New(ish) Tourist Line for Lowville, NY

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:59 am

I'm separating this from the earlier thread on the ACF plant auction in Milton, Pa., as this has become a story of its own:

https://www.nny360.com/news/lewiscounty ... 1ef68.html

Quote:

LOWVILLE — A train enthusiast’s dream of developing a scenic railroad from Lowville to Carthage is on track to become a reality with the delivery of a locomotive by truck from Pennsylvania on Thursday morning.

Railstar Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ronald J. Trottier, having operated tourist train lines in Maine, Colorado and Florida, hopes to develop a local scenic railway similar to the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in the Saranac Lake area. Mr. Trottier, owner of River Marine Inc., Cape Vincent, owns the railway yard in Lowville and recently purchased the former train depot on Mechanic Street in Carthage.

He plans to lease the railway lines between the two villages and utilize them for tourist trains and rail bikes — pedal-powered vehicles that ride on railroad tracks.

More at the link. The loco is one of the three vintage GE 45-tonners auctioned at the AC&F plant in Milton, Pa. last month.

Chris Webster · **Joined:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:45 am **Posts:** 1087

An older 1-post thread:Railstar to run tourist trains & railbikes on the L&BR

The new operation would use the out-of-service Mohawk Adirondack & Northern (former NYC) track, not the L&BR as I previously posted. Here's a map showing the lines:
NY State DOT - NY State Railroad Map

eze240 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 319

He's been working on this for awhile now....hopefully trains will be running soon...

ParisHill · **Joined:** Fri Sep 13, 2013 4:42 pm **Posts:** 216

Here's a short video made this morning showing No. 8 in its new home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtJ2bdN9Vc

jrevans · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2020 4:02 pm

Here's the street view location of where the locomotive is located:
https://goo.gl/maps/9Db7pPq6pdEJJog56

Looks like about 15 miles to West Carthage, NY and the track seems to be in place in that direction.

It also looks like there is a small collection of railroad equipment just north of where the locomotive is, possibly including a passenger car and a caboose.
https://goo.gl/maps/BDmSGNw4ZgKNhY3M6

NH8218 · **Joined:** Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:19 pm **Posts:** 35

All that equipment is parked in the old Lowville & Beaver River yard. Judging by a few pictures I’ve found online over the years, it’s all been sitting for quite some time.

The passenger car should be former New York Central lounge-club-dorm 10660, “Century Club”, later rebuilt by Speno for use with one of their ballast cleaning consists. Not sure who owns it at this point.

Some pics I found online are of a snowplow, with a Genesee Valley Transportation logo on the side, from around 2009 sitting in that spot. That might be what looks like a caboose from the air.

In the aerial view, it appears that the old Armstrong turntable was still intact when the image was taken. Not sure if that’s still the case.

jrevans · **Posted:** Sun Aug 30, 2020 2:43 pm

NH8218 wrote:

All that equipment is parked in the old Lowville & Beaver River yard. Judging by a few pictures I’ve found online over the years, it’s all been sitting for quite some time.

The passenger car should be former New York Central lounge-club-dorm 10660, “Century Club”, later rebuilt by Speno for use with one of their ballast cleaning consists. Not sure who owns it at this point.

Some pics I found online are of a snowplow, with a Genesee Valley Transportation logo on the side, from around 2009 sitting in that spot. That might be what looks like a caboose from the air.

In the aerial view, it appears that the old Armstrong turntable was still intact when the image was taken. Not sure if that’s still the case.

Thanks for the extra information. I didn't even see that turntable there! And yes, I think that is a snowplow instead of a caboose.

This site has some pictures of the equipment:
https://abandonedonline.net/location/lo ... -railroad/

And I had no idea that a line split off in Lowville to run up to Croghan, NY where there's actually a Shay locomotive (owned by the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York) on display. The tracks from Lowville to Croghan appear to be "in place" but not as in place as the line to Carthage.

