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New Rochelle N.Y. traction system

  • I am looking for some information on a traction company that operated in New Rochelle N.Y. around ww2 maybe even earlier ? I'm not sure if it was connected to any major railroad or not ? Maybe an earlier version of the New Haven ?
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  • The word "traction" is a problem.  Possibily you are thinking of the New York, Westchester, and Boston, an 11,000 volt commuter passenger railroad funded by New Haven RR interests.  It operated 1912-1937.  Link:
    http://www.nywbry.com/index.htm
    Two of the  New Rochelle stations were North Avenue (on the Port Chester branch, but near downtown New Rochelle) and Wykagyl (where the route to White Plains passed under North Avenue).
    Or you might be talking of Westchester Street Railway, a subsidiary or partner with Third Avenue Railway.  This was a network of streetcars.  The closing route A from New Rochelle railroad station to The Bronx ended service in the early 1950's.  I arode it several times.
    Or you might be talking of (I forget the name) a trolley company that paralleled the New Haven with local service to Port Chester and Stamford, as I recall.  That had a short life, maybe 1900-1925.
    None of these were earlier versions of the New Haven.  They arrived later.  These remarks of mine are subject to further correction.
  • It could possibly be the New York, Westchester and Boston ? Supposedly it had a shop or station on mechanics street in New Rochelle, my father remembers the line but not when it was in operation. Also i cannot find any information regarding trackage or equiptment. I remember seeing rails in the street down on fort slocum road that led up to the old ferry dock, but it seems no one knows anything about it ?

    Will ck out the site you posted, thanks...

  • The New York Westchester and Boston ceased operations before WWII.   There was an article in Trains many years ago, "Grass Grows on the Westchester" that gave the history of this overbuilt and unnecessary (during its years of operation, now it would be a subsidized to boon to the communities) electric railway, built to the same standards as the New Haven's AC electrification, using cars with similar AC propulsion equipment to the few AC-only mu's assigned to the New Canaan shuttle and the Harlem River Branch, BUT designed by Stillwell with the unusual roof also used on many BMT subway standard steels, the Hudson and Manhattan cars, and the Erie long distance and commuter coaches.   They had center doors, and after the electric line was abandoned, they had the center doors blanked off, seats added, and replaced the last of the wood commuter coaches in the New Haven's Boston area commuter service, in turn being replaced about 1950 by parlor cars converted to commuter coaches after the postwar lightweights arrived.

     

    Aside from great New Haven electric operatons in New Rochelle, the junction for its lines to Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station, and the terminal for a few rush-hour comuter trains, the only traction company operating in New Rochelle during WWII was the Westchester Street Railway, a direct subsidiary of the Third Avenue Railway/Third Avenue Transit System or "TATS".   Cars were lettered for Third Avenue and not for Westchester.   The five of six local lines serving New Rochelle and Pelham had been abandoned before the war, and so had the interurban to Stamford, the New York and Stamford Railway.   The only line running was the "New Rochelle - Subway" line with a big "A" under the right window of the front of the car.  The cars were from the 301-400 series of light-weight home-made cars, constructed in the 65th Street and 3rd Avenue shops of the Third Avenue Railway.

    They were modern in that dynamic braking, generated current not returned to the line but dissipated in the heating resisters with air-flow from outside the car throught the resistors in the winter and reverse in summer, supplemented the air brakes.   This was not to reduce brakeshoe wear on the A line, but the same series of cars handled all assignments in Yonkers as well (connected by the "7" line from Mount Vernon via Yonkers Avenue), and the Ogden Avenue line in The Bronx, which did have steep hills.  Other lightweight Third Avenue that had dynamic braking was the sample car 101 of the 101-200 sereis and the last lightweights built before LaGuardia's intrasigence ended the program, cars 626-685.

     

    During WWII Third Avenue did provide some local bus transportation as well in New Rochelle, but this may have been under the subsidiary "Surface Transportation" with buses named accordingly.

     

    The Northern end of the "A" line was an around-the-block loop at the New Haven RR Station, and the southern end at a crossover with spring switches for unnattended operation in normal use under the 241st Street and White Plains Avenue elevated station, with the tracks, but not the crossover, also used by the "B" Mt. Vernon - 229th Street line, the only line in Westchester not using the 301-400 series cars but using older convertable (screen sides in summer) Brill-built carts, and the "W" Webster Avenue line that ran from 149th Street to the city line a few blocks north at 243rd Street, which used mostly double-truck 1920's era Birny cars second hand from Staten Island.   Most of the "A" line's route was in the middle of the Post Road, all double track except around the loop.   The carhouse and yard was at Garden Avenue or Gardner Avenue in Pelham.

  • Dave, thank you for the info. What i am really trying to find out is which line served Davids Island Army base in New Rochelle N.Y. The dock for the ferry was on the end of fort slocum rd and had rails running up to and onto the dock ? I am not sure if the cars or rail service was continued on the Island ? I do remember seeing r4ails in the road at main st (post road) and on fort slocum rd? Supposedly the car barn was on Mechanics street in New Rochelle, not far from the station for the N.H.line, or what is the current station site.

     

     

    Thank you

  • I belive what you're referring to was the "J" line of Third Avenue Transit in New Rochelle, serving Glen Island. The line ran from the New Rochelle Station down the Post Road to Drake, then Drake to Pelham Rd to Ft Slocum Road. I don't belive the cars acutally went onto Glen Island. The line was abandoned in June of 1939, one of the last local lines to go. For pictures of the line in operation, check out Dave's Rail Pix-click on Third Avenue Transit.
  • It's kinda funny that i have searched for 2 weeks straight going through new rochelle history blogs and could find nothing but fluff. This is what ive been looking for thanks alot. could you post the site info plz?

     

    Thank You

  • Use this link....and be prepared to spend a few hours looking at tons of great photos of the Third Avenue System..
    http://davesrailpix.com/tars/tars.htm
  • By the way, I do remember seeing what appeared to be the remnants of a small carhouse/maintenance facility on Mechanic Street in the 1980s when several buildings on the block were torn down..there was track that appeared to lead into one of the buildings and the base of a cut-down trolley pole. Also, the "A" line in New Rochelle last ran in December of 1950.
  • The site mentioned above is fantastic, it brought tears to my eyes looking at all the pictures from new rochelle and the fort slocum docks road. I am 42 years old so all of the tracks had been buried or paved over by the time i was old enough to think about poking around. I live in sarasota county fla. and there isn't really much around here atm.They are converting most of the tracks here to trails, what a waste..They would have been better used as a trolly or light line from sarasota to venice or further south, and they wonder why the ringling brothers circus left us. We abandoned them just like the rest of our heritage. Sorry alittle off key there.