Nostalgia & History > Silver Creek, NY in 1975

Sliver Creek was always a great place for us north of the 49th to watch and photograph trains. Penn Central and Norfolk and Western were parallel to each other through here, and the trains were frequent. Accessing the property between the two railroads was easy, and we were never hassled by anyone in authority. If the local police drove up they just waved. I haven't been there in years, so I imagine that's all changed now.

March 28, 1975

1. GP20s were an extremely rare treat, so when we saw this pair heading west through Buffalo, we gave chase and arrived with about ten minutes to spare. PC 2101 and 2110 look pretty good, even in solid black.

April 12, 1975

2. Penn Central Fs 1790 and 1725 lead a pair of U-boats and two other GM hoods on this westbound at Center Road, just west of town.

3. U25Cs were also very rare, particularly so leading. This was only the second train of the day and I already felt we'd got our bonus shot.

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4. I always enjoyed getting U-boats leading, as none of the Canadian roads owned them. They did come across the CASO, but catching them was hit and miss. They had a bark that sliced through the air like a sharp knife.

5. An A-B-A is headed east towards Buffalo past the former NYC station, who's shadow is visible in this shot. The station was always open when we were there, though unoccupied. An N&W freight shed still stood as well.

6. Another favourite model of mine was the SD35, especially those with a high short hood, of which I believe Southern was the only other buyer. This one is westbound. The bridge is gone now.

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7. Finally, we're at North Evans, between Buffalo and Silver Creek. Both roads were still parallel here and straddled by a bridge. A pair of high-hood SD45s hustle an eastbound toward Buffalo, under what remains of the tell-tales. I believe this was one of the Apollos. A siding was added here several years ago where the access road appears in this shot.

James Adeney
Toronto



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/12 18:03 by chatnoir.

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Great shots

chatnoir Wrote:
> 6. Another favourite model of mine was the SD35,
> especially those with a high short hood, of which
> I believe Southern was the only other buyer. This
> one is westbound. The bridge is gone now.


Well, hate to dissapoint ya with this, but you have a shot showing N&W SD35 with a Hi Short Hood and seeing how N&W and SOU didn't merge til 1982 to form NS,what ya got here is the other owner of Hi Short Hood SD35's, that being the N&W. These 2 roads almost exclusively ordered units with Hi Short Hoods. Always liked seeing them on the old Reading coming up from Hagerstown Maryland along with the other N&W Hi Short Hood units, those being GP30/35/40/38AC's/SD40/-2'S/SD45, the few 6 Axle ALCO's that showed up, mainly the C630's. Nice set of shots there. Thanks for sharing. Ben

Great catches.
JB

Beautiful stuff. Were you around there at all when N&W closed the block stations and put in traffic control in 1972? It's hard to find anything from that time.

I miss that old PC U25C 6516. Before the Poughkeepsie Bridge burned the 6516 (6514- 6519) were always on the Maybrook NY to Cedar Hill CT runs.

plus I also miss seeing the jug of water on the front hood as in pic 4. Was the expectation that it would cool off the water?

chatnoir Wrote:
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> Sliver Creek was always a great place for us north
> of the 49th to watch and photograph trains. Penn
> Central and Norfolk and Western were parallel to
> each other through here, and the trains were
> frequent. Accessing the property between the two
> railroads was easy, and we were never hassled by
> anyone in authority. If the local police drove up
> they just waved. I haven't been there in years,
> so I imagine that's all changed now.

Holy cow these are awesome! I lived in Buffalo from 1989-95 and used to visit Silver Creek at least 2 or 3 times per year. Access was still good back then. I used to go down there on the first warm spring day (sometimes late April if you were lucky but more likely mid May) and pitch a lounge chair on the grassy knoll between the two lines. I'd sit there with my cooler of cold ones and a great sandwich from the local grocery store and let the action come to me. I was met by many friendly waves from the crews and any maintenance guys that happened to venture by were also very hospitable. Everything was CR blue or NS/N&W black when I was there so your pictures are truly intriguing to me.
Steve B.

Memorable at Silver Creek, NY was a fellow with a van painted
CP style: "Canadian Railfan."

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

halfmoonharold Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Beautiful stuff. Were you around there at all when
> N&W closed the block stations and put in traffic
> control in 1972? It's hard to find anything from
> that time.


There was a small station-like building on the property where the passing siding began, but it was always unoccupied.

James

I remember the CR Geep 20's lived in Cincinnati when I was there in the late 70's.
90mac

Cool shots!!

Really beautiful stuff...hope you have more!