Re: PC: Goodby Conrail

Yes, it is still possible to reach Hartford and Boston via Maybrook Line as years ago with NH and PC. At Shelton Jct they took the Waterbury Branch to south of Waterbury and then the branch into Hartford to the Conn River Line at Springfield and then Boston. Cedar Hill bound freights came out at Devon to the Shoreline.

PC wss going to fix the bridge and reuse it, but it was the coming CR that did not express an interest in the Maybrook Line and thus PC did not waste the money to rebuild a bridge that would not be used by CR which makes sense. Had it not been for CR, the bridge would have kong been back in service. As soon as CR took over started the abandonments and vutbacks of many lines. CR which was then government believed in downsizing the carrier as fast as they can to make freight service less competitive to trucks.

As for someone rumoring there was one train a day using the Maybrook Line was a total lie. I spent hours at Highland and Maybrook until the end and I got ten freights in a day. Could have been four east and six west or five each way depending on traffic. It was the busiest line of the PC in the Hudson Valley. There were more than ten trains in a 24 hour period and in '74 and before, Maybrook engine terminal had an average of 15 engines each morning. There would not be this many engines for one train a day.

As soon as PC took over the NH, the following weekend I found at Highland on a freight siding MOW track cars, hy-rail trucks there for a weekend, new rail and ties. The entire Maybrook Line was rebuilt as I remember before the merger much of the track was sunk in mud with little or no ballast. PC did an excellent job rebuilding the Maybrook Line. PC maintained the bridge even after the fire, applying new paint to stress points of the bridge ti keep it in shape if the line were ever revived. Bridge maintenace ceasesd when CR took over. The bridge was important to PC but not CR. Had PC rebuilt it, 18 months later the line would have been abandoned as Amtrak did to the NH Pittsfield Branch.

Time will tell if NS goes through with the plan to rebuild the line. The owners of the bridge are in trouble anyway with the City of Poughkeepie, State, Coast Guard to name a few over taxes, maintenance, lack of navigation lights that went out when Central Hudson pulled the plug and stopped paying CR $26G a year for use of the bridge by routing power lines near the bridge under the Hudson. That was part of the original deal with NH, to string power lines across the bridge and provde NH with free power for the navigation lights. So the current owners are still in trouble over this. They now want Central Hudson to remove the unused power lines and brackets but so far the utility company has not responded. The group claims, the wires distort the appearance of the bridge. So, with all this going up, may be resolved by NS if they go through with the plan. It gives them a good New England route from Port Jervis area as well as Croxton since there is no other Hudson River rail crossing.

I have not been to Pittsfield since '77 so I cannot comment on HTR's rails there. Last picture I saw showed two HTR GP35's coming off the NYC ADAMS SECONDARY TRACK from North Adams crossing the crossovers on the B&A to their own line. What would HTR do at Danbury?

There is nothing here but the museum in the ex-yard. With NS running there, there would be no need for HTR to interchange there since NS would run through to Shelton Jct and up Waterbury Branch to Hartford. Who knows, maybe NS who already has rights over GRS may use the Conn River Line into East Deerfield to reach Boston.

NS has a good relationship serving local customers on their own as well as through their Thorobred Service contract service with short lines that have engines pained NS Black with the horse logo and no "NS" name making them appear as Ex-NS units. CR similarly had a CE Express service with some short lines.

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> Here's an interesting reprint of a Poughkeepsie Journal report on the fire:
> http://www.inch.com/~ziggy/RREXTRA.HTM/pbpj741.Html
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> Don't get me wrong, I would love to see freight traffic restored to the
> Maybrook line. I would also like to see freight motors hauling stack
> trains under the wires through New Haven. (Try that with an AEM-7 :^) I'm
> just not holding my breath...
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> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Gene Fusco        | (970) 206-5404         Gene.Fusco@lsil.com     KB0ZMZ
>                   |
> S/W Development   |   Why do I take pictures of trains?
> LSI Logic Inc.    |   Because they're too big to take home.
> Fort Collins CO. |
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