Welcome, and please stick around. Your memories and experience might shed some insight into present-day situations, and if you have questions, there are experts in various facets of railroading who can answer them for you.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
MP176I am new to this form, but a long time railfan. I live at the west switch to the five mile controlled siding (Mile Post 176) in Chatham,NY and live with the trains literally. I watch all kinds of locomotives, rolling stock and manuvers on this busy CSX main line. I don't know how often I will have comment, but I am sure I will read this form from time to time. I grew up in Chatham and am lucky enough to remember the steam of the B&A, the Harlem Div and the Rutland.
Welcome!
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
I grew up in suburban NY and rode on the Harlem Division often. I kick myself for not taking it all he way to Chatham when I had the chance.
My cousin and his family live near Chatham - Valatie is their mailing address but they're actually closer to North Chatham.
We were up there for a weekend about a month ago, and we heard the horns of more trains than during any of our visits for the 20 years they've been living there (we go up about once a year).
A really long intermodal crossed the main st. in Chatham (Route 66, Hudson St. ?), on Sunday night - one of the longest I've ever seen.
I didn't know there was a siding near there - but sure enough, it shows up in the aerial photos, about 0.3 mile to the northeast. I'll have to look for it the next time I'm up that way.
The restored station (now a bank, IIRC) is really nice.
I've walked the remnants of the Rutland Yard to the southwest of town. I believe there's a photo or two of it in Jim Shaughnessy's book on the Rutland.
- Paul North.
It must be very pretty and colorful in Chatham this week.
I have to like a guy who describes himself as living by the west switch of a controlled siding; now that's a railfan!
Nonetheless, I have to confess that from time to time I give thought to buying a condo in a questionable-but-improving neighborhood in Cleveland just because it has a stunning view of the combined CSX, NS, & RTA mainlines.
I envy the gentlemen here who have from their homes a good view of some tracks and trains; while I live only a block from the B&O mainline, I can only hear them and not see them. Sigh.
I currently reside about a mile south of Clearing's hump. I can't see anything but I do hear the retarders squealing plus the occasional bang of a too-hard coupling. I always seem to hear this better on a summer night.
Where I grew up was much better. The South Shore was clearly visible from our back yard (it was on an embankment) and if I walked to the end of the block I could see the NKP/N&W and CWI main lines. Grandma lived on the other side of the neighborhood and was across the street from the PRR Bernice Cutoff (SC&S).
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