Welcome to the
"New
York Central Railroad, Signal
Bridges of Western New York" page.
This is the webpage for a documentary
photography and
history project; the purpose of which was to
document all of the
historic New York Central signal bridges across
part of Western NY,
Lyons to Batavia, in the year
2012.
It was announced in February of 2012 on the New
York
forum at railroad.net that CSX
would be upgrading
signals all across the Rochester subdivision,
(and elsewhere all over
the railroad), and as a result, all of the
classic New York Central
signal bridges would be
replaced, and removed! This was the curtain-call
for these signal
bridges, first installed by the New York Central
around 1919, and
which served nearly a Century! and they served
four different
railroads
during that time. (NYC, PC, CR and CSX)
Some History:
This is what is known so far. I hope to expand
this section as more
details come to light.
The signal bridges, and the signals on them,
were made by the General
Railway Signal Company (GRS) of Rochester, NY,
in the early 20th
Century. The
earliest known (so far) reference to this style
of signal bridge is
1908, and the earliest known reference to them
existing in Western NY
is 1919.
The 1908 reference is from a GRS advertisement
that appeared in two
publications in 1908, that shows a photo of one
of the signal bridges
installed on the New York Central in its
electrified territory in the
lower
Hudson Valley:
And a
slightly
different variation, also from 1908:
If the links don't work, you can find them by
googling:
young system automatic signaling for
electric
roads
The signal bridge in that photo is similar, but
not identical to the
signal bridges that were later placed across the
Central's mainline
across upstate NY. The main horizontal span
appears to be slightly
shorter in height.
We know the signal bridges in the Rochester NY
area (and presumably in
most of the upstate region along the mainline
from Albany to Buffalo)
were first installed in 1919, thanks to a
Rochester NY newspaper
article from 1919 titled "New system
of signals on NYC". These
are the signal bridges that
are the subject of this page. The article
speaks of a new and modern signaling system
being installed
by the New York Central, the signals and signal
bridges being
constructed by the General Railway Signal
Company of Rochester, NY.
I havent yet found a copy of the original
newspaper article itself, (I
plan to go to the Rochester library and see if I
can find it.) But we
know of the article's existance from two
photographs archived in the
"Rochester Images" website, hosted by the
Rochester public library.
Here are the two photos:
Rochester, NY. 1919. Photo by Albert R.
Stone.
The photo
above is
Rochester in 1919! Near Winton road, looking
West. The large coaling
tower is at the engine terminal on the east
end of the Goodman street
yard.
Click for image:
http://photo.libraryweb.org/rochimag/rmsc/scm04/scm04781.jpg
Title:
New
system
of
signals
on
New
York
Central
Photographer/Artist:
Stone, Albert R., 1866-1934.
Date:
1919?
Physical
Details:
1 photograph: b&w; 5
x 7 in.
Collection:
Albert
R.
Stone
Negative
Collection,
Rochester
Museum
&
Science
Center
Summary:
Part
of
Signal
Station
25
is
this
new
metal
"signal
bridge"
that
spans
several
sets
of
railroad
tracks.
The
signal
poles
themselves
sit atop
the bridge. Each pole bears three arms that
can be set at different
angles, to give instructions to the
trainmen. Station 25 is just east
of Culver Road. The device is made by the
General Railway Signal
Company.
Notes:
Stone
Photographic
series,
"New
system
of
signals
on
NYC".
Printed in
Rochester
Herald, March 19, 1919.
Rochester, NY. 1919. Photo by Albert R.
Stone.
Title:
New
system
of
signals
on
New
York
Central
Photographer/Artist:
Stone,
Albert R., 1866-1934.
Date:
1919?
Physical Details:
1 photograph: b&w; 5 x 7 in.
Collection:
Albert
R.
Stone
Negative
Collection,
Rochester
Museum
&
Science
Center
Summary:
The
unidentified
man
in
the
control
room
of
Signal
Station
25,
near
the
railroad
passenger
station,
controls
all
the
switches
for
a
section of
New York Central railroad tracks by means of
the row of "diaphragm
switches" on the machine in front of him. The
equipment for the
station, just east of Culver Road, is made by
the General Railway
Signal Company.
Notes:
Not
the
same
man
as
in
Stone
Photograph
negative
#7960 (RMSC), showing the same room and
the same equipment on the
same date.
Stone Photographic series, "New system of
signals on NYC".
Printed in Rochester Herald, March 19, 1919.
It is not yet known if signals were also
installed all across the
division at this time, or only in Rochester to
begin with..but it is
likely many hundreds of signal bridges of this
style were installed
between Buffalo and Albany around this time.
(and perhaps outside of
that
range as well..I dont yet know the full extent
of this specific style
of signal bridge across the system, if anyone
has any data on that, it
would be appreciated!)
It is known that originally there was one signal
bridge every mile!
That means nearly 300 individual signal bridges
between Albany and
Buffalo alone! At that time, the signal bridges
contained semaphore
signals. Later, as seen in the two photos just
below, the signals were
a mix of semaphores and newer target signals.
Then, in the mid to late
1950's the New York
Central adopted Centralized Traffic Control
(CTC) which resulted in 50%
of the signal bridges being removed (every
second bridge was removed,
and then there was one bridge every two miles,
the configuration that
lasted up to the removal of the bridges in
2012-2016.)
and the removal of the semaphore signals is also
believed to have
happened at that time, and the adoption of the
"target" signals. This was the system in place
up to 2012, one signal
bridge approxamately every two miles, and target
signals rather than
semaphore signals.
