New York Central & PRR in New York City area

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This is just some info on NYC/PRR activity in the post-merger in the PCRR and Conrail era's

I worked PC and later CR frts in and out of West 72nd St yard and Oak Point. After the merger (NYC/PRR) a sharp General Chairman (UTU) on the prior right PRR side found out the car-float ops were to be curtailed out of the old PRR side in New Jersey, as the cars that used to be "floated" across the Hudson to ex-NYC yard at West 72nd were to run on frts that were sent up the old West Shore to Selkirk and then sent down on frts on the old Hudson Div to New York...thus cutting train and engine service "switch jobs" in New Jersey...so the UTU GC (really BRT/ORC) got his members a six month switcher job at the old NYC yard at W33rd st (which switched the old Post Office at 30th st and any business left on the "HighLine"), prior PRR crews worked this job for 6 months and prior NYC crews the other 6 months...this lasted into the CR era until the W33rd st yard was closed and all swithcing was done at W72nd st.

Well into the PC /CR era, 2 thru frts were dispatched from W72nd st, "SLX-1" (cars for St Louis, MO) and "LS-1" (cars for Detroit./Chicago) up the Hudson Div to Selkirk and then west.

The last years saw more and more frt traffice sent to the old NH yard at Oak Point in the Bronx.

We knew the end was near on the W30th St Branch (the timetable name for the West Side line), when CR removed the the Automatic Block signals from DV interlocking to West 72nd St (a two track railroad) in the late 70's.

I was the rear brakeman on "NYSE" (New York to Selkirk), the last real frt to be dispatched out of W72nd st in Oct '81 ...the next day, all the switching for what-ever traffic was left on the Branch was dispatched out of Oak Point....the W 30th St Secondary (as CR timtable called it) closed for business I believed in "82.

As a last note, I was the Conductor on the last Amtrak #283 out of Grand Central Term on the last day of Amtrak service in '91, and the the Conductor on one of the first Amtraks into Penn Station when Empire Service started using the old West Side line the next day in April '91! History does have a way of coming around, eh?        

  

[MidlandMike]

Sending freight from Jersey up to Selkirk to cross the Hudson bridge and then back down to NY (a trip of almost 300 miles) to save crossing a couple of miles by water, seems like they really wanted to get rid of the car floats.

[daveklepper]

And the New York and Atlantic is showing that carfloating across New York Bay can be a profitable business!

[henry6]

PC wanted the milage and the rates.  And to break unions and rules in and around NY harbor.   They actually pushed traffic to the Water Level route everywhere to avoid NJ's taxes.  When CR was being formed the most common concept I heard was that railroading was not profitable within a 20 mile radius of NYC, and that meant virtually all of the PC, CNJ-RDG-B&O, LV and EL routes and yards.  I believe PC knew that and was overburdening the NYC lines to and including the Water Level route to keep as much traffic off the Corridor and out of NJ.  And if into NJ, it went through instead of being yarded.  CR continued the practice.  The problem was that North Jersey became a terminal area with no one designated to operate it and deal with it until the NS and CSX divided CR.  There were some attempts to get a few terminal railroads under CR but CR's attitude was that they "didn't want it but didn't want anybody else to have it".  This philosophy carried over to other inherited routes as well as New Jersey terminals and yards.  

[narig01]

Jimbok1231. Just out of curiosity. At 125th st on the West Side line Swift Keats had a facility with a rail dock. I can remember as a boy seeing reefers parked there. Did you ever switch freight at that dock? Or was that just a little before you.

Thx IGN

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In that area, 125th St on the West Side line (30th St Branch) were a few meat houses (Swift's was one). At the time this branch was still active (late 70's), it was still a 2 track railroad, in this location was a siding ("land side" as opposed "river side") that served these meat houses off the main tk (TK 1/east side), it was a "thru siding" in that it had switches off Tk 1 on the north/south ends. It was serviced by the "TS" jobs ("Travelling Switcher) out of W72nd St yard.

I never switched these "houses", but brought "reefers" down from Selkirk (to W72nd St), that were then "peddled" up to houses by the TS job that served that area.

The "old timers" said that a few of those houses were "Kosher" and that the meat brought down to them was given the approval of a special rabbi in W72nd St...

Also, way back in the old days, the NYC switched other meat houses off 10th Ave, this area was referred as the "Meat Packing" district, the meat houses are all gone now, but the area retains the name,  the old meat houses now bars and resturants! In some places you can still see the rails in the street in this area.

When Amtrak restored the old West Side, for the "Empire Connection" into Penn Station, they took out the siding near 125th St, but the old meat houses are still there (abandoned).

Hope this helps out.  

 

  

[daveklepper]

Was there not also a Borden's dairy that got milk and put it into bottles?

[narig01]

Last time I looked the Swift plant had been converted into a grocery store. Also I think there is some kind of studio /club in one of the other buildings there. The dock for the Swift plant is still there just fenced in. I was going to say if you want to look the street view from the West Side Hwy at 125th st shows it.
I never thought about a siding there. I can remember looking down from above the portal. And looking over from the Hudson Pkwy.
One item I do remember was there was a set of (I do not remember what they are called) of warning ropes that hung down from a bracket to warn brackman a tunnel was approaching. It is gone now. Somewhere I also have a picture of a U-25 southbound taken with an (then) antique box brownie. My first camera. And amongst my first pictures.
Also I was looking at a site on Pennsy's 30th st carfloat. There was a picture of a 2 story cattle pen barge. Also a picture of a herd of sheep.

I think this is the site.

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/prr37.html#Locomotives

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Thx IGN

[rcdrye]

narig01

One item I do remember was there was a set of (I do not remember what they are called) of warning ropes that hung down from a bracket to warn brackman a tunnel was approaching. It is gone now.

The bar with warning ropes is called a telltale.  They were largely removed after roofwalks were banned in the 1970s.

[[e-mail]]

Yep, when I hired out, the Book of Rules for Transportation forbid walking on top of any freight car (the old style tank cars had a "catwalk" with grab irons along side the tank to hold onto). The "telltales" came down around the mid'seventies, but some stayed up into the '80s at some out the way locations. The last one I remember was at MP 171, westbound, around East Chatham, NY on the old B&A.