L035 // Van De Mark Chemical

Niagara Falls' afternoon road switcher L035 performs an interplant move at Van De Mark Chemical in Lockport, NY shuffling the order of tank cars inside as requested by the customer.

 

Things are not the same as when I first started shooting this place four years ago. In this shot, the crew is swapping the order of cars to set themselves up for success on their next trip out. The car they are handling was spotted as a fresh load the previous week, and the car to the left has been in-plant for many weeks already, partially empty but not yet ready to pull. Making this move facilitates an easy pull for the crew once the outer car is finally released. Makes for good shots in and and around the plant, but that's about it. The two mile journey to switch the customer off of the mainline is otherwise light power both directions on days like these. It didn't used to be this way...

 

Van De Mark is arguably my most shot customer in Western New York. It's a place I simply never tire of shooting for whatever reason. Over the last four years, just when I think I've run out I find new angles to try, and get a little bit ballsier with each one. Thankfully the workers here are friendly people, they've certainly seen a lot of me in that time. Located on a switchback coming off of the now mostly abandoned Somerset Railroad, I consider this region the most scenic 2.6 miles of railroad this state has to offer. There's plenty of other overlooks in the state which would easily win that title, but for my money this area is it. With the shutdown of the coal-fired Kintigh Generating Station in Somerset, NY in 2019, the majority of the branch which starts in Lockport at CP PORT was filed for abandonment in 2020, finally ripped out privately in 2022 following a limited number of scrap runs up to Somerset on the part of CSX in 2021. The line now ends at QDK 2.6, four tenths of a mile north of the switchback switch, known as Mill St, at QDK 2.2. On the suggestion of one of my CSX friends, the private holding company who owns the right of way left in the extra stretch after the switch, in case of switching maneuvers requiring a gravity drop. The first couple miles of the Somerset features turned New York Central searchlights at PORT, an S curve, a road crossing in a valley, more curves, the Gulf Bridge above the valley floor, a downhill slope through the man-made rock cut where track was laid in the 1980s, and the switchback itself which climbs the hillside before descending back down grade to Mill St. The industry is merely the cherry on top, with its pseudo street running leading into the plant. Next door to Van De Mark another chemical customer Twin Lakes used to take cars, but has not been a CSX customer for what I've been told is a couple decades. Prior to the Somerset and switchback being installed on the west side of Mill St, Lowertown Lockport as it's referred to was accessed via real street running from the east side down Mill St, dating back into the New York Central and early Conrail days. This method was abandoned with the advent of Somerset. If any of this is hard to visualize, just go look at it on Google Maps, it'll make a lot more sense. Eventually I'll upload more shots of every nook and cranny I've shot. Until then, the rest of the story goes like this.

 

When I first started shooting here, my first daylight shots coming on April Fools Day 2021, activity was a lot more lively. Well, that's because the space inside Van De Mark was shared by a second customer, fittingly also starting with the same first three letters. A company by the name of Vanchlor down in the valley underneath the Gulf Bridge received their own tank cars in the plant on Mill St, either trucking it the short distance around the corner, or to my surprise even piping through the grade separations. Walking out to the Gulf Bridge once in 2022, I found pipes embedded within the hillside. I didn't put it together at the time that that's what those were for, but it makes sense knowing what I do now. With both customers sharing space, switching here was usually once a week, rarely twice but it did happen a handful of times. A third track inside the plant housed the Vanchlor cars all on the left side, while Van De Mark has always kept their own on the far right. In summer of 2024, Vanchlor decided to exit the rail business, opting to ship their chemical over from Germany which somehow some way is saving them on costs. Perhaps in the modern tariff state of the U.S. that might not be the case anymore, but they haven't expressed any interest in returning to rail otherwise. What I never realized was that it was Vanchlor carrying the bulk of the switching here rather than Van De Mark itself. As a result, the once a week/every other at its lowest I was used to was now dropping to once or twice a month. At times during the summer of 2025, it was indeed once a month this year. Standard procedure for the crew when they have cars to deliver is to tie the inbounds down at PORT, always on the rear of the train as hazardous cars, go drop their interchange train for the Falls Raod Railroad, then either bring their outbound train back to the PORT switch to have it in place already, or leave the yard light power and return back to the inbounds for Van De Mark after locking up the PORT switch. If they came back light power, any pulls from Van De Mark would be shoved back from Mill St to the Lockport Branch main before pulling back onto the Falls Road. If they brought their outbound train up to the PORT switch already, thelat either meant no pulls at Van De Mark, or the highly sought after but almost always after dark gravity drop move, which would make a for a more desirable westbound shot on the Gulf Bridge into the evening light. Any gravity drop move I witnessed always resulted in light running out before they could get back on the move towards PORT. Alternatively and lesser, the crew could drop their whole train at PORT and head up to Mill St light power in the case of pull only, which has now become the norm two out of three times the have work there. I even had a heads up or two over the radio that they were headed straight there back in 2021. Granted they were dealing with plenty more cars at that time. Now it's two at the most. Whereas before Vanchlor left the probability of playing and pulling cars, now it's only one or the other and not both. On the bright side, a day where they have a pull or are performing an interplant, they go up to Mill St first thing upon arriving in Lockport. This is great for lighting purposes, but one out of three moves are now guaranteed to be light power both directions on the Somerset, which isn't nearly as cool as having a car with them. Placing a car is now the worst thing to shoot since they do it after dropping in the Falls Road yard, usually a half hour to 45 minute move depending on how big the inbound train is. During peak summer daylight, that's fine, but once the sunset gets too short, the light power trip up is the best case scenario.

 

Van De Mark locally sources their cars out of the Olin Chlor-alkali Corp in Niagara Falls, so the only heads up for days they're going to be switched is listening to the EC-1 issued to the crew when they call to depart, since the Lockport Branch and Somerset are both dark territory. The switch or switches they wish to operate must be listed on the form, making things easy so long as you're able to hear their conversation and live within 40 minutes of Lockport since that's the exact travel time from CP 25 to PORT for L035. I shot as many of these moves as I could this summer, as the idea of Van De Mark leaving CSX, or CSX abandoning them rather, is not too far fetched. Having to maintain the Gulf Bridge especially for a once a month customer is not likely in CSX's long term plan financially, which is the only reason the little stub of the Somerset Railroad still exists. If Van De Mark quits, it's game over for this trackage. Not the fate I or anyone around here wants to see, but current trends suggest it may be their fate somewhere down the road. If the day when the final pull should arrive, you can count on me to be on scene day or night.

Done