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Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | Batavia, New York |
Reporting mark | FRR |
Locale | New York |
Dates of operation | 1996–present |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Other | |
Website | Genesee Valley Transportation, FRR Subsidiary |
The Falls Road Railroad( reporting mark FRR) is a Class III short line railroad owned by Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT). The railroad operates in Niagara, Orleans, and Monroe counties in New York.
The railroad's right-of-way consists of 41.69 miles (67.09 km) of track, known as the Falls Road Branch, originally part of the New York Central Railroad linking Niagara Falls and Rochester. [1] The line passed to the Penn Cental and then to Conrail ownership before being acquired on October 15, 1996. [2] Dispatching is handled by Genesee Valley's operations center in Scranton, Pennsylvania. [1] A yard and engine house are maintained in Lockport, NY, where the railroad interchanges with CSX. The railroad is known for its use of Alco locomotives. [3]
The name Falls Road originates from the Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad, and was adopted by New York Central. In 1994, Conrail abandoned twelve miles (19 km) of track between Rochester and Brockport, New York; the Falls Road Branch now terminates in Brockport, west of Owens Road at Mile Post 16.60. The Falls Road provides rail service to several fertilizer, transload, and produce customers in the area, as well as the Western New York Energy, LLC ethanol plant near Medina, New York. In June of 2024, the Falls Road entered into a new contract with Tropicana shipping orange juice to Brockport for distribution by truck into southern Canada. An engine house will be built and maintained in Brockport to assist the railroad in handling the added traffic.
The Niagara & Western New York Railroad ( reporting mark NIAX) was a short-lived company that operated a heritage railroad and excursion train service over the tracks of the Falls Road Railroad. Trains operated between Lockport and Medina, New York for a single season in 2002. Three locomotives were leased from Guilford Rail System: two GE U18Bs and one EMD GP7, all of Maine Central Railroad heritage. The railroad operated three passenger cars.
As of 2023 the Falls Road operated occasional heritage service for the Medina Railroad Museum utilizing the museum's coaches. [4]
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
The Somerset Railroad was a railroad that operated in Niagara County, New York. It was operated by CSX Transportation. The railroad was built with the primary objective of providing coal to the Kintigh Generating Station, also known as the Somerset Power Plant, a 675 megawatt coal-fired power plant located in Somerset, New York. The railroad was built in 1983 by the New York State Electric and Gas Co. using new and old rights of way. From Lockport, New York, it runs on the defunct International Railway Co. (IRC) interurban line opened in 1900 under the name Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach (BL&OB) which became part of the IRC in 1902. From Newfane, New York, the SOM sweeps off the IRC to the Hojack Line in Appleton, New York, to West Somerset in the Town of Somerset. It then swings off on new trackage to a series of spurs and a loop at the Kintigh Generating Station.
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked after a fatal 1853 collision in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
The Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad is a short line railroad that operates in Livingston County and Monroe County in New York, United States. The railroad interchanges with CSX at Genesee Junction in Chili, New York, the Rochester and Southern Railroad (RSR) at Genesee Junction and the RSR's Brooks Avenue Yard in Gates, New York, and with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum at Industry, New York. Their primary freight consists of food products: grains and corn syrup. In 1997, the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad was selected as Short Line Railroad of the Year by industry trade journal Railway Age. The LAL is also the parent company for the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad, the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad and the Ontario Midland Railroad.
The Michigan Central Railroad was originally chartered in 1832 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the United States and the province of Ontario in Canada. After about 1867 the railroad was controlled by the New York Central Railroad, which later became part of Penn Central and then Conrail. After the 1998 Conrail breakup, Norfolk Southern Railway now owns much of the former Michigan Central trackage.
The Ontario Midland Railroad Corporation is an American Class III railroad company operating in western New York. As of September 2022, it became a subsidiary of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad (LAL).
The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad was a part of the New York Central Railroad system, connecting Buffalo, New York to Niagara Falls. It is still used by CSX for freight and Amtrak for passenger service.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area.
