Central New York Railroad
 CNYK (Binghamton to Port Jervis) and adjoining portions of the Southern Tier Line | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Cooperstown, New York, U.S. |
| Reporting mark | CNYK |
| Locale | West Branch Delaware River |
| Dates of operation | 1972–1988 2004–Present |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 123.1 miles (198.1 km)[1] |
The Central New York Railroad (reporting mark CNYK) refers to two separate uses of the same railroad name and charter by the Delaware Otsego Corporation.
Delaware Otsego used the Central New York Railroad charter and name first for a shortline railroad near Utica from 1973 to 1988. The second use of the charter was a paper railroad which operates over the Southern Tier line to join the Northern and Southern divisions of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W), beginning in 2005[2][1]
The current Central New York Railroad operates local freight service using NYS&W equipment in New York and Pennsylvania along Southern Tier Line trackage. The line originated as part of the Erie Railroad before becoming part of Erie Lackawanna, Conrail, and finally Norfolk Southern.
The line runs between Port Jervis and Binghamton, following the Delaware River north through the towns of Shohola, Pennsylvania, Narrowsburg, New York, Callicoon, New York, and Hancock, New York, to Deposit, New York. There the railroad heads in a more western direction to follow the Susquehanna River from Deposit towards Lanesboro, where it passes over the Starrucca Viaduct.
History
The original Central New York Railroad was a 21.7-mile (34.9 km) branch line between Richfield Junction near Cassville and Richfield Springs, New York, first opened in November 1872. It began serving as a branch for the Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railway.[3] The railway was later absorbed into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), which in turn merged into the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL). By the early 1970s, the Richfield Springs branch was deemed unprofitable by the EL, and they opted to abandon it.[2]
Walter Rich, the owner of the Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO), believed the branch could be reorganized as a profitable freight operation, and he was interested in expanding his company's short line assets.[2] In 1972, DO purchased the Richfield Springs branch from the EL, and the new Central New York Railroad commenced operations on December 12.[4] The CNYK initially turned profits for DO, since they served a number of freight customers who still relied on rail services, such as Agway's propane distribution firm.[2]
In 1982, DO purchased two former EL routes out of Binghamton, New York, from Conrail, one of which provided the CNYK's connection to the National rail network.[5] The CNYK and the two routes quickly became labeled as the Northern Division of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W), another DO subsidiary.[5] Throughout the 1980s, the CNYK's freight profits gradually declined, and in 1987, the eastern end of the line was shut down.[6] In early 1988, the CNYK suspended the rest of their operations, and they were authorized to abandon their line in August 1995.[7] While the CNYK became inactive from 1988 to 2004, the CNYK charter was still intact.
On January 1, 2005, DO reactivated the CNYK as a paper corporation, when they leased the Binghamton-Port Jervis section of the Southern Tier Line from the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). NS retained overhead trackage rights to operate through freight traffic.[1] All trains the CNYK operates are powered by locomotives owned by the NYS&W, which interchanges with Norfolk Southern at Binghamton and Warwick.[8][9]
References
- 1 2 3 Surface Transportation Board, Finance Docket No. 34643 Archived February 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, January 21, 2005
- 1 2 3 4 Hartley (1988), p. 30.
- ↑ Interstate Commerce Commission, 39 Val. Rep. 1: Valuation Docket No. 900, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company et al. (1932)
- ↑ Railroad Retirement Board, Employer Status Determination: Central New York Railroad Corporation Archived January 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, May 24, 2005
- 1 2 Hartley (1988), p. 32.
- ↑ Hartley (1988), p. 37.
- ↑ Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide, 5th Edition, Kalmbach Publishing, 1996, p. 351
- ↑ Central New York Railroad, accessed December 2008
- ↑ RAILPACE Magazine, August. 2003
Bibliography
- Hartley, Scott (January 1988). "Regionals In Review - The Delaware Otsego Story". Trains. Vol. 48, no. 3. Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 30–37. Retrieved October 8, 2024.