 Northbound at Old State Rd near Eagle Bridge, New York | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Greenwich, New York |
| Reporting mark | BKRR |
| Locale | New York |
| Dates of operation | 1982– |
| Predecessor | |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
The Batten Kill Railroad( reporting mark BKRR) is a class III railroad operating in New York. The BKRR was formed in 1982 beginning operations on October 22 [1] of a pair of abandoned Delaware and Hudson Railway branch lines, totaling about 30 miles of track.
The Greenwich and Johnsonville Railway (G&J) was incorporated in the late part of the 19th century, and built a rail line between Greenwich and Johnsonville, New York. [2]
Around 1900, G&J became a subsidiary of the Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H). By 1907, the G&J (with support from parent D&H) had built a branch from Greenwich to Greenwich Junction (just south of Salem) where it connected to the D&H's Washington Branch that was built circa 1856. The old G&J route to Johnsonville was abandoned in July 1932 and all traffic henceforth went via "The Junction" in Salem. [3] Most of the abandoned section to Johnsonville eventually became (Washington) County Route 74.
Following the 1980 closure of the Georgia Pacific pulp & paper mill in Thomson, New York, the D&H planned to abandon the G&J along with the adjoining Washington Branch, which ran from Eagle Bridge, New York to Castleton, Vermont. In 1982, Mohawk-Hudson Transportation, owned by Ron Crowd, purchased the railroad from the D&H, forming the Batten Kill Railroad. Crowd had the distinction of being the first African-American to own and operate a railroad in the United States. [4]
While initially financially successful, a series of national railroad strikes in the mid-1980s left the railroad in a less profitable state. In 1994, the railroad was turned over to NE New York Rail, a non-profit, and the BKRR remained the operator. Passenger excursions were started, but were terminated by late 2003 due to declining ridership. [5] In November 2008, William (Bill) Taber purchased the Batten Kill from Mohawk Transportation and the estate of the late Ron Crowd. Taber is the current President and CEO of the railroad.
In 2016 theBatten Kill Railroad got a $1.3 million state grant funding installation of new cross ties onto about 4 miles of track. [6]
The Batten Kill's sole interchange location is in Eagle Bridge, New York where it connects to the main line of Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Transportation and the Boston & Maine). The line runs north from Eagle Bridge, through Cambridge, New York and Shushan, New York, to Greenwich Junction. From there, a short remnant of the D&H Washington Branch continues north into Salem, New York. This segment is out of service. This north-south component of the line is paralleled by NY Route 22. The other route from the junction continues west to the village of Greenwich, paralleled by NY Route 29. The line running west from Greenwich to Thomson, New York, is also out of service. In Greenwich, the railroad maintains a small engine house and the former G&J depot as an office.
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.
Salem is a town in eastern Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 2,702 at the 2000 census. The town of Salem contains a hamlet also named Salem, formerly an incorporated village.
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The United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJ&CC) was a railroad company which began as the important Camden & Amboy Railroad (C&A), whose 1830 lineage began as one of the eight or ten earliest permanent North American railroads, and among the first common carrier transportation companies whose prospectus marketed an enterprise aimed at carrying passengers fast and competing with stagecoaches between New York Harbor and Philadelphia-Trenton. Among the other earliest chartered or incorporated railroads, only the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad were chartered with passenger services in mind. Later, after mergers, the UNJ&CC became a subsidiary part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) system in New Jersey by the later merger and acquisition of several predecessor companies in 1872; these purchases also included the PRR's main line to New York City. Prior to 1872, its main lines were the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company, the first railroad in New Jersey and one of the first railroads in the United States.
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The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge and through which it had access to North Station in Boston. From there, the route ran 98.77 miles west through the modern-day towns of Belmont, Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, Bolton, Berlin, Clinton, West Boylston, Holden, Rutland, Oakham, Barre, New Braintree, Hardwick, Ware, Palmer, Belchertown, Amherst, and Hadley to its western terminal junction at N. O. Tower in Northampton with the Connecticut River Railroad.
The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, but was soon taken over by that company.
The Lackawanna Cut-Off was a rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). Constructed from 1908 to 1911, the line was part of a 396-mile (637 km) main line between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York. It ran west for 28.6 miles (46.0 km) from Port Morris Junction in Port Morris, New Jersey, near the south end of Lake Hopatcong about 45 miles (72 km) west-northwest of New York City, to Slateford Junction in Slateford, Pennsylvania near the Delaware Water Gap.
New York State Route 29 (NY 29) is a state highway extending for 94.79 miles (152.55 km) across the eastern portion of the U.S. state of New York. The western terminus of the route is at NY 28 and NY 169 in Middleville, Herkimer County. The eastern terminus of the route is at NY 22 just south of Salem, Washington County. NY 29 also serves the cities of Johnstown and Saratoga Springs and intersects four major north–south roadways: NY 10, NY 30, U.S. Route 9, and U.S. Route 4.
The Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO) is an American railway holding company which owns the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway and the Central New York Railroad. It is headquartered in Cooperstown, New York in Otsego County.
The Amtrak Hudson Line, also known as the CSX Hudson Subdivision, is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation and leased by Amtrak in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Poughkeepsie north along the east shore of the Hudson River to Rensselaer and northwest to Hoffmans via Albany and Schenectady along a former New York Central Railroad line. From its south end, CSX has trackage rights south to New York City along the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line. The Hudson Line junctions the Castleton Subdivision in Stuyvesant, Amtrak's Post Road Branch in Rensselaer and the Carman Subdivision in Schenectady. Its northwest end is at a merge with the Mohawk Subdivision.
The Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail is a 19.8-mile (31.9 km) rail trail built along an abandoned Delaware & Hudson Railway (D&H) corridor between West Rupert and Castleton, Vermont. The trail runs in two disconnected segments, separated by a short section that leaves the state for neighboring New York State before returning to Vermont. The trail is a state park and is managed by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation.
The Batten Kill, Battenkill, or Battenkill River is a 59.4-mile-long (95.6 km) river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary of the Hudson River. It is the longest Hudson tributary on that river's east. As "kill" means a creek, the name "Battenkill River" is pleonastic.
Greenwich is a town in the southwestern part of Washington County, New York, United States. The town is located on the western border of the county. The population was 4,896 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. Greenwich features several homes that were a part of the Underground Railroad.
The Greenwich and Johnsonville Railway was a railroad in Upstate New York. It was founded in 1866 to construct a line from Greenwich to Johnsonville. The line opened in 1870. The Delaware and Hudson Railway acquired control of the railroad in 1906 and sold it to the Batten Kill Railroad in 1982.
Fascinating history of the Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway, a small upstate New York railroad which ran from about 1870 until its demise in 1981 (although portions were carried on as the Batten Kill Railroad). The book also covers the Greenwich & Schuylerville Electric Railway. With locomotive and equipment rosters.
This is the second time the Batten Kill has received similar funding. Ten years ago, Taber said, the company was able to repair 2.75 miles of track and a bridge with $1 million in funding.
