The Troy Industrial Track
was built as part of the Troy & Green- bush Railroad in 1846 and originally terminated in the center of downtown Troy, a few blocks north of where the tracks end today. By 1851, the four rail- roads converging in the center of town created sufficient congestion to relo- cate the tracks six blocks inland. A new station was operated jointly between what would become the Delaware & Hudson, Boston & Maine, and New York Central. The Troy Union Rail- road, also jointly owned, provided the new connections between the lines. A yard, roundhouse, and freight house were built at the northern end of the old line to downtown, and a new double-track line was constructed, di- verging just north of Madison Street and crossing the Poestenkill on a trian-
gular-shaped stone arch bridge shared by 1st Street. Troy’s Union Station was demol- ished in 1958, but the rails through Troy remained for another six years to permit the Rutland Railroad to connect to points south via the Boston & Maine and New York Central tracks. Follow- ing the demise of the Rutland, the track was lopped back to its current lo- cation, leaving a long diagonal scar through South Troy. Penn Central took over the track in
1968, followed by Conrail in 1976. In 1999, CSX bought half of Conrail and now operates the track from its connec- tion in Rensselaer, New York. Today, three industries are clustered along the last four blocks of the Troy In- dustrial Track, and CSX serves South
Troy three days a week. Since taking over the Delaware & Hudson operations in 1991, Canadian Pacific has provided service one night a week from its Ken- wood Yard across the Hudson River in Albany, N.Y. Small industries and mul- tiple railroads make South Troy a great modern prototype for those without room for a container facility.
The industries
Starting from the south, Interstate Commodities is the first industry you encounter. Running the length of a city block, it includes a long cement store- house, steel silos, and a brick and con- crete grain elevator. Feed products are delivered here and shipped out via truck. CSX maintains a trackmobile to shuffle cars around the facility. K&C Trucking operates out of the freight house built by the New York Central; the building is nearly three- quarters of a city block in length. Tracks still run along both sides of the structure; however, the ones on the “truck side” (east) have been mostly buried to ease truck movements. It’s amazing to see a 100-year-old building carrying out its original design. Across the tracks from K&C is a mountain of salt,
delivered every
spring by rail and shipped to local mu- nicipalities by truck. Half of this two- block space used to be occupied by the New York Central’s roundhouse and
A single 68-foot boxcar sits at the former NYC freight house in Troy, N.Y. Approximate- ly half the building is visible in this photo (right). Another view of the century-old building shows the arched doorways. It houses K&C Trucking, which receives pal- letized loads shipped in insulated boxcars
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NOVEMBER 2012
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