Exploring New Off Layout Freight Traffic Part 1

Greetings All,

A new possibility of railroad traffic and interchanges using the Terminal Yard extension staging tracks under the Pier 16 Grain Silos presented itself in the recent P.C.C.M. 69.

Imagining Pier 16 is located off the Hudson River with access to other RR yards in Empire City an Erie Lackawanna transfer freight comes off an imaginary 12th Ave running track.  The EL had a car float operation at Pier 67 and a small yard at West 28th Street and 12th Ave in Manhattan going back to the Erie days in 1902. The EL merger in 1960 added Pier 68 to the Erie's 'west side influence'.

An experimental short transfer freight from the EL's 28th Street yard arrives at Terminal Yard. 

The EL engine heads back to West 28th Street with a block of cars for either their freight house, Lifshultz Freight Forwarders or to be floated back to their side of the Hudson.

The EL transfer rolls back towards 12th Ave. The EL's car float and West 28th street yard operations appear to have lasted until 1975.

A pleasant surprise when reading about the West 28th Street Freight Station was that Alco S-1s #308, 311 and 315 were assigned there.

Across the street from the Erie West 28th Street Freight Station sat the Lehigh Valley West 27th Street Freight Yard that was opened in 1902. The LV freight yard was leased to William A Starrett who built a 19 story 1.8 million square foot building directly above the yard with the LV retaining the ground floor as a freight yard providing the LV with a large pool of potential customers. Mr Starrett died in 1932 and the LV bought the building that same year.

Freight traffic was floated across the Hudson River from the LV Jersey City Pier to Pier 66 on the Manhattan side. The LV discontinued this service in 1966 and the B&O took over Pier 66.

According to the website the Lehigh Valley utilized an EMD SW1 #874 at this location. Using some modelers license I'm using LV SW8 #292 and have extended the LV's presence at West 27th Street into the PC era.

Sitting at West 26th Street was the B&O Freight Station that received cars floated across the Hudson River from New Jersey at a float bridge at West 26th Street. The B&O served the west side of Manhattan until 1974.

Last but not least at West 37th Street the PRR / Penn Central operated a float bridge and pier stations at Piers 77 and 78 from 1885 until sometime around 1971. The pier stations featured stockyards and were the largest of the offline RRs serving Manhattan. 

The New York Central, the only railroad with direct freight access into New York City, had extensive West Side freight operations.   

NYC EMD SW8 #9608 drags a small cut of empties to be dropped off at the EL, LV and B&O yards. An "empties transfer" to dump these foreign road cars back at their respective RRs will help reduce the per diem payments incurred at Terminal Yard.

Lower Manhattan's west side was known for years as the meatpacking district. Other potential freight traffic could be reefers and stock cars to supply these meatpacking houses.

Other options presenting themselves are the 40' reefers being unloaded in the yard as I've seen in many New York City yard photos. A Pier 16 switcher has spotted such a block for unloading.

As evening fast approaches a reefer starts getting unloaded.

Mechanical Refrigeration cars need fuel for their equipment and the PC has such a truck to provide it.

The above thoughts and ops are random as I took the photos as the whole thought process unfolded. I'm going to study my New York Central RR GC Terminal / Hudson Division Timetable #22 that went into effect on October 29, 1967 for additional information that can be used here. I also plan to run a more focused op using Train NY-4, The New York Central Meat Products Train, as the originating train and will record that in a future blog post.

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!