 |
| Industry | rail transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 17, 1903 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Northeastern New York |
The Lowville and Beaver River Railroad( reporting mark LBR) is a short-line railroad [1] that was owned by Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT) of Batavia, New York from 1993 [2] to Wednesday, January 24, 2007. [3] Map [4]
The Lowville & Beaver River runs from an interchange, with GVT subsidiary Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad (MHWA) at Lowville, NY to Croghan, New York. [5]
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. [6]
In 1903 James P. Lewis backed the short line to serve his mills at Beaver Falls. [7] The Lowville & Beaver River Railroad was open on January 13, 1906. [8] [9] [10]
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. [11] 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. [12] [13] 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. [14] On April 30, 2012, however, the county decided against purchasing the infrastructure. [15]
River Marine Inc. of Cape Vincent, NY recently purchased the former Carthage train depot [16] on Mechanic Street. River Marine also owns the railway yard in Lowville, NY. [17] 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. [18]
The #1923 steam locomotive, an Alco 2-8-0, has been preserved as part of the Steamtown, USA National Historic Site, Scranton, PA. [19]
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 running 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. [20]
The branch line crosses the Black River on a 1,100 foot long Warren swing through truss bridge. [21]
The MHWA Lowville-to-Carthage branch line has been virtually out-of-service since the mid-2000s and is currently, as of May, 2022 out-of-service. The L&BR was placed out of service after the paper mill in Beaver Falls closed on January 24, 2007. The future usage of the line is yet to be determined.
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Media related to Lowville and Beaver River Railroad at Wikimedia Commons
Lewis County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,582, making it the fourth-least populous county in New York. Its county seat is Lowville. The county is named after Morgan Lewis, the Governor of New York when the county was established.
New Bremen is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 2,706 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the German city of Bremen.
Watson is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 1,881 at the 2010 census. The town is named after early landowner James Watson. The town is at the eastern border of the county and is east of Lowville, the county seat.
Croghan is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 3,093 at the 2010 census. The town is in the northern part of the county and located northeast of the county seat, Lowville. The town contains a village also named Croghan, a small part of which is located in the adjacent town of New Bremen. Both the village and town are locally pronounced \Krō-gun\.
The British Rail Class 55, also known as a Deltic, or English Electric Type 5, is a class of diesel locomotive built in 1961 and 1962 by English Electric for British Railways. Twenty-two locomotives were built, designed for the high-speed express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Edinburgh and London King's Cross. They gained the name "Deltic" from the prototype locomotive, DP1 Deltic, which in turn was named after its Napier Deltic power units. At the time of their introduction into service in 1961, the Class 55s were the most powerful single-unit diesel locomotives in the world, with a power output of 3,300 hp (2,500 kW). They had an official maximum speed of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), and introduced the first regular 100 mph diesel passenger service to Britain, they were however capable of higher speeds than this, and often exceeded their official maximum in service, especially in their later years, with speeds of up to 117 miles per hour (188 km/h), being recorded on level gradients, and up to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) whilst descending Stoke Bank.
LBR may refer to:
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.
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The Genesee Valley Transportation Company, based in Batavia, New York, is a holding company for several short-line railroads located in New York and Pennsylvania. Founded by Jeffrey Baxter, Charles Riedmiller, John Herbrand, Michael Thomas and David Monte Verde, GVT Rail has grown from a five-mile switching operation in Buffalo, New York, to a system network of greater than 300 miles.
The Finger Lakes Railway is a Class III railroad in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The company began operations on July 23, 1995, and operates in Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Schuyler and Yates counties. The FGLK operates 18 diesel locomotives on 167 miles (269 km) of ex-Conrail trackage, formerly owned by the New York Central Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Between 2001 and 2013, the railroad operated a heritage railroad known as the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway which offered passenger train excursions.
New York State Route 26 (NY 26) is a north–south state highway that runs for 203.80 miles (327.98 km) through Central New York in the United States. Its southern terminus is located at the Pennsylvania state line south of the town of Vestal in Broome County, where it becomes Pennsylvania Route 267 (PA 267). Its northern terminus is located at a junction with NY 12 in the village of Alexandria Bay in Jefferson County. NY 26 serves three cities along its routing; one directly (Rome) and two via other roadways. NY 26 also intersects several other primary routes including I-81 in Barker, an overlap with U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Madison, NY 12 in Lowville, and an overlap with US 11 in the Jefferson County town of Philadelphia.
New York State Route 812 (NY 812) is a state highway in the North Country of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 12 and NY 26 in the Lewis County village of Lowville. Its northern terminus is at the Canada–United States border in Ogdensburg, where it crosses the Ogdensburg–Prescott International Bridge and connects to Highway 16 in Ontario. While most of NY 812 passes through rural areas of the North Country, the route also serves several villages and small communities. The GPS services company Geotab has named it the quietest highway in New York due to its low traffic counts.
New York State Route 126 (NY 126) is a 28.56-mile-long (45.96 km) state highway in the North Country of New York in the United States. It proceeds in a roughly northwest to southeast direction between NY 12 at the eastern city line of Watertown in central Jefferson County and NY 812 in the village of Croghan in northern Lewis County. In between, NY 126 serves the adjacent villages of West Carthage and Carthage, where the route has overlaps with NY 3 and NY 26. Most of the route passes through rural areas, and the portion southeast of Carthage parallels either the Black River or a tributary of it.
The GE 45-ton switcher is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by General Electric between 1940 and 1956.
New York State Route 410 (NY 410) is a 4-mile (6.4 km) east–west state highway in Lewis County, New York, in the United States. It serves as a connector between NY 26, NY 126, and the village of Castorland midway between the two highways. The route begins at an intersection with NY 26 in the town of Denmark and heads northeast through Castorland and across the Black River to a junction with NY 126 in the town of Croghan. Most of the route passes through open, rural areas, save for the section within Castorland. NY 410 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York even though the road had yet to be improved to state highway standards. Work on rebuilding the road was delayed by the state for years, leading the Kiwanis Club of Lowville to pressure the state to reconstruct the highway. The route was finally brought up to state highway standards in the latter part of the 1930s.
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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.
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.
