A northbound freight passes over one of the truss bridges in the Adirondacks. Steam power was still in regular service on the O&N in 1948. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF PASTON
The Ogdensburg & Norwood A layout based on a lifetime of railroad influences/Jim Heidt; with photos by Jeff Paston E
very model railroader begins with imagination, and most if not all of us can reach back to a special memory that was the impetus to get us started. Perhaps it was a loco- motive cab ride as a kid. For others, it was watching trains from the upstairs window while visiting with grandma, or spending lazy summer hours at the tower with the crew or whatever. For me, that inspiration was not a single such seminal event or person. Instead, from childhood on, I had railroad sen- sory overload. The New York, Ontario & Western
was the center of my family for genera- tions. Ferndale, New York, is located near Liberty in the southern Catskill Mountains and was named after my grandmother, Ferne Kortright, by my great-grandfather, who was station agent there when she was a little girl. My grandfather, “Lonesome Lewis” Crawford, worked long enough to be- come the most senior fireman on the NYO&W’s Southern Division. My dad and uncles had their own personal sto- ries of the railroad. I listened to all of them attentively. We lived at the foot of Beattie Av- enue, “ground zero” in Middletown,
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
New York, and my bedroom windows overlooked the interchange with the Erie (later Erie Lackawanna) and the shortline Middletown & Unionville. When the NYO&W went bust in 1957, my dad later took a side job cleaning out the company headquarters in Mid- dletown, and working with the scrap- pers. I recall him tossing me in the ol’ Jeep and we would travel the length of New York State, over roadbed and tres- tles, inventorying and photographing all railroad stations and property, col- lecting everything and anything in sight. My folks also owned the Whistle Stop Restaurant, which was trackside along the Erie at East Main Street. It was there I heard even more stories from other old-time NYO&W men. So, from all that, it was only natural that my model railroading world would reflect those influences: a 1950’s era, Class 1 trunk line through the moun- tains of upstate New York, serving as a bridge line moving traffic from region A to region B.
By the mid 1960’s, our family moved north to operate the westernmost 25- miles of the abandoned Rutland Rail- way as the shortline Ogdensburg & Norwood. Lonesome Lewis came out of
retirement yet again to operate our for- mer D&H, Alco/GE S-1 diesel switcher on the average of three trips per week. Those freight-only trips ran from the St. Lawrence River terminal at Og- densburg, New York, almost due east to the Penn Central interchange at Nor- wood and back. The O&N hauled loads of coal, whey, whey products, feed, and other freight.
Everyone wore many hats. Dad was company president, traffic agent, head gandy dancer and anything else that was needed. I often joined him as the track crew. During summer break from school, we’d cut back trees and brush along the right-of-way, maintain and lubricate turnouts, clear out trackside drainage, etc. In the winter on week- ends or school break, I’d go with him to every highway crossing and shovel back the snow. That way, our trip that day by rail with the Russell wing snow- plow would not blast the snow back into the highways, all as a courtesy to the town highway departments along the way. When I wasn’t running the Fairmont or helping with mainte- nance, I served as the brakeman riding in our converted and upgraded, former CP caboose. As a kid immersed into
47
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