Map of Elmira Branch of Pennsylvania Railroad
[From: American Railway Guide, 1851]
Southport Yards, Elmira, early 1900s
Southport yard, Elmira
Photo by Joe Boyd
Southport Yards, Elmira, June 13, 1954
Photos by Joe Boyd Randy Bouchart collection
Leaving Southport yard, 1956
Photo by David Conner
Erie station jointly used by Pennsylvania Railroad
Millport
Montour Falls, August, 1966 Photo by Shelden King
Jim Shaughnessy photo
Jim Shaughnessy photo
Elmira, N.Y., March 1, 1973
Passenger service on the Sodus Bay Branch had been gone six years when I hired out in June 1941. Most of the old passenger stations were still standing, but are gone today with the exception of Sodus Point, Newark and Seneca Castle. This also applies for the remainder of the Elmira Branch. With the exceptions of Troy and Columbia Cross Roads, Pa., all stations have vanished south of Elmira. Depots north of Elmira which stand today are at Horseheads and Watkins and Montour Falls, although the latte is closed down and boarded up.
I have always had a special fondness for the Sodus Bay Branch, commonly called the “Shine Line,” although no one has ever been able to enlighten me on the origin go the slang term.
(continued later)
Starkey, February, 1968
Photo by Dick Pearson
Penn Yan Chronicle Express
November 27, 1969
Old Starkey Station,
Now Just A Memory!
By Nellah (Mrs. Albert) Lare
Starkey Correspondent
There is an empty space by the railroad track in the little hamlet of Starkey today. Starkey station, the center of activity in the days of the stage coach, has been dismantled. It was one of the few landmarks still remaining there.
This present station was not the first one built. The first one was located somewhere between the crossing at Starkey and the Curtis crossing with is no on the Shannon’s Corners Road on the east side of the track. This was torn down and a small dwelling built which was occupied by railroad employees known then as section hands or maintenance men.
One of these men walked the length of a section about five miles in length, 10 miles per day, to locate any break in the track. He reported it to the station agent when the walk was completed. The railroad was built in 1850 and the first trains on the Northern Central to Canandaigua were in 1854. So the first station was built prior to 1854.
The interior ceiling of this present station was metal present in square designs and painted a drab green. An open iron grating separated the waiting room from the office space occupied by the station agent and the telegrapher. A large pot belly stove burning soft coal heated both rooms. Lamps hanging from the high ceiling furnished the light, one in the waiting room area and one over each desk in the office.
This present station was built in 1896-9 by master carpenter, Willis C. Daggett, of Elmira. His crew came each day from Elmira on a passenger train arriving at 6:20 a.m. and returned by train leaving at 7:30 p.m., six days a week. John W. Pratt was station agent. A.J. Kinney, day operator and John Hayes, night operator, using the Morse code to transmit train orders. Western Union messages and often the results of sporting events, prize fights and ball games were reported to the interested citizens by these men. The operators worked 12 hours per trick, seven days a week and received $35 per month, the station agent $45.
A. J. Kinney taught his son, Claire, and daughter, Harriet, telegraphy and both were railroad telegraphers. Harriet is Mrs. William Thompson now living in Watkins Glen. The night operator, John Hayes, only had one arm. He taught about 10 boys the art of telegraphy in the station as a reward for climbing the ladder and taking the semaphore light to the top of the 25-foot pole every night and down in the morning. Timothy Brewer, deceased, and Joseph Brewer, retired N.Y. train dispatcher, were among his students. Other telegraphers over the years included John Lynch and Frank Ingoldsby. There were landscapes on both the north and south sides of the station and the poles were on the east side of each mound underneath the Starkey sign.
Emmett Dense and William Pettingill, Starkey Corners boys now deceased, became interested in railroads through Starkey station, the former became the former trainmaster for the Pennsylvania division, the latter became train dispatcher. The Rev. William Pettingill, of Tyrone, is a nephew of William Pettingill and Donald Wheeler, of Starkey, a son-in-law of Emmett Dense.
Eugene Hodges, of Montour Falls, and A. F. MacKerchar, of Penn Yan, retired telegraphers, recall many fellow workers now deceased who worked at the Starkey station when there was much shipping of grapes and hay from there Dan Utz, Earl Bailey, Lewis Campbell, Chester Judd, Charles Ellkiott, Ed Johnson, Robert Harding, Harry Duffy, Robert Holdridge and station agents, Harry Tipton, Fred Lucas, Bert Hildreth, Guy Hobart, Howard Cayword and James Voorhees, who succeeded John Pratt. James L. Brewer served as nation agent in the old station further up the track.
There was a grape depot above the station built in 1900-02. Many carloads of grapes during the season were shipped each week in three and five-pound baskets bearing picture labels with names of packers a and growers: Gano, Dunlap, Baskin, Elliott,, Johnson Connolly and others and later, C. R. Brewer, Watson & O’Brien, of Dundee, shipped carloads of beans and hay. Mandel Chadwick assisted by his son, Charles, received carloads of western horses at this station. Traveling salesmen stayed at the Fulton House in Starkey. A coal yard was also located here.
The stage owned and operated by Carpenter and Robinson, of Dundee, met each train except the 6:30 a. m. and the 9:35 p.m. to transport passengers to Dundee for 25 cents per passenger, and luggage was carried free. The stage with horses was sheltered in the stage shed across the road and to the north of the station, Weather conditions did not interrupt this service. Transportation could be arrangement by appointment from other train.
