on the south side and offer many side roads to the north to catch the train be- tween Geneva, Waterloo, and Seneca Falls. When you travel east on this route, keep in mind the road train may have to stop on the east side of Seneca Falls to switch the recycling plant. Regardless of this potential stop,
you’ll want to be careful as the train has a shorter distance to travel to Cayuga than you’ll encounter on the main road. A jump ahead is in order if you intend to photograph the east- bound at the causeway on the north side of Cayuga Lake or by the train sta- tion in Cayuga. These views are acces- sible by traveling Routes 5 & 20 over the top of Cayuga Lake and then taking a right hand turn south on Route 90 (not to be confused with I-90, the New York State Thruway) into Cayuga. You will return to holding the advantage once the train passes Cayuga as the tracks continue south and then hook back northeast. One can use either County Route 1 or 8 to get back to Routes 5 & 20 into Aurelius. The line will cross underneath and
then parallel the highway on the north side before entering Auburn. Again, de- spite looking at the twists and turns on a map of the tracks versus the roads in Auburn, fear not as the train speed through Auburn is ten m.p.h. and the road train will make a set-off and/or pick-up each trip at either Auburn or Sennett, or sometimes both. Using Route 38 with cross roads to
Route 34 and then Mutton Hill Road in- to Sennett to get to Route 5 is one op- tion, or just get to Route 34 in Auburn and use a similar maneuver to get back to Route 5 at Sennett. Once leaving Sennett on Route 5, you will cross the tracks and then can make the decision based on the time of year and weather as you can use Route 5 to County Route 271 (Hamilton Road) to drop down to Skaneatales Junction as a safe bet, or during nicer weather turn right on De- pot Street to a left on Baker Street with a quick right onto Taylor Road which will put you on Jordan Road into Skaneatales (pronounced “skinny- atlas”) Junction from the south side. I wouldn’t recommend the latter route during the winter. The Skaneatales Short Line Railroad connected to the Auburn Branch at Skaneatales Junction until the line closed in 1981 (see “It Happened at Hart Lot” in the July 2013 RAILFAN & RAILROAD). The old joint passenger sta- tion is now home to the Central New York Model Railroad Club. Leaving the junction, take Jordan Road (County Route 122) east and stay straight on Gorham Road. When you get to the T-intersection, turn right onto Route 217 and then a quick left on Mead Road to the next T-intersection. Turn right and then left on Route 321. Just after
34 JULY-OCTOBER 2014 •
RAILFAN.COM
ABOVE: Train GC-2 has a former Conrail B23-7 in the lead as it crosses Main Street (Route 21) and passes through downtown Canandaigua. The crew is on their way out to switch Pactiv, a producer of food grade plastic containers, on the north west side of town. JEFFREY FAHERTY
you go over the tracks, turn right onto Forward Road and you’ll drop down in elevation with a few twists and turns to another T-intersection. Turn right on Route 174, go under the tracks and turn left onto County Route 225 (Lyons Road). Take the immediate left turn on Martisco Road which will bring you down to Martisco Station. Do not wait for the train at the Route 321 overpass if you want to see the train at the sta- tion. Martisco is home to the Central New York Chapter NRHS, and their collection of historic railway equip- ment. The restored station houses a museum that is open Sunday after- noons May through October. Going east on County Route 225 brings you to Camillus. Make a left on- to Munro Road which will bring you to the tracks. Go left underneath the un- derpass and then right onto Milton Av- enue. Milton Avenue follows the tracks into Fairmount. Merge onto Route 173, then turn left
to continue on Milton Avenue into Solvay. Once in Solvay, you’ll see the tracks separate at Bridge Street. Stay on Milton Avenue to Erie Boulevard then turn left onto Willis Avenue. You’ll see a dirt parking lot on the left before crossing over the tracks. While GS-2 yards their train, you might just catch an Amtrak, CSX, or even an NYS&W move from this location.
Auburn and Solvay
As the FGLK operates locals in both Auburn and Solvay, those locations play a significant role in the success of the railroad. Auburn has its own dedi- cated local to handle work for key cus- tomers: CaroVail on the Auburn Indus- trial, Nucor Steel near Routes 34 and
38, and Owens-Illinois in Sennett. The Auburn local handles this work in addi- tion to blocking NS and CSX outbounds for the road train. If you want to ob- serve customer switching, there is a public view of CaroVail’s siding from Columbus Street south of the arterial. In between Route 38 and Route 34 is Frank Smith Street which dead ends at the west end of the Auburn Yard where the lead to Nucor Steel can be observed. The work up in Sennett at Owens-Illi- nois requires a great deal of hiking to avoid trespassing. The Solvay work is concentrated on switching the RockTenn facility and their subsidiary facility in Fairmount, Southern Container. Between assem- bling the CSX interchange cars, deliv- ering the NYS&W interchange, and daily service of RockTenn, this a busy train. However, this is not a day-long switcher to follow around. There is ex- tremely limited access to where this lo- cal can be seen from public areas. When it operates west to Fairmount, there is a variety of locations to see the local but often it is just a light power move to Southern Container where the cars are already located. Ultimately, the Willis Avenue overpass and Bridge Street crossing are the two primary locations to document this local.
Contract Services
Finger Lakes Railway recently picked up a contract to switch the Sunoco Ethanol and Linde locations in Fulton, located off a former NYC branch north of Syracuse. As of the time of this writ- ing, B23-7 No. 2304 and GP9 No. 1701 have been assigned to the Fulton serv- ice. This operation is isolated but there is limited visibility from the crossing on
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