Eastern Railroad Discussion > Saratoga & North Creek

History was made on October 25th, 2012 when the first train arrived at the National Lead mine site in Tahawus, NY for the first time since November 17th, 1989. Known as the Sanford Lake Branch, this 29 mile branch was built by the U.S. government in the mid 1940s, ceased operations in 1989. Built as a branch off of the D&H Adirondack Branch in North Creek, NY, was purchased by Iowa Pacific Holdings early this year with intentions to resume freight operations.

Test run made all the way to EOT with the vintage Alco switcher 821 painted in authentic D&H livery and bay window caboose painted in mid 1950's D&H caboose scheme.

Engineer Mark Ellsworth, General Supt. Justin Gonyo and Mechanical Supt. Carl Atencio pose proudly with their train on this historic occasion.

Amazingly the line is in very sturdy shape. It is anticipated that minimal track work will be required to re-open this fabled branch.

Ranging in size from small VW Beetle to pea gravel, we've got rocks to fit any requirement! Don't delay, order your carload today!

FREIGHT IS GREAT on the S&NC!

Steven Torrico, Gen. Manager S&NC

Alex Jordon
email: jordonA@iowapacific.com

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Congratulations are in order, and best of luck!

So I take it there's a quarry of some sort on line.. Is that the only source of traffic? Any ag business? Are they still mining lead at the mine?

Jesse

Wow, congrats on the run!

Posted from Android

Large tailing piles source of aggregate. No active mining.
Titanium Dioxide and ilmenite iron ore object of past mining...not lead.

There was a sinter plant at Sanford Lake to prepare iron ore for
a Republic Steel blast furnace in Troy, New York also on
the Delaware and Hudson.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/12 19:17 by CP8888.

Very satisfying to hear of news like this; dormant rail lines hosting trains instead of trails. I spent many summers up in that area in the late 70's and even remember seeing trains on that branch; though at the time I didn't know what exact line it was till I compared my memories with knowledge gained later.

The mining company was National Lead. The mine produced titanium ore called ilmenite. The D&H had a fleet of ore jennies that we frequently saw in Potomac Yard, south of Washington, DC. They were stencilled "for ilmenite and rutile loading only". I had to go look the words up in a dictionary.

Toward the end of mining, the ilmenite was mostly used as a pigment to make white paint.

The tailings are very hard rock that should be useful for everything from aggregate for concrete to rip-rap.