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TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE Salty Sunday Chase BY OTTO M. VONDRAK/PHOTOS AS NOTED I


T SEEMS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT the local freight traffic on a Sunday. The weekends just seem slower, even when you sit by


normally busy mainlines. Yet in some corners of the world, the weekend can be busier than any other time, especially for a key short line operation like Genesee & Wyoming’s Roch- ester & Southern. The primary commodity hauled by R&S is salt, procured from the Hampton Corners mine operated by Amer- ican Rock Salt. Located near the village of Mount Morris, N.Y., the mine opened in 1997 and is the largest rock salt operation in the United States, producing more than 18,000 tons a day. This lucrative traffic was inherited from the original Genesee & Wyoming Railway, incorporated in 1891 to haul salt from the


mines near Retsof, N.Y., to interchange with several area railroads just a few miles away. This steady stream of traffic put the G&W in a good position for growth once the larger railroads began shedding unprofitable branch lines in the wake of deregulation. The G&W’s first step towards expansion was made in 1986 with the formation of the Rochester & Southern, operating over the former Baltimore & Ohio (CSX) tracks from Rochester to Salamanca, N.Y. The R&S con- nected to the original G&W at Caledonia, N.Y. Operations continued as they had for the previous 100 years until portions of the salt mine began to flood in 1994. Thanks to an aggressive program of expansion and ac- quisition spreading G&W operation across the country, the railroad was able to survive


until loadouts from the new mine resumed in 1997. The original G&W was merged into the R&S in 2003, but this was a mere formality as the lines had been blurred together years ago. As winter descends on the Northeast, regu- lar shipments of 100-car blocks of salt become daily events. My friends Elliot Courtney and David Scheiderich were planning a snow-bound chase of local R&S operations on a recent lazy Sunday. We got word that train BL1 would operate from Brooks Avenue Yard near Rochester down to switch local customers in Caledonia and LeRoy. This was enticing, as we had already caught the regular salt train a number of times, but the local freights re- mained elusive. The on-duty time was re- ported to be 7:00 a.m., though we estimated


OPPOSITE: Rochester & Southern’s train GW1 threads its way through the old yard at Retsof, N.Y., with more than 100 empty hoppers on the pin destined for the American Rock Salt mine near Mount Morris, N.Y. The matched set of all-orange power was a rare treat on a cold and snowy Febru- ary 1, 2015. DAVID SCHEIDERICH PHOTO ABOVE: Train BL1, the Rochester & Southern local freight destined for LeRoy, N.Y., speeds through the curve at Wheatland Center Road near Caledonia, N.Y. ELLIOT COURTNEY PHOTO


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