Finger Lakes Railway
| Finger Lakes Railway | |
|---|---|
| Reporting marks | FGLK |
| Locale | New York |
| Dates of operation | 1995 – present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | Geneva, New York |
The Finger Lakes Railway is a working railroad in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The Railway began operation on July 23, 1995.
Several different types of excursions are offered (see the website).
The Railway operates eight diesel locomotives. It has 118 miles of historic tracks, along lines formely operated by The New York Central Railroad, The Pennsylvania Railroad, and The Lehigh Valley Railroad.
Contents
Three Routes
The Geneva Cluster is the name of the three ex-Conrail lines owned and operated by the railway.
Main Line
The main line is 76 miles long, running from Syracuse to Canandaigua, New York. Once part of the New York Central Railroad as the Auburn Road, it dates all the way back to the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad.
At Syracuse, NY the railroad interchanges with CSX Transportation and the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. Travelling west, the line passes through Solvay, Camillus, Skaneateles Junction (also known as Hartlot or Skaneateles Falls), Sennet, Auburn, Aurelius, New York(Station name Relius), Seneca Falls, and Waterloo. At Geneva, New York, there is a connection with Norfolk Southern Railway's Corning Secondary, which Canadian Pacific Railway has trackage rights over.
Continuing west, the line passes through Phelps Junction and Clifton Springs. In Shortsville, the railroad comes to the terminus of the Ontario Central Railroad. Finally, the line arrives at Canandaigua, New York, where work is underway to extend the line north through Victor up the old path of New York Central line to Pittsford. From there, the line will connect the southwest of Rochester at Brighton to interchange with Rochester Southern, CSX, and Falls Road Railroad. Many runnig rights arrangements have been met with Rail America and Pan Am Railroad in Rochester.
Branch Line to Kendaia
There is an ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad branch from Geneva to Kendaia. This Line once saw much action during WWII right on into the Cold War with many Military movements in and out of the Senica Army Depot which closed back in the summer 1998. The now closed Base has a vary large Yard which at current time is used for Car storage by the Finger Lakes Railway. It is hoped that much of the abandoned Depot will attract new industrys to the area.
Branch Line from Penn Yan to Watkins Glen
To get to this line, the railway uses trackage rights over Norfolk Southern's Corning Secondary from Geneva to Himrod Junction, which is in the middle of the branch, Penn Yan being to the north and Watkins Glen being to the south.
Service
The railway handles 16,000 cars of freight each year and growing, including plastic, canned food, grain, lumber and paper products, scrap, chemical substances, finished steel, salt, sand, soda ash, Paper, Pot Ash and fertilizer.
Excursions
Excursion service began in October 2001 with four coaches, two having been purchased second-hand from Via Rail. Today there are still four coaches in service, with a full Baggage Car in storage due to become an open-air observation car.
Locomotive Roster
The railway owns EMD GP9s numbers 1701, 1702, 1703 and 1751, a GP10 #1801 (Still in Mountain Laurel Railroad colors, a GE U23B #2201 Ex Providence & Worchester Railroad, Along with 5 GE B23-7s numbers #2301 (Ex CR 1979), #2302 (Ex CR 2004), #2303 and #2305 (both Ex Norfolk & Western Railroad), B23-7 #1989 still sits in Conrail Blue with its original CR number. All the other units are painted in the FGLK lightning stripe scheme, based on an old New York Central scheme.
Models
There are decals available from Micro-Scale in both N Scale and HO Scale for those who wish to model the Finger Lakes Railway. Locomotives are Flat Black in color.
Atlas is currently selling a HO scale model of a B23-7 locomotive in the Finger Lake Railway "Lighting Stripe" paint scheme. http://www.atlasrr.com/holoco/hob307a.htm
