Abandon NH photos near my house


NYC_George

Well-Known Member
I was deleting some files on an old hard drive and found these abandon NH line photos. The line runs about a mile from my house crossing the Hudson river in Poughkeepsie, NY.
nh_truss_01.jpg
igirder_05.jpg
pnhb_1.jpg
pnhb_2.jpg
 
Neat photos! I wonder how many bridges like the one in photo two existed across this country? A very common picture back in the 50s & 60s! I've been to Poughkeepsie, maybe I've driven right by some of these photos! Thanks for sharing NYC George!
 
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Nice photos. Thanks for posting.

Mark,
I am sure that there are a lot of them. In Montana many of the old Milwaukee Road bridges and trestles are still around and the Trestle that the North Coast Limited used to use going into Butte is still there.
 
Thanks George. If memory serves I seem to recall a similar bridge at or near Herkimer that could be seen from I-90. That one might have belonged to the NYC as it was a little too far west for the NH.
 
In my younger days, I ran freight trains over the first two of those bridges.

Not across the big one, though!
(Although right up to it on the Poughkeepsie side)

I believe I'm the last engineer to have hired out "on the New Haven side" and worked in Maybrook yard (1991). There won't be any more...
 
Albert I guess you never you crossed the Hudson on to Maybrook yard. I worked on the NH at Oak Point & Hunts Point Market's yards switching cars all night.
 
NYC George wrote:
"Albert I guess you never you crossed the Hudson on to Maybrook yard. I worked on the NH at Oak Point & Hunts Point Market's yards switching cars all night."

You guessed wrong!

Oak Point for a numbers of years was "my home" on the railroad -- only place I had enough seniority to work for a while. When the pickings were slim elsewhere, I could always make money at Oak Point.
My very first job as a promoted engineer was at midnight on OP-31, May 1981.

I worked jobs from OP to Selkirk, New Haven, Freemont, everywhere Metro-North went (only exception was northern end of the Waterbury Branch because it got sold to the B&M).

Worked both Penn Station and Grand Central on the Amtrak and commuter trains. Croton Harmon, North White, Stamford, Danbury, Brewster. I even worked as an engineer for Metro-North a few times.

Worked the River Line, Oak Island, the Erie Southern Tier to Pt. Jervis and beyond.

New York to Boston, Springfield Line, "East End" of the B&A on the Amtrak "inland route", and was one of the first engineers qualified to run the old "Montrealer" up the CV from NH - New London - Palmer, Mass.

Some guys hired out in New Haven and never went anywhere else.
I hired out there but didn't have enough seniority to stay there, so I became a latter-day "boomer", going wherever I could hold a job.
I got around !
 
I was still there in 1981 Albert but not for long. The Long Island RR was in the news tonight concerning some shady over time deals. This is a true story. I took a hosteling job in Croton Harmon. They told me if you have to make a dead engine move put in for 4 hours overtime on your pay slip. I didn't move any dead engines in my first week there so I just turned in my normal pay slip. But when I turned it in to the engine house foreman he said, where's your engines numbers for dead engine moves. I said, I didn't move any dead engines this week. Then he said, everyone here, everyday puts in for 4 hours per shift for dead engines move. Now there's 2 hostelers on a shift for 3 shits 7 days a week with not one dead engine move. I told them they were a bunch of crooks and bid back to the Harlem. George
 
George wrote:
"I took a hosteling job in Croton Harmon. They told me if you have to make a dead engine move put in for 4 hours overtime on your pay slip. I didn't move any dead engines in my first week there so I just turned in my normal pay slip. But when I turned it in to the engine house foreman he said, where's your engines numbers for dead engine moves."

I worked as a Harmon hostler for Metro-North in the spring/summer/fall of 1983 -- one of the "forever fireman". I got force assigned to a midnight job, with no way (at the time) to get "promoted out" of it, and since I was #30 out of 30 on the roster, no one could relieve me from the force-assignment.

I gave up and "flowed back" to Conrail in November 83, and that's when my career really got started...
 
About a week ago I was looking for a picture of a rail bridge with powerlines on it to post to an FB question. Knew I'd seen one but even Google couldn't find it
1570186896084.png
 
The person who bought the bridge for a $1.00 from Conrail was collecting a monthly fee from the electric company for supporting the high tension wires across the river. He told them he wanted more money so they went under the river.

George
 
The person who bought the bridge for a $1.00 from Conrail was collecting a monthly fee from the electric company for supporting the high tension wires across the river. He told them he wanted more money so they went under the river.

George
He'll be worried now, that some state or local authority will come along and demand he dismantle it. Doesn't always pay to try to take a bigger bite out of the hand that feeds you.
 
The state owns it now Toot. It's part of a rail trail network. Their adding the tracks just down the road form my house to the network now.
George
 
The state owns it now Toot. It's part of a rail trail network. Their adding the tracks just down the road form my house to the network now.
George
The ex owner would be breathing much easier, I would imagine. The picture wasn't clear as to whether the bridge was still connected to the land. Usually when a bridge is abandoned they do that to prevent anyone climbing onto it.
 



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