Finger Lakes Railway - (en)
The Finger Lakes Railway is a working railroad in the Finger Lakes region
of New York. The Railway began operation on July 23, 1995.
The Railway operates eight diesel locomotives. It has 118 miles of
historic tracks, along lines formely operated by The New York Central
Railroad, The Pennsylvania Railroad, and The Lehigh Valley Railroad.
Three Routes
The Geneva Cluster is the name of the three ex-Conrail lines owned and
operated by the railway.
Main Line
The main line is 76 miles long, running from Syracuse to Canandaigua, New
York. Once part of the New York Central Railroad as the Auburn Road, it
dates all the way back to the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad.
At Syracuse, NY the railroad interchanges with CSX Transportation and the
New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. Travelling west, the line
passes through Solvay, Camillus, Skaneateles Junction (also known as
Hartlot or Skaneateles Falls), Sennett, Auburn, Aurelius, New York(Station
name Relius), Cayuga. Seneca Falls, and Waterloo. At Geneva, New York,
there is a connection with Norfolk Southern Railways Corning Secondary,
which Canadian Pacific Railway has trackage rights over.
Continuing west, the line passes through Phelps Junction and Clifton
Springs. In Shortsville, the railroad comes to the terminus of the Ontario
Central Railway. Finally, the line arrives at Canandaigua, New York.
Branch Line to Kendaia
There is an ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad branch from Geneva to Kendaia. This
Line once saw much action during WWII right on into the Cold War with many
Military movements in and out of the Seneca Army Depot which closed back
in the summer 1998. The now closed Base has a vary large Yard which at
current time is used for Car storage by the Finger Lakes Railway. It is
hoped that much of the abandoned Depot will attract new industrys to the
area.
Branch Line from Penn Yan to
Watkins Glen
The Penn Yan branch was once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad only a
small section of this line extends from Watkins Glenn to Balona, New York
To get to this line, the Finger Lakes railway uses trackage rights over
Norfolk Southerns Corning Secondary from Geneva to Himrod Junction, which
is in the middle of the branch, Penn Yan being to the north and Watkins
Glen being to the south.
Service
The railway handles 16,000 cars of freight each year and growing,
including plastic, canned food, grain, lumber and paper products, scrap
Steel, chemical substances, finished steel, salt, sand, soda ash, Paper,
Potash, fertilizer, beer, phosphorus fertilizer, telephone poles, and
Aluminum ingots.