The station agent was also agent for Adams Express which later became American Railway Express. This would be unloaded from an express car on passenger trains and placed on a high four-foot wagon for transfer to the express room in the station. Starkey Seminary express freight and baggage would be picked up here by the late John Stettinius, who managed the Seminary farm. Sometimes the agent had to check and load four or five large trunks for the clothing and shoe salesmen had no other way to travel to sell their wares.
A large sign erected across the tracks in front of the station in the early 1900’s attracted the attention of the passengers while trains were at the station. It read: “Take the Stage for Bonnie Dundee. The prettiest village you ever did see, three miles due west on the N.Y.C. Visit it once and you’ll once of us be.” The owner of the Dundee Electric Company, Bailey, was promoting Dundee at the time.
The station at Starkey was closed in 1956 after the local business went to trucks.
Pusher heading north out of Watkins Glen, about 1956
David Conner photo
Glenora in steam and diesel days
Northern Central Depot, Himrod
Penn-Central local EC-15 passing through, November 4, 1972
Penn Yan Chronicle Express
April 10, 1925
Penn Yan Terminal for Two Railroad Sections
___
Effective April 1st, the sections on the Elmira Division of the Pennsylvania railroad were rearranged and lengthened. The old sections were from three and on-half to five miles in length while the new ones are the equivalent of eight miles, 20 switches, or four miles of sidings being counted as equivalent of one mile of main track.
Under the new arrangement Penn Yan is the terminal for two sections. Section No. 18. running south from Penn Yan to Himrod Junction, is in charge of J. J. Powers, track foreman, and George Wallenbeck, assistant foreman. These men were in charge of the Penn Yan section under the old plan. Section 19 runs from Penn Yan to Bellona Station and is in charge of J. W. Loughlin, track foreman, and H. S. Green, assistant foreman. Mr. Loughlin will move here from Bellona, and Mr. Green has moved from Watkins to 134 Hamilton street.
Each section is furnished with a gasoline motor car to which may be attached a trailer truck for carrying ties and other materials. These motor cars run on train orders and are subject to the same rules as trains under the block system. In order to make it easier to report when they have cleared the main track and also to get orders when they again wish to occupy it, every fifth telephone pole has been equipped with telephone connections so that the track foreman can “plug in” his portable telephone, call the nearest operator and report or ask for orders. In the same way he has access to the other wires and may in an emergency talk directly with Elmira or Canandaigua.
Two regular standard railroad tool houses for housing the motor cars and other tools are to be erected here, the one for the south section will be located south of the Seneca street crossing and the one for the north section will be worth of the Sheppard street crossing. Each tool house will have telephone connections.
Freight house at Penn-Yan, September, 1968
Dick Pearson photo
New York Central Depot
The Last Passenger Train Through From Penn Yan
Depot at Benton
"K"Tower at Benton. Operators Miller, Allen and Johnson
Coal train passing through Bellona
Jim Shaughnessy photo
Dick Pearson photo
Stanley tower, Lehigh Valley crosses in foreground
Watkins Democrat, August 12, 1885
_______
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, September 28, 1943
Central N.Y. Chapter, NRHS
Depot at Seneca Castle
Depot at Orleans
John Stewart collection
Taking water at Orleans, 1950s
Orleans water tank, June, 1974 - Dick Pearson photo
From 1875 map of the town of Phelps
Bruce Tracy collection
Canandaigua Messenger, July 31, 1953
Phelps Junction Busy Place
Again Due To Thruway - Like
Old Times To A. S. Hildreth
by Alice Barton
“Phelps Junction Lives Again.”
The dandelions and Queen Anne’s lace growing between ties of the Pennsylvania and New York Central rails at the once-busy junction are now covered with diesel oil and cement dust. Phelps Junction has come alive, with the building of the super-highway, New York State Thruway, and the very means of the Junction’s decline - motor transit - is now causing the sidings to be full of covered hoppers of bulk cement and long flatcars of reinforcing steel for the highway. Trucks busily ply between the nearly Thruway and the Junction, transporting the cement and steel and other supplies.
Phelps Junction 50 years ago was the center of business activity and passenger travel. A. S. Hildreth, 40 W. Main St., agent for the Pennsy and New York Central railroads for more than 50 years, remembers well when he arrived at Phelps Junction August 1, 1902, just 51 years ago this week.
There was a passenger train each way every two hours, and it was common practice for Mr. Hildreth to work 16 hours a day. He was telegrapher, baggage and express agent, ticket seller and factotum at the joint agency.
500 Tickets A Day
Riffling through a box of momentous, Mr. Hildreth found some old timetables, a packet of passes issued each year to him throughout the years and clippings of outstanding events of the day,
One timetable, vintage of 1892 was marked “Northern Central Railway” the old name for the Pennsylvania. It showed the schedule of six trains a day going through Phelps Junction. The New York Central had similar timetables. An even older timetable had been sent some years ago to the Philadelphia museum for preservation.
Mr. Hildreth recalled that he sold as many as 500 passenger tickets a day during peak seasons.
Vaudeville troupes and old-time stock companies carrying their scenery were another part of the big business, according to Mr. Hildreth. Troupes with immense amounts of baggage as well as the scenery were loaded and unloaded at Phelps Junction so that the actors and actresses could make their “one-a-day” stands in nearby cities.
Twenty 10-gallon cans of milk were shipped each day at the Junction; and by 1912, tons of cabbage and potatoes were being shipped in bulk out of the Junction to New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Produce became big business for the railroads until the gradual inroad of truck transit. As highways were improved, more trucks were piled with local produce for shipment to the cities, and the gradual decline of the Junction began.