I waste more time following railroad tracks on google maps.... I miss the old bing maps that had the 360 rotation with slightly different viewing angles. I wonder why it disappeared?

Joe Nugent · **Posted:** Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:13 am

NH8218 wrote:

The passenger car should be former New York Central lounge-club-dorm 10660, “Century Club”, later rebuilt by Speno for use with one of their ballast cleaning consists. Not sure who owns it at this point.

The passenger car is a former Pennsylvania Railroad sleeper lounge, I believe Cedar Falls.
We have sister car Pine Falls at our museum in Rush, NY. I was able to tour the Cedar Falls several years ago. It had been converted into office space at some point in its life.

Alan Maples · **Posted:** Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:37 am

According to their website, the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York has former Rutland combine car 255 stored in the L&BR enginehouse at Lowville. http://www.newyorktrains.com/projects.htm

Alan Maples

eze240 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 319

As I understand it, the combine and a 44 tonner are in the engine house...

diningcartim · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:34 pm **Posts:** 197

I guess to me the thing missing from this plan is any mention that the owner of the line, Genesee Valley Transportation, has agreed to lease it or operate any tourist trains on it.

eze240 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 319

It's my understanding that there's some sort of negotiations ongoing....but, I do believe this is also two different railroads....I believe the county or state own the old Bear lake shortline...the other line....the one that was rebuilt recently....is a different owner...presumably Genesee Valley....
That line was supposed to have a aggregate business or some such shipping in or out...I forget which....but the business has never come together..... I think it was related to the freight business that was supposed to start on the Saratoga springs line...

LeoA · **Joined:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:30 am **Posts:** 312

As I understand it, the government invested to refurbish the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern's Newton Falls branch to provide a rail routing to enable the vast amounts of waste rock at the abandoned (And currently being environmentally cleaned up) Benson Mines iron ore mine in Star Lake to be commercially marketed and to hopefully attract a new business to locate at the nearby shuttered Newton Falls paper mill (An extremely rare industrial zoned site in the Adirondack Park).

That's why the last 45 miles or so of trackage, currently devoid of customers, has been refurbished. And it should be noted that when the project started, the fate of the paper mill wasn't sealed. Supporting the revival and continued existence of paper production at Newton Falls, which has long been responsible for this trackage being kept in service with the 1970's closure of Benson Mines, was I imagine reason #1 for undertaking this rehabilitation.

I don't believe there was ever any connection with Iowa Pacific, the Saratoga and North Creek Railway, or their failure to get CPR to cooperate with their desire to ship out waste rock from the defunct titanium mine in Tahawus.

Nova55 · **Joined:** Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:09 pm **Posts:** 597

jrevans wrote:

NH8218 wrote:

All that equipment is parked in the old Lowville & Beaver River yard. Judging by a few pictures I’ve found online over the years, it’s all been sitting for quite some time.

The passenger car should be former New York Central lounge-club-dorm 10660, “Century Club”, later rebuilt by Speno for use with one of their ballast cleaning consists. Not sure who owns it at this point.

Some pics I found online are of a snowplow, with a Genesee Valley Transportation logo on the side, from around 2009 sitting in that spot. That might be what looks like a caboose from the air.

In the aerial view, it appears that the old Armstrong turntable was still intact when the image was taken. Not sure if that’s still the case.

Thanks for the extra information. I didn't even see that turntable there! And yes, I think that is a snowplow instead of a caboose.

This site has some pictures of the equipment:
https://abandonedonline.net/location/lo ... -railroad/

And I had no idea that a line split off in Lowville to run up to Croghan, NY where there's actually a Shay locomotive (owned by the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York) on display. The tracks from Lowville to Croghan appear to be "in place" but not as in place as the line to Carthage.

I waste more time following railroad tracks on google maps.... I miss the old bing maps that had the 360 rotation with slightly different viewing angles. I wonder why it disappeared?

Its still there, you just have to right click on the satellite view to get to it now.