The ALCO RS-1 was a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Alco-GE between 1941 and 1953 and the American Locomotive Company from 1953 to 1960. ALCO subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works built an additional three RS-1s in 1954. This model has the distinction of having the longest production run of any diesel locomotive for the North American market. The RS-1 was in production for 19 years from the first unit Rock Island #748 in March 1941 to the last unit National of Mexico #5663 in March 1960.
New York State Route 31 (NY 31) is a state highway that extends for 208.74 miles (335.93 km) across western and central New York in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 104 in the city of Niagara Falls. Its eastern terminus is at a traffic circle with NY 26 in Vernon Center, a hamlet within the town of Vernon. Over its routing, NY 31 spans 10 counties and indirectly connects three major urban areas in Upstate New York: Buffalo–Niagara Falls, Rochester, and Syracuse. The route is one of the longest routes in New York State, paralleling two similarly lengthy routes, NY 104 to the north and NY 5 to the south, as well as the Erie Canal, as it proceeds east.
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.
Falls Road may refer to:
The ALCO RS-3m is a diesel-electric locomotive rebuilt from an ALCO RS-3 road switcher. These 98 locomotives were rebuilt to replace their original ALCO prime mover with the more reliable EMD 567B engine and fan assemblies taken from retired E8s. Many of these rebuilds were performed by the ex NYC DeWitt shop with 56 completed at the ex PRR Juniata shop. The RS3m rebuild program started in 1972 and continued until 1978 under Conrail.
The Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum (RGVRRM) is an operating railroad museum located in Industry, New York, a hamlet within the town of Rush. The museum started in 1971 with the purchase of a former Erie Railroad Depot from the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. Since then the museum has grown to include a one-mile demonstration railroad, connecting it with the New York Museum of Transportation in Rush, making it one of the few operating railroad museums in New York State.
Union Station is the ruin of an historic former train station located at Lockport in Niagara County, New York. It was constructed in 1889, for the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in the Romanesque style. The station served the NYC Falls Road line, an East-West corridor connecting Niagara Falls and Rochester, New York. While technically not a "union station" - as no other railroad shared its facilities - it took its local name from its address on Union Street in Lockport.
The Ontario Central Railroad is an American class III railroad company operating in Ontario County, New York. As of 2007, the ONCT has been under the ownership of the Finger Lakes Railway which is based in Geneva, New York.
S-Motor was the class designation given by the New York Central to its ALCO-GE built S-1, S-2, S-2a and S-3 electric locomotives. The S-Motors hold the distinction of being the world's first mass-produced main line electric locomotives with the prototype #6000 being constructed in 1904. The S-Motors would serve alone until the more powerful T-motors began to arrive in 1913, eventually displacing them from main line passenger duties. From that point the class was assigned to shorter commuter trains and deadhead rolling stock between Grand Central Terminal and Mott Haven coach yard. Some examples, including the prototype later renumbered #100, would serve in this capacity through the Penn Central merger in 1968, only being retired in the 1970s as long distance passenger traffic to Grand Central dried up.
The Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad was an electric interurban railway that was constructed between Rochester, New York, and Lockport, New York, connecting to the International Railway Co. at Lockport for service into Buffalo. Opened in 1909 as the Buffalo, Lockport and Rochester Railway, the route followed the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad's Falls Road branch for most of its length. The direct route took a little over two hours to travel from Lockport from Rochester. Most trains were local routes and took 2 hours 35 minutes. There were trains between the main stations every hour, however there were trains between Rochester and Brockport every 30 minutes and sometimes every 15 minutes. For a brief period of time, the railway was part of the Beebe Syndicate of affiliated interurban railways stretching from Syracuse to Buffalo. Entering receivership in 1917, it was reorganized as the Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad in 1919. After years of struggling with declining revenue during the Depression years, the railway's last day of service was April 30, 1931.
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