There are no passenger trains now that stop at the junction. About five yeas ago the old passenger and freight station burned to the ground, and with it, many old records which had been stored there. The only buildings at the Junction now are the Charles S. Robinson coal and oil storage buildings and Mr. Robinson’s office.
Reminiscing on his job as agent, Mr. Hildreth recalled that he was first an “extra agent” sent out where needed to relieve the regular agent and that was his first job at Phelps Junction. Then he became the joint agent for the two railroads.
It was not long after he became agent at the Junction that a tragic accident took place when an engine jumped the track near Sodus Bay and live steam burned many passengers who died. Mr. Hildreth worked all day and all night then, sending messages by wire; re-routing trains, answering the frantic questions of relatives and friends.
Mr. Hildreth was he last agent at the Junction. He retired about 10 years ago. About 15 years ago he went to Stanley as block operator for the Lehigh and Pennsylvania, but returned to Phelps to make his home after retirement. He was succeeded at the tower in Stanley by Howard Cayward, another veteran.
He looked at the long line of covered hoppers on the tracks at the Junction, and tag the elevators from which the loose cement poured into the Thruway trucks. It seemed like old times again to have the Junction siding full of freight.
Photo by Paul J. Templeton
Phelps Junction in the mid-1970s, looking east on the Auburn branch, at the "diamond." This is what was called an "automatic interlocking."
Newark, August, 1971 - Dick Pearson photo
Sodus Center
Yards at Sodus Point, 1950s
Jim Shaughnessy photo
(Joe Boyd Reminiscences continued)
I was sent to Sodus Point after I hired out on the PRR, the first trainman taken on since 1929! At the time no locomotive larger than an L1s (2-8-2) was permitted north of Elmira. These engines did not have the brakeman’s compartment (monkey-box, or dog-house) on the engine tender and the head brakeman shared the fireman’s seat-box. I liked the L1s more than any other PRR type, as it was a general all-around power plant. No matter in wha type of service it was used, it was good - and this includes passenger service! An L1s rode and tracked good, was strong and quick, and a good hauler. An L1s with square valves and hooked up produced the sweetest stack-talk of any locomotive.
In the very early part of spring 1943, the I1s (2-10-0) began running into Sodus Point. The turntable at that terminal was enlarged to accommodate these heavier engines. We always assumed that the railroad company painted the bridges on the line to make them strong enough to bear the additional weight. When we shoved six cars of coal onto the Sodus Point dock and came to a stop, the dock moved
outward six to eight inches from the land, and stayed there until the brakes were released. The wharf would then settle back to its normal position.
The only time we ever had trouble with the L1s was on the sharp curve on Track 33. If the trailer-truck under the cab had not been well lubricated, the truck would fight the rails and usually derail. This usually happened when the engine was backing up.
The Sodus Point branch was the last hold out for steam on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here, a coal train is shown headed north past the station in Newark for Sodus Point in 1957. Cal’s Classics |
In 1946 PRR sent three or four L1s to the Elmira Branch, primarily for use at Sodus Point as switch engines. They were all hand-fired. Of course, the fire-boys weren't very happy with them, especially when the engines were due for boiler-washes at Elmira. The company would not run them light over the road to and from Elmira, but hung cars onto them. The firemen protested with such vigor that PRR
put two tallow-pots on the deck to “hand-bomb” them for the 92-mile run. Brakemen were not required to assist the fireman - and this included digging coal. If so ordered by the superintendent, they were paid an additional day’s pay.
I believe that the PRR had two L1s equipped with boosters, and one of these was used on the Elmira-Dewitt coal trains, but the boosters were rarely used. In time it became inoperative and was subsequently removed. If my memory is correct, I think this engine was #1556. Being used in the yard one afternoon, the cab was cornered by a drag of cars and the fireman was killed where he sat. It was necessary to cut the cab apart to remove him. The engine stood at Elmira for many, many months before being hauled away. I don’t know if it ever was used again.
The hardest tour of duty I ever put in was on the Sodus Bay Branch, and there were hundreds of them! A 16-hour day or night was common. In one 15-day pay period in 1942, I put in almost 225 hours on duty. I was a walking dead man, as I did not get a full eight-hour’s rest between tours of duty. “Laying-off” work for a day was impossible, as permission was absolutely refused. We had seven crews
working at Sodus Point, on a first-in, first-out basis.
Each day six crews worked the yard and the seventh crew went on the local freight to Stanley and back. This, too, was a 16-hour run. Most of the time when my crew would go to work, the only crew who could relieve us was working in the yard then and usually had been on duty five to seven hours. They had to finish their tour, take their rest, and then relieve us. I have seen as many as eight lake boats waiting in the bay to be loaded and two at the dock.
Most of the men you named in your letter, I have worked with. I saw one of them, J.K. Stoll, when he died. He just dropped to the ground. Two of the men are still living.
Richard Palmer collection
(Tap on image to enlarge)
Pushing coal cars up on the trestle.
Sodus Point historian
Steamer E. J. Mathiott loading coal, 1950s
Tug Buffalo used for maneuvering ships at trestle
The coal was running to Sodus Point hot and heavy in the early 1940s. At one time a coal train departed Elmira every four hours. Sodus Point yard couldn’t handle the flow and the crews were storing cars anywhere they could between Elmira and Sodus Point and Canandaigua. To me soft coal was soft coal, but there must have been at least 100 different classes. The local out of Sodus Point not only did the local freight work, but had to dig out a certain class of coal from the various sidings and spurs for a boat that was due. It was not uncommon to drag into Sodus Point behind an L1s with 100 cars of coal and “outlaw” under the 16-hour law before the train was yarded. Some trips ended before we reached Sodus Point and a fresh crew relieved us. It wasn’t an uncommon thing to spend six hours switching at Stanley, digging out a certain class of coal.
