I stopped yesterday while driving by Lowville NY. It had been 50 years since I'd last seen it and then the area around the turntable and engine house was neatly mowed, etc. Now it's all overgrown and clearly not being used. The old engine house door is open and junk thrown around inside. A small Russell plow sits nearby, along with a very junky passenger car, and an ex- L&NW and Conrail boxcar being used for storage. The turntable is intact but overgrown. There is what obviously is a fairly new cinder block engine house but its boarded up and locked.
Does anybody know what the story is with this? I was pleased and surprised how prosperous the area seems to be.

From google earth it looks like the shay is still at the end of the line in Croghan, NY.

There's a guy working on doing something there....
Covid is has slowed things down alot....
The other engine house should hold a 44 tonner and a combine car....
Once things get back to normal, I think his plan is to start a new operation there....

Hope so. Interestingly the door of the Russell plow had been forced open but had not been vandalized inside. Inside of the plow, the engine house, all seems intact.

The RR (and/or its partners/patrons) acquired one of three well-maintained GE 45-tonners from the AC&F plant in Milton, Pa. last year. That's probably hiding in the enginehouse.

The ex- ACF unit looks good and is sitting in the open in Lowville. Not boarded up. A 44-tonner lettered for LBR is sitting boarded up in Carthage also in the open on the track into a locked building that looks suspiciously like an engine house. A huge relatively new (1978) ex CR Jordan spreader is sitting behind it. Both obviously are being maintained. A CSX GP-38 just came down when I was there and delivered three tank cars to Slack Chemical Company in south Carthage. The picked up 3 others that must have been previously emptied and had been sitting in front of the station. So part of the track is still in service. Other than that the Carthage to Newton Falls line (not LBR) is reportedly out of service. The shay I reported yesterday in Croghan by the the restored station is no longer around. An ex-Army flatcar that once had carried passengers in the open (deck now totally rotted) and a McHugh Brothers differntial dump (probably abandoned since it does not have roller bearings) sit at the end-of-track at Croghan. The Black River bridge is apparently out-of-service due to visible settling (I'm a civil engineer so have some credibility here) of one of its piers. Wheel stops prevent any movement across State St. An interesting day driving through pretty country.

I did not visit the turntable supposedly still at Croghan.

Interesting, hope it works. The locomotive has not moved. He'll need to brush cut and spray the ROW as it's heavily overgrown. I don't think the passenger car will be usable- it's junk. The ex-Army flat car possibly could be re-decked and used. It's an interesting railroad and I enjoyed driving around to see what I could. I'll try to post some pics.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10 ... 9206881373
"Luther K Brefo
Top contributor
June 23
Our first big announcement is here!
We are working to reactive the Lowville & Beaver River Railroad, a couple of miles at a time. Getting started is the hardest part but we're on our way! Spread the word, watch our page and let's get the trains rolling again!

Friends of the Lowville & Beaver River Railroad Volunteer Group
Luther K Brefo
Admin
June 23
Croghan, NY:
Our near term goal is to clear and reactive 2.5 miles of the Lowville & Beaver Railroad from the end of the line in Croghan, NY to Beaver Falls, NY as part of the celebration of the Village of Croghan's 120th Anniversary!
Presently RHSNNY operates a speeder on this segment of track. We are working with RHSNNY, River Marine Inc, the Village of Croghan and other stakeholders in this journey.
We are happy to have you amongst our ranks! We welcome donations of track tools, equipment rentals (excavator with brush clearing head, tractor with mower deck), and your volunteer hours, more to come!
Join our ranks here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... Q/viewform
Croghan South!"

Here is a video showing the current speeder ride on its way back to its origin, note the turntable and engine house toward the end of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PurEDdjhA8

We have L&BR #1923 here at Steamtown and it would be great to see it back on home rails. Just saying.

Hi
I agree the locomotive at Steamtown L&BR # 1923 might just be more better off, to be relocated back to her former home,, here a photo I took back in the 90's, I don't know what type of condition paint wise she is today...Pat

For some updates.....

The Lowville & Beaver River Historic District was accepted to the state and national registers in November of 2024, including the actual track. That gives it protected status much like the Adirondack RR got, not entirely preventing government funded removal, but not without either a deal or mitigation, which is pretty hard to do when track itself is covered. There are multiple historic features of this little line beyond what most people got from the RMC articles years ago.

The Croghan depot is nicely preserved and very much historically intact. The baggage room area has been converted to a museum, but the bay window, waiting room, etc. are rather flash-frozen. Worth a stop.

The Shay that is there is not a native, it was brought in as a privately-owned locomotive and briefly operated on excursions, and got parked at Croghan.

See https://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/fa ... n-2977.htm

So in a perfect preservationist world,if you can't run it, and you're just going to have an actual preserved locomotive on site, swapping the two with Steamtown is a concept, not always a good one, because the last photos I saw of the 2-8-0 were very rough. This was in 2010, can't be better.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35138806@N08/4693131281

Um. Surface Rust. I have seen some better painted logging engines that I would consider basket cases next to this potentially operable engine. Nelson did not collect junk. What remains to be seen is what an ultrasound would say. A shay trade may be a deal all around.
O. Anderson

If one wanted operational steam, and were to start with the choice of one rod locomotive or one geared locomotive of roughly the same size, same condition, same age, etc, would one or the other be faster and cheaper to restore to operation? I know that isn't likely to be the case here, plus there are operational considerations such as the speed at which both can operate, number of cars they can pull, etc. but for the sake of comparison, would one be an "easier" rebuild?