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L020

I just love this scene so here's another angle.

 

CSXT's Troy Industrial Track is a six mile long branch line that connects with the Amtrak controlled Hudson Line just north of the Albany-Rensselaer station at the east end of the Livingston Avenue bridge. The former New York Central route is the last active rail line into the Collar City which at one point in the early 20th century was the fourth wealthiest city in the nation. The city once had lines radiating in four directions serving a grand Union Station downtown.

 

The four railroads that originally formed the Troy Union Railroad were the Rensselaer and Saratoga (D&H), Troy and Boston (B&M), Troy and Greenbush (NYC) and Schenectady and Troy (NYC). That's how the NYC ended up with half ownership of the TURR, and the others each had one quarter.

 

This surviving spur began as the Troy and Greenbush Railroad which was chartered in 1845 and opened later that year, connecting Troy south to East Albany (now Rensselaer) on the east side of the Hudson River. It was the last link in an all-rail line between Boston and Buffalo and until bridges were built between Albany and Rensselaer, passengers crossed on ferries while the train went up to Troy, crossed the Hudson River, and came back down to Albany.

 

The Hudson River Railroad was chartered in 1846 to extend this line south to New York City and the full line opened in 1851. Prior to completion, the Hudson River leased the Troy and Greenbush and all would come into the hands of Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1864 who then three years later combined it with his New York Central Railroad to have the entire New York City to Buffalo route under his control. A decade after that Vanderbilt would gain control over the lines to Chicago uniting the famed 'water level route' under one banner that would grow to be one of the worlds greatest rail systems in the first half of the 20th Century.

 

The above information is courtesy of this site where you can learn more:

 

penneyvanderbilt.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/troy-greenbush-...

 

CSXT is the direct corporate successor of the New York Central by way of Penn Central in 1968, then Conrail in 1976, and CSXT in 1999. Despite occasional fear of the line's demise they continue to serve it three days a week with a local out of South Schenectady that travels via the Carmen Branch and the Hudson Line via West Albany hill and LAB to get to this branch.

 

CSXT local L020 has 17 cars trailing two ACSES equipped ex Chessie GP40-2s seen paused in South Troy just north of the Main Street crossing at MP 4.8 while the conductor walks over to Troy Pizza and Gyro to pick up a pie for the ride back home. I just love this scene with the tracks hugging the edge of South River Street along a block lined with ivy bedecked brick buildings...it's truly a throwback to railroading of another era and so vastly different than the sterility of modern class 1 mainlines.

 

Troy, New York

Friday October 25, 2024

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Uploaded on November 21, 2024
Taken on October 25, 2024