After 1946 I never worked in the Sodus Point yard again except one day, although I went in and out of that terminal hundreds of times.
Sodus Point is dead today and will never return as a busy railroad terminal. I don’t think there has been a train into that place in well over two years. The track is still there, but the village of Wallington is about as far as a train has gone in the past five years - and this is only about once in every three or four months.
No trains run any further north than Seneca Castle, and the line north of that point to Newark hasn’t seen a train in several years. It is up for abandonment as is the road north of Newark to Lake Ontario. Penn Central has also applied for permission to abandon the “Hojack” between Oswego and Williamson.
An organization south of Elmira has succeeded in getting an order which will prevent PC from doing any ripping up of the track between Elmira and Cedar Ledge, south of Canton, Pa. This means that there will be further hearings, but the remainder of the track to Williamsport will be ripped up. Oddly enough, PC has asked to be permitted to abandon the track between Horseheads and Watkins Glen. We can’t understand this, but then we can’t understand a lot about the Penn Central.
Great Lakes freighter loading coal at Sodus Point, 1950s
Station at Wallington, junction of Pennsylvania Railroad
and Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg "Hojack" line.
Building behind train is the Franklin House Hotel. This was in the "Macyville" area of Sodus Point.
When the Railroad Came to Sodus Point
The Sodus Bay & Southern Railroad was conceived about 1853 when train service on the Canandaigua & Elmira Railroad provided passenger & freight service into Canandaigua, the location of the land office of the Pultney Estate.
At that time Col. Elias Cook, the Civil Engineer who built the Sodus Piers, took the contract to build the Sodus Bay and Southern RR to meet the Canandaigua & Elmira at Stanley, a few miles southwest of Geneva.
The planning and early phases of the construction had many setbacks, and after several years of frustrating difficulties, the project collapsed due to insufficient funds, at considerable loss to Col. Cook. The project was subsequently refinanced and completed by a second contractor after nearly 20 years of delays. The Sodus Bay and Southern began operation on July 4th, 1872, and created an access to the area which greatly enhanced its commercial and private development. Just as the line was opened in the fall of 1872, the Northern Central RR bought the Canandaigua & Elmira line to which the SB&S connected at Stanley.
The railroad’s first years were unprofitable and the line was poorly managed. In the 1870's, Sylvanus J. Macy from Rochester built and operated a Bank near the west end of the Bay and began supporting the financial needs of the area. This location became known as Macyville and was the site of the railroad station, the malthouse of E. B. Parsons, and eventually the coal trestle. In 1881, Edward Harriman arrived at Sodus Point. He was a son-in-law of the Averell Harriman banking and railroad family of Ogdensburg, with business interests in northern New York.
Harriman and Macy and other associates purchased the ailing railroad with the idea of selling it either to the Northern Central or New York Central improved the line’s facilities and tracks, and in 1884, after some clever negotiation by Harriman, sold it to the Northern Central. This deal was the beginning of
Harriman’s career as a railroad baron. He left the area to become heavily involved in the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads.
The Northern Central then financed the construction of the first coal loading pier at Macyville and, in 1886, began the shipment of Pennsylvania coal from Sodus Point. The line carried farm products, ice, grain, and other goods as well as coal to and from the area it serviced. It also provided full passenger service and, during the summer brought vacationers from Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania to cottages and resort hotels at Sodus Point.
The Macyville area became an industrial center for Sodus Bay and eventually contained a large malthouse built by Mr. E. B. Parsons, several ice houses, the railroad station, and the switching yards for the trains and cars of the Northern Central. Part of the malthouse complex, four large grain storage elevators and a loading pier with tracks, just north of the coal trestle, were part of the shipping
complex there at the end of the Bay in 1890.
In the cove of the town harbor northeast of the trestle, another shipping pier with tracks for railroad cars where various products including iron ore could be transferred to ships for transport to other ports on the lake. The town docks were located in this area within walking distance of the foot of Bay Street where it meets Sand Point. From this dock the passenger steamers transported vacationers to their lodging hotels and resorts around the bay. These enterprises depended upon the railroad for their viability.
From about 1885 to 1925, the railroad connection to Sodus Point attracted settlers and vacationers to the area. In the 1880s and 1890s many of the wealthy friends of Harriman, Macy, and Parsons
came to vacation and to sail their private yachts on the waters of the Bay and Lake. Many vacationers from the Rochester area also made Sodus Bay their favorite recreational area, and traveled the 30 miles on the interurban electric cars which brought them to the Sodus Point stop overlooking the foot of Bay Street.
In the late 1880’s the Northern Central rebuilt the entire line with heavier rail and replaced the lines wooden bridges with iron structures such that large locomotives of up to 48 tons could be used on the line. The Sodus Point coal pier was enlarged in 1894, At that time, passenger traffic supported four passenger trains daily each way from Elmira to Sodus Point.
The Northern Central was merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1913 through a 99 year lease, and this line became known as the Elmira Branch. In the 1920's the line was rebuilt with heavier 130 pound rail and stone ballast. Several of the iron bridges were replaced with steel ones, and this allowed significantly larger and more powerful locomotives to be used on the line. During 1927 and 1928, a new coal trestle replaced the old one, and the switching yard was significantly expanded in size and capability.
