Lowville and Beaver River Railroad
| Lowville and Beaver River Railroad | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1903 |
| Seat |
Lowville , New York ,
|
| Branch | Rail transport |
The Lowville and Beaver River Railroad ( AAR -reporting mark: LBR) is a formally existing, but inactive Class-3 local railroad - railroad company in Lewis County in the north of the US state New York . The company, founded in 1903, has been a subsidiary of Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT) since January 1991 and until 2007 offered rail freight transport on its own 16.8 km long route.
history
.jpg)
The Lowville and Beaver River Railroad was established on September 17, 1903. On January 15, 1906, she was able to open her 16.8 km long route from Lowville , where connection to a route of the New York Central Railroad existed, through the valley of the Beaver River to Croghan . After regular passenger traffic was discontinued on January 10, 1947, only goods traffic was offered, which was mainly dominated by two paper mills and customers from the agricultural sector. In 1960 the operator of these paper mills, the JP Lewis Company, acquired the LBR, which had previously been held by various people.
At the beginning of 1990 the LBR ceased operations due to the low volume of freight. A year later, in January 1991, GVT acquired the company from the paper manufacturer, now trading as Specialty Paperboard, and resumed freight transport in February 1991, which in the mid-1990s comprised around 500 freight wagons per year. Since June 1991, GVT has also operated the connecting line in Lowville through its subsidiary Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad (MHWA). From 2000 there was only very sporadic freight volume and on January 24, 2007 the LBR was stopped for the second time. A little later, the connecting MHWA section in Lowville was closed.
From 2010 to 2012, Lewis County and GVT negotiated the sale of the LBR infrastructure to the county. Plans foresaw the offered 425,000 US dollars for LBR-route with one by the mid-1990s based Croghan Railroad Society of Northern New York to be operated heritage railway use. The MHWA route from Lowville to Carthage should also be sold to the county and converted to a rail trail . On April 30, 2012, however, the county decided against purchasing the infrastructure.
Infrastructure
The 16.8 km long route of the LBR runs from Lowville through the valley of the Beaver River via New Bremen and Beaver Falls to Croghan . In Lowville there is a connection to the MHWA route to Carthage, which is part of a connection formerly leading from Utica to Clayton on the St. Lawrence River , but whose section from Lowville south to Lyons Falls was closed in 1964. The LBR has a small depot in Lowville.
vehicles
During its entire operating life, the LBR had five steam and three diesel locomotives, of which, however, never more than three vehicles were in existence at the same time. One of the steam locomotives, an Alco 2-8-0 with road number 1923, is preserved in the Steamtown National Historic Site . The three diesel locomotives, all GE 44-ton switchers , are still available at the LBR and MHWA, but are not operational.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Edward A. Lewis: American Shortline Railway Guide . Kalmbach Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978-0-89024-290-2 , pp. 184 (English).
- ^ Charlie Wood: Genesee Valley Transportation . In: Railfan & Railroad Magazine . tape 36 , no. October 10 , 2017, ISSN 0163-7266 , p. 48-50 (English).
- ^ Lowville and Beaver River Railroad . In: Federal Register . tape 57 , no. 77 , April 21, 1992, pp. 14619 (English): "The LBR had been inactive for a year prior to its present owner (Genesee Valley Transportation Company) taking over."
- ^ A b Douglas J. Fear: New life in the North Country . In: Trains Magazine . November 1997, ISSN 0041-0934 , p. 55 (English).
- ↑ Steve Virkler: Lewis legislators abandon rails-to-trails plan . In: Watertown Daily Times . May 2, 2012, ISSN 0885-680X (English): “For the past several months, county officials have discussed buying the 10-mile Lowville and Beaver River Railroad line from Lowville to Croghan from the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad Corp. for $ 425,000; the county then was to acquire the 17-mile Lowville Industrial Track from Lowville to West Carthage for $ 1. Under the proposal, the corporation, a subsidiary of Genesee Valley Transportation, Batavia, was to remove tracks from the donated spur so it could be developed as a recreational trail, with the Lowville-to-Croghan spur remaining intact to allow the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York possibly to operate a scenic railroad from its depot in Croghan. "