For fans of The Old Put

Hi Skip,

  Missed seeing you on the annual Put Walk/"Death March."

  Happy New Year!

 Tom

Nice engines! I love the "Old Put" and wanting to do a layout based on it.  Outside of the Lima & alco engines did they use emd geeps?? I heard they did

You know how much I love it!

Sedgwick Avenue

An old route map

the old route, preserved

Always, one of my favorite topics!

Peter

Are there any pics for the Van Cortland Station outside the current skeletal remains??

rick king posted:

Are there any pics for the Van Cortland Station outside the current skeletal remains??

Here you go Rick.

Van Cortlandt Station

rick king posted:

Nice engines! I love the "Old Put" and wanting to do a layout based on it.  Outside of the Lima & alco engines did they use emd geeps?? I heard they did

Once the New York Central dieselized Putnam Division operations, the types seen most frequently were the Lima units followed by Baldwin RS-12s and ALCo RS-3s. The RS-3 eventually became the predominant diesel type on the Put with most assignments being handled by them. EMD switchers also appeared on freight trains from time to time. Sporadic use of EMD road switchers on the Put was reported but their use was very infrequent. 

RS-3s continued to serve as the primary form of motive power on the Put under Penn Central but occasional appearances by other types including RS-11s occurred. Following the PC's absorption by Conrail, EMD SW1500s became the norm. One night, Conrail even tried running a new GE B23-7 up the Put but the unit's radiator wing conked the canopy remains of the old Van Cortlandt Station in the park. I guess the station's designers didn't allow for clearances of modern GE power when they built it!

Bob   

Bob,

  Yes, I remember hearing the story about the wing and the canopy.

  I probably mentioned this way too many times...as a youngster, in the early 1970's, I played little league baseball at Cook (now Redmond) Field in Yonkers (NY). My coach would pick me up in his brown Camaro and I remember Steely Dan playing on the 8 track. Every now and then an afternoon train would meander north with an RS-3 and some cars in tow, as I stood in the outfield hoping that the ball would not come my way! Often, the games were pretty boring. The trains made it much more entertaining.

  Tom

Skip,

It's great to see your layout again and we're counting the days until the Big E.

What is wonderful to me about the Old Put is that it ran right by my house when I lived in the Bronx and it ran very close to where I now live in Carmel, NY. The line is now a bike path, but there are wonderful photos that show the 4-6-0 running right near where my house is.

Love the Old Put. 

Eliot

Scrapiron Scher posted:

Skip,

It's great to see your layout again and we're counting the days until the Big E.

What is wonderful to me about the Old Put is that it ran right by my house when I lived in the Bronx and it ran very close to where I now live in Carmel, NY. The line is now a bike path, but there are wonderful photos that show the 4-6-0 running right near where my house is.

Love the Old Put. 

 

Eliot

It was probably as close to my house growing up as it was to yours! We were just born a little too late to have experienced the steam era! That would have been something.

Skip hope to see you at Trainstock, been a few years since I was there. Coming down with Superwarp and my friend you met last visit, John who had some of his photos in Schovine's  (sp) book .

Thanks for the Van Cortland  Park station pic! Great to see what in looked like in use.

Tom,

Spent many days at Cook field playing ball and remember the train passing through Mile Sq. Rd. down to the lumber yard.

Greg, 

 I see you are in Yorktown Heights. I mentioned this on another thread, Joe Schiavone had a series of books on The Put. If interested, I think they used to sell them at the museum on Commerce St. If you are able to at least get the first book ("The Old Put"), it should come with a video entitled "Walk The Put" that my friend (and Skip's) Brian Vangor videotaped. In the video, Joe walks the length of the Put from Van Cortland Park to Brewster telling interesting stories along the way. 

By the way, I grew up on Mile Square Road! 

Tom

Thanks Tom, I will look for the video ... My son and I have walked some of the trail in Northern Westchester in the Summer/Fall - Beautiful!

I enjoy that in 2015 (I have not been out there walking in 2016 yet!) that if one looks hard enough, you can still find railroad spikes, pieces of coal, pieces of surviving rail, telegraph poles and at least one milepost on The Put. 

Tom

NYCGreg68 posted:

Thanks Tom, I will look for the video ... My son and I have walked some of the trail in Northern Westchester in the Summer/Fall - Beautiful!

Greg:

Check with the Danbury Railway Museum. The DVD was available for sale there the last time I checked. I'm still looking for a copy of Joe's first book myself. Maybe I'll find it at West Springfield in a couple of weeks. I already have the subsequent volumes.

Bob 

Bob,

 In the first picture, the locomotive is on the Yonkers Ave. bridge just a few feet slightly north (out of camera range, to the left) of where Dunwoodie Station was (and a motel nowadays). There was also a coal trestle right in that area, too. I believe the second photo was taken by Tuckahoe Road on the Mile Square Bridge (or possibly the Palmer Road bridge by Brwn Mawr Station), either way, all of these locations are in Yonkers (NY). My uncle lived maybe 100 feet from Bryn Mawr with his property right up against The Put right-of-way. 

Tom

More of the Old Put on my Christmas Layout.

MNCW posted:

Greg, 

 I see you are in Yorktown Heights. I mentioned this on another thread, Joe Schiavone had a series of books on The Put. If interested, I think they used to sell them at the museum on Commerce St. If you are able to at least get the first book ("The Old Put"), it should come with a video entitled "Walk The Put" that my friend (and Skip's) Brian Vangor videotaped. In the video, Joe walks the length of the Put from Van Cortland Park to Brewster telling interesting stories along the way. 