The coal shipping business increased and continued to flourish into the 1930's despite the effects of the depression and became the major traffic source during that period, which saw the steady decline of passenger revenues caused by replacement of public transportation by the automobile. In 1940 the Coal Business took a big jump when the power plant at Oswego began receiving coal that was tariffed to move through Sodus Point, and transloaded into boats for the 30 mile trip east on the Lake. The World War II years saw a tremendous tonnage of coal shipped to all points on the Lake, and it was common in those years to see two coal boats at the trestle loading and several more anchored in the Bay waiting their turn.
This situation continued and there was another upsurge of coal traffic in the 1950’s that required an extensive enlargement of the switching yard capacity. At its final expanded size, the yard had room for 1,237 forty-five foot coal cars; enough to assemble a train more than 10 miles long. To break the loading bottleneck, the pier loading chutes and equipment were enlarged and improved and in 1956 mechanical shakers were added to the pier to reduce, by three or four, the number of crew members needed to operate the dock. In 1957, a season of about nine months, 2.5 million tons of coal were shipped from the Sodus trestle. The previous record year was 1951 when 2.1 million tons were shipped.
A wide variety of ore ships were used to transport coal from Sodus Point to other points on the lake. A large number of these were operated by Canadian Steamship Lines and were the ones most frequently seen on there loading at the trestle. Almost all of the coal shipped was bituminous, which was very dusty and dirty compared to the anthracite coal most used to heat their homes at the time.
For more than 20 years one of the most frequent visitors was the Fontana, a self-unloader, that spent her time sailing between Sodus Point and Oswego, 30 miles to the east.
Lakeshore Station at Sodus Point
"The railroad had an open-air station there where passengers could get on and off the trains. This is where all the excursion specials terminated and started out from. When I hired out in 1941, the track was in use only to the street just east of the malt house. Just once do I recall that we stored some coal over that highway crossing. Between that street and the village park there were the remains of old docks. " - Joseph C. Boyd
Passenger train at Sodus Point
where the lake steamers stopped and freight boats loaded and unloaded. One dock was called the “Feldspar Dock.” When I hired out, it was just a few old rotting timbers standing just above the water level.
When the lower, or water end, of the main track was discontinued is unknown to me, but I assume in the early 1930s, when the passenger trains on the Sodus Bay Branch were abandoned. That is about all there is of the history today. Even Sodus Point yard is gone. The only train running into that place is the switch engine from Newark with cars of grain for the malt house.
Sodus Bay Branch, 1924
Milepost
Sodus Point Shop 33.2
Coal Trestle # 33.2
Station # 32.4
(Judson Snyder #1; Wilson Bros.; A.H. Shufelt + 33.4
Storage Track # 33.4
(AH. Fleld) + 33.8
Storage Track 33.8
Ore Dock 33.9
Lake Shore Station * 34.0
(F.C. Wickham) + 34.3
Public Delivery 34.3
(End of Track)
# Telegraph Office
+ Private Sidings
* No siding
Mileposts from Stanley
Each trip she deposited 4, 500 tons of coal at the Niagara-Mohawk Corporation power plant just inside the west pier of the Oswego Harbor. The Fontana was a moderate-sized ship, about 400 feet in length, and could make a round trip to Oswego every 14 to 16 hours. She placed more than a million tons of soft coal in Oswego in a single season, making over 250 round trips in that time. The Fontana held the equivalent of from 80 to 90 hopper cars of coal when filled to capacity. So the season's delivery to the Oswego steam plant totaled more than 21,000 carloads. This amounted to a requirement for one 80 car
train per day from the from the Pennsylvania coalfields to Sodus Point for the entire shipping season, just to fill the requirements of the Oswego station.
Other regular visitors to Sodus Point were the Bayfax, Coalfax, Midland Prince, Calcite and Stadocona. These ships accounted for the other 60 percent of coal tonnage shipped from the Sodus Point trestle. Coal
shipments remained strong from the late 1950s through 1963, when the Erie-Lackawanna secured the coal delivery contract to Oswego.
This change was accompanied by a significant decrease in the use of coal by the industries around the lake and their conversion to oil and other power fuels. In only four short years, coal shipments from Sodus Point were reduced to zero, and on December 11, 1967 the trestle was shut down by Penn-Central shut down with the loading of the last boat. This spelled doom for the Elmira branch of the Pennsylvania RR as well, effectively shutting it down. In only a few short years the tracks to Sodus Point lay unused and in disrepair.
The lack of the racket from the trestle shakers remained the only pleasing factor to residents in the
passing of this long and nostalgic part of 20th Century Sodus Bay history. After the trestle had remained unused for three years, a local businessman purchased the property with the idea of dismantling the structure and using the lower section as Marina with 125 slips for pleasure boats, The dismantling project progressed well for period of three weeks.
Then, on a windy November 5, 1971, while men were working with acetylene torches near the outer end of the trestle, a red-hot bolt dropped onto a coal-dust covered timber below. It ignited a fire that virtually destroyed the trestle. Demolition work continued, however, and is presently the site of a marina.
