NYC vs Pennsy comuter services

[Wizlish]

timz

It seems the train that turned west at Goldens Bridge terminated at Lake Mahopac until 1940-41 when it started running to Brewster. Most of the time the last passenger stop was Tilly Foster (or Carmel after Tilly Foster closed) suggesting that when it got to the junction the train turned north to Brewster yard rather than south to the station.

A little reading in Staufer's NYC Later Power produces a tidbit about the Goldens Bridge to Lake Mahopac line: on p.367 he indicates that one of the first places the 1925 gas cars (M1 to M7) ran was between "Golden's Bridge" (as he and Wikipedia, but no one that lived there, spelled it) and Lake Mahopac.  Staufer notes

"Some of the branch line problems were alleviated in the early '30s by the complete abandonment of passenger service which allowed some of the cars [by then 'more than thirty'] to do more than just local work.  They began running the full length of the Putnam division, parts of runs on the Harlem Division, and between Fort Wayne and Jackson on the then Lansing Division.(italics mine).

This would indicate to me that the branch had special service requirement of some kind (franchise or director related, or weight/curve restricted?) but was seen as important enough to try a cost-saving approach early.

Does that help?

[MidlandMike]

Wizlish

 ...

This would indicate to me that the branch had special service requirement of some kind (franchise or director related, or weight/curve restricted?) but was seen as important enough to try a cost-saving approach early.

Does that help?

 

Besides the aforementioned weight restricted bridge across the upper reaches of the Croton Resevoir near Goldens Bridge, the Mahopac Branch had an almost contnous 2% grade.  Looking at topo maps, the first mile of the branch was at the level of the Reservoir at an elevation of 200'.  For the next 5 miles the line rose to the 700' elevation of Mahopac, ie. 100' per mile.  So the bridge restricted the branch to small ten-wheelers, which then had to cope with the grade.