Adirondack Scenic Railroad

Coordinates: 44°21′12″N 74°17′20″W / 44.35342°N 74.28885°W / 44.35342; -74.28885

Adirondack Scenic Railroad
Saranac Lake Station
Locale New York
Commercial operations
Built by Mohawk and Malone Railway
Original gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Preserved operations
Reporting mark ADIX
Preserved gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Commercial history
1913 New York Central takes over
Closed 1980
Preserved era 1992 -
Preservation history
1992 Restoration starts
Headquarters Utica, NY
Website
adirondackrr.com

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad (reporting mark ADIX)[1] (ASR) is a tourist railway located in the Adirondack Park that operates over trackage of the former New York Central Railroad between Utica and Lake Placid. The railroad is operated by the not-for-profit Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society, with train crews composed largely of volunteers.

ASR operates between Utica and Remsen over trackage of the Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad, part of the Genesee Valley Transportation Company. The Remsen-Lake Placid segment is owned by the state of New York and designated as a multi-use corridor for rail traffic during the spring, summer, and fall seasons, and as a snowmobile trail during the winter months.

Passenger trains operate between Utica and Thendara as well as Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Historic stations have been restored in Holland Patent, Remsen, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. The section of track between Utica and Lions Falls is used for freight traffic. The freight traffic service is operated by Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad (MA&N).

History

The line was built in 1892 by William Seward Webb as the Mohawk & Malone Railway and later purchased by the New York Central.[2] It passed to the Penn Central Transportation Company, which abandoned operations north of Remsen in 1972. The Adirondack Railway operated passenger services between Utica and Lake Placid from 1979 to 1981.[3] Tracks were dormant from 1981 until 1992 when restoration began with a 4-mile (6.4 km) section from Thendara to Minnehaha, New York. The section was approved and demonstrated on July 4, 1992. At that point, the line was named the Adirondack Centennial Railroad. It was later renamed as the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in 1994.

The railroad planned to restore passenger operations over the entire Utica-Lake Placid corridor. While this vision is supported by several local communities (most notably Tupper Lake and the Next Stop Tupper Lake[4] organization), opponents called for replacing the Tupper Lake–Lake Placid section with a rail trail.[5] Trackage was slated to be dismantled in the Fall of 2016,[6] but was delayed pending resolution of a protracted legal battle.[7] The New York state Supreme Court ultimately sided with the railroad on September 26, 2017, annulling the rail trail plan in its entirety.[8][9] As of Spring 2018 the Adirondack Park Agency is seeking to redefine the term "travel corridor".[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Search MARKs". Railinc. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Gove 2006, pp. 65–69
  3. ↑ Drury 1985, p. 14
  4. ↑ "Next Stop Tupper Lake — Working to bring rail service back to Tupper Lake".
  5. ↑ "World-class bikeway envisioned". Adirondack Daily Enterprise. June 3, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Governor green-lights rail-trail plan - AdirondackDailyEnterprise.com - News, Sports, Jobs, Saranac Lake region — Adirondack Daily Enterprise".
  7. ↑ "Adirondack Scenic Railroad on 'pins and needles,' some rides will begin July 1". NewYorkUpstate.com. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  8. ↑ Adirondack Railroad Preservation Society, Inc. v. New York State Adirondack Park Agency (Leilani Ulrich); New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Basil Seggos); New York State Department of Transportation (Matthew Driscoll), 2016-213 U.S. 16-1-2017-0129 (Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Franklin; September 26, 2017).
  9. ↑ Lynch, Mike (September 28, 2017). "Judge Rules In Favor of Adirondack Scenic Railroad". The Adirondack Explorer. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  10. ↑ "Adirondack Park Agency to redefine travel corridor". Retrieved 2018-04-17.

References

  • Drury, George H. (1985). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89024-072-8. LCCN 85080107.
  • Gove, Bill (2006). Logging Railroads of the Adirondacks. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0794-6. OCLC 61881113.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.