Later Years
Passenger service on the line ended in 1959, ending direct train service on the west side of the Hudson River to Albany. The line now serves as CSX Transportation's principal freight route from Western points to New Jersey, via the former NYC Selkirk Yard.
Part of the former WS roadbed is used as the of CSX Transportation. West of the Hudson Palisades between North Bergen and Bogota lies a short stretch of the line known as the Bergen Subdivision, where it becomes the River Subdivision. Proceeding north it passess through Bergen County to Rockland County, New York, where, after travelling through a tunnel it travels along west side of the Hudson River.
By 1974, the roadbed was in good condition and there was little evidence of flooding, landslides, or encroachments over the entire length. Portions of the line were slightly overgrown, but visible. Around the village of Solvay in the vicinity of Allied Chemical, the roadbed was not visible because there were so many operating tracks in the area. The right-of-way was evident, however, from Warners, New York west.
Most tracks, ties, signal facilities, bridges and depots have been razed; however, several overpasses remain around Palmyra and Newark that alloweThese were put in by farmers to get to adjacent fields. The right-of-way, however, was still in operation near Newark, Macedon and Egypt in order to serve local customers on the line.
The terrain through which the WS passed is generally flat. This is in part due to the fact that the line parallels the old Erie Canal. The principal land use of abutting properties is varied. From Syracuse to Warners it passes through commercial and residential development in the villages and towns.
Read more about this topic: West Shore Railroad
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“Where has it all gone? I remember that twenty years ago there were geese and cranes and ducks and grouse here, clouds of them!... And there are far fewer animals. Wolf and fox are rare, brother, not to mention bears or mink. There used even to be moose!”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“After years of vain familiarity, some distant gesture or unconscious behavior, which we remember, speaks to us with more emphasis than the wisest or kindest words. We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our Friends’ thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)