouldn’t be surprised. LA&L is very serious.
Livonia, Avon & Lakeville has been in business 50 years. It’s become extremely successful, more than the average shortline, or so it seems.
It’s their cultivation of lineside business. LA&L is out in the middle of nowhere, but they attracted rail-users.
Quite often a shortline is just a feeble attempt to continue rail-service to an existing shipper. Passenger excursions get added; boys with their big toys.
I remember when LA&L started it was splitting weeds.
Now the line looks like a class-one railroad.
i remember when LA&L’s maintenance facility was just a small barn or two in Lakeville.
Now a giant maintenance facility was built outside Lakeville. It looks like a class-one maintenance facility; tracks galore.
LA&L has been so successful it moved to operating other shortlines.
Like Bath & Hammondsport.
Bath & Hammondsport was originally a tiny railroad from Bath (NY) that supplied rail-service to Hammondsport (NY).
But Bath & Hammondsport started operating the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western main from Cohocton (NY) down to the old Erie main (now Norfolk Southern) in Gang Mills near Corning.
My wife and I rode it while it was still independent.
It was depressing! The DL&W main was a 60 mph railroad, yet we had to stop and flag every grade-crossing.
LA&L now operates it. I saw two LA&L Alcos on it.
I don’t see any lineside business development yet.
The DL&W main was also out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere, essentially an extension to Buffalo.
The Erie’s old Rochester branch was also out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. Yet LA&L did well with it.
LA&L also operates New York & Pennsylvania, the original Erie main from Hornell (NY) west, also out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere.
LA&L also operates the old Pennsy line from northwestern PA up to Olean, NY.
LA&L Alcos are pretty. It’s those yellow stripes on the locomotive nose.
Often a railroad can’t afford a pretty paint-scheme.
So a railfan excursion on LA&L was worth doing.
But I miss my wife.

• RE: “The Genesee valley......” — The Genesee River is a fairly large river that runs south-to-north across Western New York, runs through Rochester, including over falls, and empties into Lake Ontario. That river runs through the vast Genesee valley; first breadbasket of this nation.
• “Transit” equals Regional Transit Service, the public transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY, where I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years (1977-1993). My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability.