Y203 // Lockport, NY - a photo on Flickriver

            Afternoon Niagara Yard local Y203 turns onto the Somerset Branch at PORT, coming off of the CSX Lockport Branch, splitting a pair of deactivated NYC searchlights on their way to switch Van De Mark Chemical.
Following up on yesterday's post at SAN and the subsequent sign discussion, this is one of a few Conrail relics still earning its keep on CSX. The NS Southern Tier line east of Buffalo is chock full of these signs along their route, albeit those are written horizontally in the same style. On CSX and further east on the Falls Road, these signs are few and far between. They all read vertical and have abbreviations for the towns or control points they represent. For example, the town of Medina has a sign reading "DINA," and the east side of Lockport is named "LOCK" near the Erie Canal.
There is a second sign facing the other direction, however it is faded and worn from facing south into sunlight all these years, whereas the one seen here faces north and is far less exposed. Although their time in use has long passed, three NYC searchlight masts still stand around the junction, which is actually a fairly modern addition relatively speaking. The Somerset Branch was constructed in 1983 by NYSEG, utilizing the former Hojack right of way on the northern portion of the line. With coal trains running quite frequently prior to the turn of the century, the need for signals was justified given this was still a through route from Niagara Falls to Rochester. However, once the Falls Road Railroad was established in 1996, having been purchased from Conrail, the Falls Road was severed and torn up from Brockport to Rochester. With GVT taking control over everything east of Lockport, there was no further need for signaling in this area, and instead PORT was downgraded to a handthrow switch. While the normal alignment was straight east and west prior to the FRR, afterwards the normal alignment became lined towards the Somerset Branch. Crews running the interchange local would now have to stop and line the switch for Lockport before proceeding onto the Falls Road. All movements in the modern CSX age on the Lockport Branch are governed by EC-1 forms issued by NG dispatch, as it is dark territory east of CP 69 at the Tuscarora Wye where the branch begins. The number 69 is how many miles it is to Rochester from that point.
Today, the Somerset Branch is a fraction of its original length, only 2.6 miles from PORT to its current terminus underneath Old Niagara Rd at the rock cut. At milepost QDK 2.2 is the switch for the Mill St switchback to serve Van De Mark, which in the NYC days was originally accessed from the east side of town. NYS Governor Cuomo formed an initiative in 2019 to go green by shutting down all coal-fired generating plants around the state, which also included places such as Niagara Mohawk on Dunkirk, Milliken Station in Ithaca, and the Huntley Plant in Kenmore, although I believe they stopped taking traffic well before that point in 2016. Nevertheless that initiative sealed the fate of all these power plants and more. With no further traffic after December 2019, Somerset was idled and shut down after using up the last of their reserves. The branch was filed for abandonment, originally ending right at the Mill St switch, however employees of CSX convinced the filing party to leave a little bit more track past the switch should anything ever go wrong.
As of 2024, the Somerset Branch is lucky if it sees a train twice a week, since Van De Mark's service days are Tu/Th to coincide with what is now L035's runs to Lockport. Generally at least once a week they are served, but with the job being on duty at 6:00 p.m. now, daylight on the branch is virtually non-existent save for the prime summer evening light months. Van De Mark was once one of my most coveted customers to shoot, waiting months for an opportunity to get it back in the first few months of 2021. Both that summer and 2022 I spent a lot of time documenting this stretch of railroad, once a week if not both days they ran. I never saw a train run the full length of the Somerset in daylight, and to this day it is one of my greatest blunders and driving forces behind why I do what I do. CSX did run scrap gons up to the plant for a brief few months following the shutdown in the first half of 2021. Somehow I missed all three chances I could have had to shoot one before it was too late. Given the way things are now, I'm at least glad I shot the south end of the branch so much. As I like to refer to it: the best two miles of railroad New York has to offer.
   

Taken on: July 13, 2021

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Sets appears in: • CSX Lockport Shenanigans

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G7, f/4.0, 1/640 sec, 45mm, ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G7
Lens:	LUMIX G VARIO 45-150/F4.0-5.6
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	45mm
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 9.1.1 (Android)
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