Trestle burns November 5, 1971
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Pennsylvania RR coal trestle at Sodus Point with a self unloading ship being loaded |
Sodus Point Historian
The Sodus Bay Branch ran from Stanley, near Geneva, to Sodus Point. It passed through Flint, Seneca Castle, Orleans, Phelps Junction, Newark, Sodus Center, and Wallington. A branch split off from the north side of Newark to the village of Marion. Passing sidings were located in Stanley and "New," which was north (timetable west) of Newark. The main purpose of the line was carrying coal to the large coal dock at Sodus Point. A Niagara Hudson power plant was opened at Oswego in 1940. This plant burned large quantities of coal, which were carried by rail to Sodus Point and then by boat to Oswego. The line also carried general freight. Until the 1930's ice was harvested in Sodus Bay and shipped south. Agricultural products were a major source of traffic into the middle 1950's. A quarry in Wallington, which opened in the early 1950's, generated hundreds of carloads of stone and gravel for road construction. The Genessee Brewing Company had a large malt house in Sodus Point which received several carloads of grain every five or six weeks. It still stands unused. Jackson and Perkins shipped rose bushes from their facility in Newark until the early 1950's. During the coal shipping season, local switching was performed by coal trains. In the winter, a local ran as needed from Sodus Point to Stanley and back. Passenger trains ran along the branch until 1934--first steam trains and then a gas electric car. A mixed train operated until November 15, 1935. There was also a maritime component to the Sodus Bay Branch. PRR harbor tug Cornelia operated at Sodus Point, helping the lake boats dock and sometimes pushing barges of coal to Oswego. The Sodus Bay and Southern Railroad opened in 1873 as a standard gauge railroad connecting Sodus Point, the largest protected harbor on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, with the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua Railway at Stanley. By 1873, the EJ&C was controlled by the Northern Central. The SB&S failed twice before being purchased as the first railroad venture of E. H. Harriman, who later became famous as the president of the Union Pacific. Harriman bought the line with hopes of selling it to either the Erie or the Northern Central. The Northern Central purchased it in 1884 and immediately built a coal trestle at Sodus Point. In 1886, the SB&S, the EJ&C, and the Chemung Railway were consolidated as the Elmira & Lake Ontario Railroad. The coal pier was enlarged in 1894. In 1913, the Pennsylvania Railroad signed a 99 year lease on the Northern Central, and folded it into its system. The line was upgraded during the 1920's, with stone ballast and 130 pound rail. A new coal pier was built at Sodus Point during 1927-28, and the yard there was expanded. The Pennsylvania purchased the Newark & Marion Railway, which ran between its namesake towns, on May 4, 1930. This line was originally to be a trolley line but never did. This eight-mile line became the Marion Branch. Its last operator was the Ontario Midland between 1979 and 1984 and then it was abandoned. The opening of a Niagara Hudson power plant at Oswego in 1940, increased the amount of coal being loaded into lake boats at Sodus Point. This traffic was the mainstay of the line until 1963 when the Erie Lackawanna discontinued operating coal trains to Oswego. Coal trains to Sodus Point were discontinued in December, 1967. On November 5, 1971, while the coal trestle at Sodus Point was being dismantled, it caught fire and was severely damaged. The Seneca Castle - Newark portion of the line closed in 1973. Track from Newark to Sodus Point was scheduled for abandonment in early 1978, but the governments of Wayne County and the State of New York purchased the line. The Ontario Midland Railway became the designated operator. The line from Wallington to Sodus Point was subsequently abandoned. Pennsylvania Railroad- Elmira Branch
Abandonments: Sodus Point Branch
Abandonments: |
Canandaigua Branch
Ontario County Historical Society
Hotel used as railroad station - 1872
Freight house and enginehouse at Canandaigua.
Ontario County Historical Society
At its peak, 36 passenger trains entered and departed Canandaigua in a single day. In 1890, the New York Central Railway Depot was built in Canandaigua. It was held to be the most beautiful depot on the Main Line or any of its branches, in its architectural design, in equipment and layout of the large waiting room, and the attractive flower beds in the rear. It was through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson, who built their summer residence of Sonnenberg in Canandaigua, that the depot got built. It was their custom to entertain guests of prominence from their main home in New York City.
Before the depot was built, the station and the waiting room were located in the basement of the Canandaigua Hotel. Since Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were people of considerable influence, they convinced the owners of the New York Central, the Vanderbilts, to build a depot in keeping with the beauty and dignity of Canandaigua, where guests could be properly received.
On Sept. 29, 1968, a major fire nearly destroyed the station. Most of the structure was lost except for much of the original stoneware [which interestingly is of the same stone construction used to build the mansion at Sonnenberg Gardens] as well as some of its historic features. In 1971 what remained of the station was renovated into a professional building.
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Joe Boyd continues:
August 21, 1974
I received your request of August 16 for data concerning PRR trackage in Canandaigua and Sodus Point, N.Y. During my career the spur track running from the Canandaigua Yard to the shore of Canandaigua Lake was simply known as the “Lake Branch.” I presume it was a title that was handed down from old railroaders. It was merely a yard track, and no authority was required to use it. I hired out in June 1941, and I don’t think I worked the Canandaigua end of the line until the spring or early summer of 1946 after my discharge from the army. I clearly recall the first time I passed over the Lake Branch.
We coupled onto a large auto-box with our H9s engine and pushed it ahead of us to the shore of the lake. We coupled onto a few other cars that stood on the spur and shoved them ahead of us. Near the shore there was a spur track onto which we shoved the cars, but hung onto the auto-box.
Men from a nearby boat dock opened the end doors of the car and lo and behold! there was a very large cabin cruiser. The men quickly loosened the braces and we pushed the car out into the lake waters. The track went under water on a very steep grade. It dropped out of sight like a rock! The water floated the boat out of the car! We pulled back, gathered up the cars we had found ahead of us and returned to Canandaigua Yard, re-spotting the cars.
