Beaver Falls station in Beaver Falls, New York. 14 July 2019
History
Lowville and Beaver River RR crossing the Black River near Lowville, NY May 1991.
The Lowville & Beaver River Railroad interchanged at Lowville with the Utica & Black River Railroad (U&BR). The U&BR reached Lowville in 1868 and Carthage in 1871. The L&BR was an 11-mile shortline from Lowville through Beaver Falls to Croghan planned in 1880 but it was not built.[2]
In 1903 James P. Lewis backed the short line to serve his mills at Beaver Falls.[3] The Lowville & Beaver River Railroad was open on January 13, 1906.[4][5][6]
The L&BR was dieselized in 1947, while #1923, their remaining steam locomotive, was last used on standby service in case the diesel needed repairs. It last operated in January 1957.[7] The locomotives of the L&BR were numbered 10, 12, 51, 1912, 1923, 1947 (Diesel), 1950 (Diesel), 1951 (Diesel) and 8, a Shay owned by the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York.[8][9] All of the diesels are GE 44-tonners.
From 2010 to 2012, Lewis County and GVT negotiated the sale of the LBR infrastructure to the county. Plans called for the LBR route, which was offered for $425,000, to be used for a museum train operated by the Railroad Society of Northern New York, which had been based in Croghan in the mid-1990s. The MHWA route from Lowville to Carthage was also to be sold to the county and converted to a rail trail.[10] On April 30, 2012, however, the county decided against purchasing the infrastructure.[11]
River Marine Inc. of Cape Vincent, NY recently purchased the former Carthage train depot[12] on Mechanic Street. River Marine also owns the railway yard in Lowville, NY.[13] Ronald J. Trottier the owner of River Marine Inc. plans to lease the railroad between Cartage and Lowville. His plan is to run tourist trains and rail bikes, human-pedal-powered open air vehicles that ride the rails.[14]
The #1923 steam locomotive, an Alco 2-8-0, has been preserved as part of the Steamtown, USA National Historic Site, Scranton, PA.[15]
The L&BR was placed out-of-service after the paper mill in Beaver Falls closed on January 24, 2007.
The Lowville and Beaver River Railroad filed for abandonment on January 14, 2025[16] and entered into an agreement with Lewis County in November 2025 to be purchased for use as a recreational rail trail[17].
This is in addition to the abandonment of the West Carthage to Lowville segment of fellow with GVT subsidiary Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad at the same time[18]. The Lowville-to-Carthage branch line had only seen occasional revenue car storage on its northernmost portion.
Infrastructure
The 10.57-mile (17.01km) long route of the LBR ran from Lowville through the valley of the Beaver River via New Bremen and Beaver Falls to Croghan. In Lowville, there was a connection to the MHWA route to Carthage, which was part of a connection formerly running from Utica to Clayton on the St. Lawrence River, but whose section from Lowville south to Lyons Falls was abandoned in 1964. The LBR had a small depot in Lowville.[19]
The branch line crossed the Black River on a 1,100-foot (340m) long Warren swing through truss bridge.[20]
↑CUTTER, A. M., WILLIAM RICHARD (1910). The History of New York State (2004ed.). NEW YORK: Genealogical & Family History of Northern, NY. p.753. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
↑"Our History". www.newyorktrains.com. 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
↑Gould, Emilie W. (28 August 2015). "Beaver Falls Grange Hall #554". National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior.
↑Virkler, Steve (2 May 2012). "Lewis legislators abandon rails-to-trails plan". Watertown Daily Times. 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.
↑"Croghan Depot - Lowville & Beaver River Railroad, Croghan NY - Train Stations/Depots on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021. Today the depot is the home of the museum maintained by The Railway Historical Society of Northern New York. The museum is well worth a visit but be sure to contact staff before your arrival. Outside of the museum you can view their Shay locomotive, a snowplow and a diesel speeder.
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