In many places over the years, individual signal
bridges have
been removed and replaced for various reasons,
usually due to damage or
disrepair. Some were taken out by derailments!
In those locations,
rather than a new signal bridge being
constructed, line-side poles were
usually constructed for the replacement signals.
This arrangement will
be seen
in a few locations in the photos below.
These signal bridges have seen it all..just
imagine everything that has
passed underneath them! Locomotive 999, Hudsons,
Mohawks, Niagaras!
F-units, Alco PA's, modern New York Central
GP40's, Penn Central,
Conrail! and, since 1999, CSX. Basically the
entire railroad history of
the past 100 years, and nearly every locomotive
imaginable, has been
observed by these signal bridges! how lucky they
have been. But sadly,
like all equipment and infrastructure of the
railroads, they too have a
finite lifespan, and while this lifespan has
been longer than most, the
end of their careers has come at last..
Some
more
historic photos:
Golden
Road,
Chili NY. (West of Rochester) Looking West
down the New
York Central mainline.
Date and photographer unknown.
Golden Road,
Chili NY.
(West of Rochester)
Looking West down the
New York Central mainline.
Date and photographer unknown, but since
there are 4-tracks, and F-units, the date must
be the late 1940's or
early 1950's.
This is all I know, so far, about the history of
these signal bridges,
and the signals they held. I hope to fill
out this section with
more
detail as new information comes to light. If you
have anything you
would like to add, please let me know! (email
link at the bottom of the
page) And I am also looking for more historic
photos of any of the
signal
bridges! (especially between Lyons and Buffalo)
but other regions are
welcome as well..if you have any you would like
to share, please let me
know! you will get full credit for your photo,
and information, of
course..thanks!
So I decided in February of 2012 that I would
make it
a personal goal
to visit and photograph every signal bridge
between Lyons, on the
Eastern end, through the entire Rochester region
(where I live) and out
to Batavia on the western end. (I chose those
two points simply because
I had to start, and end, somewhere! ;) and those
are all in my "home
territory", since I live in Rochester.) Lyons is
MP (mile post) 334,
and
Batavia is 404. Those are the historic distances
from Grand Central
Station in New York City, and the same MP's
still in use by CSX today.
Lyons to Batavia covers 70 miles, and 43
individual locations with
signals.
And! I was laid off from Kodak in March 2012!
which wasnt fun for
other aspects of my life, but ironically it gave
me tons of free time
for
this project! I live about a mile from the
signal bridge that stood at
MP 378,
Westside drive in North Chili, NY (west side of
Rochester) I passed by
it
all the time! it was my favorite, so that was
the first one I
photographed..but for the purposes of this
webpage, im going to record
the signal bridges in geographical order, from
east to west, not
necessarily in the
order the photos were taken.
There has been an ongoing discussion thread on
railroad.net, about the
removal of the signal bridges: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=92367
The thread began in February 2012, and is still
being updated as I
write this in 2016. CSX has been removing and
replacing the signal
bridges from east to west.
For the 70-mile region discussed by this
webpage, Lyons (334) to
Batavia (404), here are some dates: (dates are
from the link above)
2012: new signals were moved into place
and installed in the
eastern end of the region, but the old signals
and signal bridges were
still working. (New signals east of
Lyons did become
operational in 2012.)
2013, July 7 - The first new "Vader" signals
became active, 335 (Lyons)
to 349 (near Palmyra)
2013, July 9 - Signal bridges began
coming down
in that region.
2013, Second half of the year: New signals
are
installed on the West side of Rochester.
2014, March 2 - New signals go live from 349
(near
Palmyra) to 362 (East Rochester), signal bridges
are removed quickly in
the following days.
2014, June 29 - New signals go live from 365
(Penfield) to 374 (Gates)
(Signal
bridges were torn down very quickly after the new
signals went
live, within days in most cases.)
2014, November 3 - New signals go
live
from 373 (Gates) to 382 (Chili Junction)
2015, August 9 - New signals go
live from
384 (Churchville) to 393 (East of Batavia)
Here is the region being discussed on this
page, Lyons
NY to
Batavia NY, along the former New York Central
Mainline. (The signal
bridges were along the main through downtown
Rochester, but not on the
Westshore.) Today the distance between Lyons and
Batavia is part of the
CSX Rochester subdivision and the Buffalo Terminal
subdivision. The
division point is CP 382, Chili Junction.
And here is
the
region (the blue rectangle) on a New
York Central system map:
The majority of the
signal bridges were "4-track" bridges, wide enough
to fit four tracks
underneath. This is from the time when the New
York Central mainline
was a 4-track route from New York City to Buffalo!
The four tracks were
in place when these signal bridges were built in
the early 20th
Century. In the mid to late 1950's the NYC
converted to CTC, which
allowed the 4-tracks to be downgraded to a 2-track
mainline, which is
still in place today. The signal bridges however
soldiered on for
another half a century after the conversion to
2-tracks, still showing
the ghost of the former 4-track mainline
underneath them. The tracks
that were lifted became an access road for the
railroad alongside the
main. Across upstate and western NY, from Albany
to Buffalo, the
2-track mainline was under the south half of the
signal bridges, and
the two tracks that were removed and became the
access road were to the
north. View looking West:
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