Originally this spur was an independent railroad company known as the Canandaigua Lake Railroad, 1.6 miles in length, with 70 lb. rails. I do not know when it was chartered, but I guess between 1885 and 1887, and I assume it was merely a “paper” company. The real owner and builder was the Elmira & Lake Ontario Railroad, just another corporation of the Northern Central/Pennsylvania R.R.. The history of the railroad north of Elmira is one big mess. I’ve never been able to straighten it out.
The Canandaigua Lake Railroad was organized by articles of association that were filed on July 21, 1887, and the line was opened on September 1, 1887 under Northern Central management. I assume that it was built for the purpose of making connections with the Canandaigua lake steamboats. I read somewhere that a passenger train operated on this spur for that purpose. I don’t recall where I saw this data.
The Canandaigua Lake Railroad was authorized by law or charter to issue 200 shares of stock at a par value of $20,000; up to 1888 no stock had been issued, but $12,909.79 had been paid in on account. The number of stockholders entitled to stock that had not been issued was 13. Between September 30, 1887, and September 30, 1888, the company spent $6,400 on improvements, thus indicating the line had
been laid down between 1885-1887.
The general offices were located at Elmira, with Spencer Meade serving as president. He was the NCR Superintendent between Williamsport and Canandaigua. George N. Diven was Secretary, and E.K. Tidd was Treasurer. There were 13 directors. I don’t think the company ever owned any rolling stock, but why should it if Northern Central built the line and its president was a Superintendent of the NCR? NCR equipment was used.
On December 31, 1888, the Canandaigua Lake Railroad was absorbed by the Elmira & Lake Ontario.
In 1949 I was working a regular work train at Canandaigua and spent my evenings in the museum studying the old newspapers, which are filled with railroad news. The librarian showed me an old photograph of a New York Central locomotive, which she said was the first engine to run over the spur line. This I questioned.
The following may be of interest:
Canandaigua Lake Branch - 1924
Milepost
Jct. of Elmira Division 143.3
Warehouse # 143.4
(Zach T. Darrow) + 143.5
(Croucher & Packard) 143.6
(Canandaigua Kraut Co.) + 143.6
(Sinclair Oil Refining C60)+ 143.7
Storage track 144.4
(New York State Rwys. Powerhouse) + 144.5
Lake Landing 144.9
(End of track)
# Telegraph Office (Freight House)
+ Private Siding
The mileposts are from the Passenger Station in Williamsport, Pa.
The last I worked into Canandaigua was about 1968 or 1969, and we only went down the branch to about M.P.143.6, where we placed empty boxcars for a firm that makes boxes for Fanny Farmer Candies. Immediately north of this is a large junk yard and we served them just about every night. At about M.P.143.5 we placed empties for bean loading. Today that is the extent of the industries. From about 143.6 to the lake the track is history and most likely gone. It does not cross the new four-lane Route 20 anymore. About three years ago the track from Stanley to Canandaigua was closed down, and PRR crews go no further than Stanley today. The NYC local on the old Auburn Road serves the Canandaigua Branch and the old PRR yard - at extra pay. As usual, the PRR men lost - quite common since the merger.
As for the track at Sodus Point, which runs to the edge of Lake Ontario: It was the main track for the passenger trains 75 years ago. It terminated on the connecting channel between the lake and the bay. For many years the PRR secured its sand for its locomotives from the channel, using a “sand sucker.” Also in the winter months the company cut all the ice used by the system east of Pittsburgh, Pa. It was loaded into stock cars and sent all over. Crews worked regularly all winter hauling “ice” trains south. Near the end of the track on the bay, the PRR had what was called the “Company Cottage,” where high officials stayed on vacation. Their special trains ran right down to the cottage door! Near Route 14 in the village is a small village park.
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August 23, 1977
I have been retired since October 1 of last year, and now know practically nothing about the railroad. There isn’t much left. To the best of my knowledge the line south of Elmira to Williamsport is today as the flood [1972] left it several years ago. . .bridges in the creeks, rails hanging in the air, perhaps some rails stolen by local farmers. It will never be rebuilt. No trains in the Southport Yard, as the old PRR has
ceased operations south of Montour Falls, N.Y. Conrail (Erie) crews service a building supply company at the south end of the yard several times a week. The old round-house and several out buildings have been razed, and all enginehouse territory tracks removed. The turntable was taken away and the round pit and ash-pits filled in.
A severe rainstorm two years ago put the finish to the track from Horseheads to Montour Falls. We had a 10 mph speed on Millport Hill after the flood, but now the track hangs in the air in several places. At the present time Watkins Glen is “it.” Two crews report there, one to switch the salt plants, the other to work the line from Montour Falls to Seneca Castle.
The latter crew, a local freight, goes as far north as the work warrants, but never beyond Bellona unless specific instructions are issued. Conrail did not take over the line north of Bellona and when the work demands, the crew goes beyond Bellona, but the cost is paid to Conrail by the State of New York. North of Bellona the line is classed as “Low Density Line,” and the crew serves it about once a week.
One engine serves both crews, the Watkins job reporting about 8 a.m. and the local crew reporting at 5 p.m. When I ceased work for the railroad about a year before I retired, we were running to Hall, Stanley and Seneca Castle two and three times a week. This was before Conrail took over, but last winter the crew went to Seneca Castle about three times. It wasn’t unusual for us to spot 20 cars a month at
Hall and 10 to 12 at Stanley. When the wheat, barley and beans were moving we were going to Seneca Castle two and three times a week in the late autumn and early winter. We still have our crew at Newark (ex-PRR men), but they work under the thumb of Rochester, and run into Sodus Point when necessary. I imagine this isn’t more than once a month.