By the way, I grew up on Mile Square Road! 

Tom

Tom, I think we're in that video!

I can still remember standing with Joe near XC where the Goldens Bridge branch had once joined the Put, and hearing Joe telling what it sounded like when a 10 Wheeler was struggling to climb the grade from Lincolndale up to Mahopac. I would have loved to experience that deafening pounding thunder.

Yes, Skip. I think your son might be, too (I remember Briarcliff Manor, but not 100% sure it is this one)?.

I try to warn people not to eat before viewing (in account of my appearance).

Tom

MNCW posted:

Yes, Skip. I think your son might be, too (I remember Briarcliff Manor, but not 100% sure it is this one)?.

I try to warn people not to eat before viewing (in account of my appearance).

Tom

Yes Tom, My son Tommy was with us at Briarcliff Manor Station. And then I think I talked about the "long gone" Graham Station, that Rockefeller had promised to build when they moved the line from his Pocantico Hills Estate.

I took this shot, just as I was taking down the Christmas Tree. That Christmas Season flew by. 

@Tom

That second photo that CNJ 3676 posted IS at the Mile Square Road bridge.  I grew up 1 mile from there off Lockwood ave.  That bridge was a single lane with stop signs on both sides.  As a kid I used to cut through the woods behind Welty Field and walk down to the tracks.  By the time I was able to leave the house and go out on my own the trains had stopped running so I never saw an actual train run up close.  But as a child in the car with my dad I do recall seeing a few trains run crawl by.

Skip,

Leave the trains up a little longer! 

NYCGreg68 posted:

@Tom

That second photo that CNJ 3676 posted IS at the Mile Square Road bridge.  I grew up 1 mile from there off Lockwood ave.  That bridge was a single lane with stop signs on both sides.  As a kid I used to cut through the woods behind Welty Field and walk down to the tracks.  By the time I was able to leave the house and go out on my own the trains had stopped running so I never saw an actual train run up close.  But as a child in the car with my dad I do recall seeing a few trains run crawl by.

Greg,

That bridge is still there and it is still a one lane operation. 

Tom

NYC Fan posted:

I took this shot, just as I was taking down the Christmas Tree. That Christmas Season flew by. 

Thanks for all of the nice photos, Skip.   I love this loco!   

Yes, Bob. The latest F12e is No. 1258. They correctly left the word "LINES" off the tender, and the sound is much better, deeper!

Also, the 1258 has blackened drive/main rods. Very nice looking!

Skip

Bob,

Great pic .... just look at the cars in background ... wow!

Great photo Bob!  Thanks for sharing it.

Love all the pics and info, fellas!
Peter

Do any of you "Put" fans recall the old Victoria Station Restaurant which was located on Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers? It was situated not too far from the right of way between where Bryn Mawr Park and Nepperhan stations would have been. Before we were married, my wife-to-be surprised me with dinner for my birthday there in 1984. The Victoria Station restaurants were very interesting with a few pieces of full size rolling stock and an extensive display of British railway memorabilia. I wish I had been able to get my hands on some of that stuff when they closed.

Bob 

Here are 3 photos of the Old Put that I don't believe I have ever seen before.

Nepperhan Station taken from the Tuckahoe Rd overpass.

East View Station looking north toward the bridge over Rt 100C and the bridge over the Saw Mill River Parkway. Note the southbound train in the distance.

Elmsford Station looking north toward Rt 119. The station still exists and is now Tony's Stazione Restaurant, with the entrance on the other side of the building facing Rt 9A.

NYC Fan posted:

Here are 3 photos of the Old Put that I don't believe I have ever seen before.

Nepperhan Station taken from the Tuckahoe Rd overpass.

East View Station looking north toward the bridge over Rt 100C and the bridge over the Saw Mill River Parkway. Note the southbound train in the distance.

Elmsford Station looking north toward Rt 119. The station still exists and is now Tony's Stazione Restaurant, with the entrance on the other side of the building facing Rt 9A.

 

Love the latest pics, Skip!

Peter

Hi Skip,

  Thanks for posting them. I especially like the one of Nepperhan. Looks pretty quiet, there is pretty good weed growth in-between the rails and the car all seem to look like it was taken in the mid to late 1950's, before passenger service ended. 

Tom 

CNJ 3676 posted:

Do any of you "Put" fans recall the old Victoria Station Restaurant which was located on Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers? It was situated not too far from the right of way between where Bryn Mawr Park and Nepperhan stations would have been. Before we were married, my wife-to-be surprised me with dinner for my birthday there in 1984. The Victoria Station restaurants were very interesting with a few pieces of full size rolling stock and an extensive display of British railway memorabilia. I wish I had been able to get my hands on some of that stuff when they closed.

Bob 

Bob, 

  Yes, I remember it pretty well. I grew up in and still live in Yonkers. Unfortunately, I think I was there only once...probably around the time of your birthday. In the 1980's, I was a little less focused on trains and train related things. The restaurant was set back from Tuckahoe Road quite a bit, which I always thought never helped its growth. It wasn't until 1994 that my wife bought me a beaten up Lionel #2037 steamer that I got back in the swing of things. The loco came from an antique store on Yonkers Ave. (which the Put crossed over a few miles away). For many years after clossing the restaurant seemed to stay intact until the train components finally disappeared.

Tom