The line to Canandaigua has been abandoned for over five years and the last I knew the rails were still in place. I imagine the brush and trees are pretty thick on the track and right-of-way. It must be hell for the crew today to work north of Watkins, as the brush and weeds were thick and heavy when I took my departure two years ago.
The old Tioga Division of the Erie is a thing of the past, also. The big flood [Hurricane Agnes, 1972] wrecked it and the new dam at Tioga removed what the waters didn’t. Likewise, the LV Branch
from Elmira to Horseheads (old Canal Railroad) is done. The track got so bad that the Federal authorities took it out of service. For a short time the LV crew was using the Erie and PRR to get to Horseheads, but that didn’t last very long. Now the Erie (Conrail) serves Horseheads.
The city and towns have blacktopped over the rails at the road and street crossings. That is the railroad picture from down this way.
The Erie Tioga Division is also history. Some of the track is gone at this writing - some by the recent flood and some taken up by the flood dam project at Tioga, Pa. Before the flood, the Erie had asked to abandon the line and then the high waters of the Tioga River came along and did the job for them.
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Geneva Daily Times
April 18, 1939
Station at Aloquin, Once State’s Second Largest
Shipping Point, Being Razed
Aloquin, April 16 - The Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Aloquin, which is about eighty years old, is now being razed after being the office of New York State’s second large cabbage shipping point at one time.
Twenty years ago the name of this station was changed from Lewis to Aloquin by the railroad company. very little is left to mark this thriving center which once consisted of a Stave factory, an evaporator, a warehouse, and some offices.
The Pennsylvania Railroad was started through this section in 1850. Some time a few years later the station was built by a few citizens of this community. It consisted of three rooms, an office, a waiting room, and a freight room. It was leased to the railroad by the men for use as a station. In 1891 it was finally deeded to the railroad.
About forty years ago it was moved sixty feet westward and raised onto a stone foundation where it has stood until now. The place around the yards was used for a stave factor, owned snd operated by Jerry Backman and W. S. Perhamus, and an apple evaporator which burned several years ago. Mail was received at the station at one time and distributed from a local post office before the present system of rural deliver routs was developed.
Since the time of the construction of the station, many different men have held the office of station agent at Aloquin. It is understood that a Mr. Lewis was one of the first station agents here. He was followed by D. G. Smith and Horace Freenleaf. After these men W.S. Perhamus held the position for over thirty years. “Vet” Perhamus, as he was known locally, acted as agent at Lewis (now Aloquin) and at Ennerdale, another station a mile west of Lewis. He walked to the Ennerdale station and back every day. “Vet” Perhaps lived in Lewis all his life and he was very familiar with the history of the community and enjoyed the respect of all who knew him.
Since then Roral Morris, A.T. Cobb, Guy Hobart, Ralph Kennedy, Clinton Clark, and James B. Patterson have acted as station agents here. Business began receding after the World War for this station; so the Pennsylvania Railroad Company about six years ago dispensed with the office of station agent and appointed a caretaker to look after the station. Since then L. B. Smith and W. E. Moore have held this position.
The name of the station was changed from Lewis to Aloquin about twenty years ago by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company because of another railroad station named Lewis in the state. Aloquin, the name of a local Indian chief, was chosen by the railroad company.
This old landmark which once was the center of thriving business at which time as much as 680 cars of produce were loaded in one year, has been sold to W. E. Moore and his son, Ward Moore. It is being razed entirely and removed from the premises by them. Coal and fertilizer are all that arrive at Aloquin now, and very little produce is shipped from here.
Soon this eighty year old, well built, wooden structure, will be of the past. All that will remain on these switches to mark New York State’s second large cabbage shipping point, are the scales, warehouse and coal sheds.*
* The New York State Public Service Commission granted permission to the Pennsylvania Railroad to abolish the full time positions of station agents at Aloquin, Glenora, Himrod and Phelps Junction, replacing them with part-time caretakers to handle carload freight, under jurisdiction of the agent at Stanley. - Rochester Times-Union December 27, 1935.
1903 Ontario County map detailing Canandaigua Branch
Canandaigua Branch
Station | Mile |
Stanley | 0 |
Aloquin | 3.7 |
Canandaigua | 11.7 |
Canandaigua Lake Branch
Station | Mile |
Junction | 0 |
Canandaigua Lake Landing | 1.47 |
Abandonments:
Stanley to Canandaigua, abandoned 1972, dismantled 1977.Canandaigua Lake branch abandoned in 1967
American Railway Guide, January, 1856. The Canandaigua & Niagara Falls and the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua for a time were leased to the New York & Erie as a through broad (6 foot) gauge route from Elmira to Niagara Falls.
Artifacts from the collection of Randy Bouchart
Elmira, Canandaigua & Jefferson Railroad Baggage Check to Penn-Yan
Between Williamsport and Elmira
Trout Run
Station at Ralston about 1870 with Ralston House in background.
“Among other enterprises projected was the erection of a great hotel for summer visitors, as it was not expected at that time that the road would soon be, built any further. The hotel was built of stone, with columns in front, and presented all imposing appearance for the time. It was named the Ralston House, and being at the terminus of the railroad, and situated in an extremely wild and secluded spot, became quite famous and was long a favorite place of resort. It still stands in stately pride, the monument of a past enterprise, and is still used for hotel purposes.” - History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania from 1892.
Roaring Branch
Columbia Crossroads
Randy Bouchart collection
Henry Street Depot, Elmira
Miscellaneous Interesting Items
[From: Annual Report, Williamsport & Elmira Railroad, 1858]
