FREIGHT SERVICE

The freight service is very profitable, and continues to grow. As a matter of fact, when General Motors located in Rochester, it built its huge plant adjacent to the western end of the subway so it would be served by freight and passenger service. The Erie Railroad is vitally interested in furthering freight service on the underground, and for some time has been seeking the green light to effect a direct connection with the subway from its freight yards south of Court Street via the Carroll-Fitzhugh Mill race bed. The Erie, which does not have a direct connection with the subway, must use the tracks of the neighboring Lehigh Valley, and in spite of this, has been constantly at the top of the list in the number of cars switched on the subway. To show how freight switching has steadily increased, in 1938 the subway handled 5,483 cars with revenues set at $45,358. In 1947, the subway handled 9,447 cars with revenues of $77,848.

Three freight locomotives are used on the system by the RTC. The L-l, a steel 1200 volt job built by GE in 1928 is used with wooden freight motor #0205 in the busy downtown section. L-2, a 35-ton Plymouth gasoline engine, is used at the General Motors end where it switches cars from GM, Concrete Trans-Mix, and other industrial sidings.

Freight motor No. 0205

Freight motor No. L-1

Importance of freight traffic is shown here with array of freight motors and cars at Court Street ramp.

#0343 - RTC's work and tool car.

#L-2 - RTC's gasoline locomotive

FUTURE PLANS

During recent years, due to the subways inability to make ends meet, there have been ideas advanced as to what should be done with it. We electric railway enthusiasts in Rochester, naturally want it expanded and modernized through major extensions and purchases of PCC care. In 1948, Mr. Bruce R. Holcomb, an ERA member, in a series of map-illustrated articles for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, advocated extension from Rowlands to Monroe Avenue in Brighton to take in a growing residential area. He strongly favored extension to Kodak Park, either through construction of a private right-of-way over city owned land, or through electrification of New York Central trackage. Another idea involved electrification of NYC and B&O tracks to the lake Ontario community of Charlotte. Mr. Holcomb suggested further ideas of establishing a line out vest via the center strip of the proposed Chili Expressway, a loop underground through the Rochester downtown shopping district, and finally a line east to Fairport and East Rochester, utilizing the county-owned abandoned Rochester & Syracuse roadbed.

Those against us favor transforming the subway into a motor road to tie in with the thruway plan. Passenger tracks would be removed over the entire length, and that part of the subway bed paved. State officials, who are toying with this idea, made it plain, however, that all freight tracks would remain, as several representatives of the plants situated on the subway were very adamant in stating their views on track removal. General Motors officials stated that the subway was their very life blood, and not only does GM solely depend upon its freight service to ship in raw materials and send out finished products, but also as a medium for getting their employees to and from work speedily and promptly.

It is here that the author believes that the supposedly unorthodox left-handed subway operation might prove a blessing in disguise, for, if such a highway plan were adopted, all the stations and platforms would have to be torn out at terrific expense -- or else the buses would have to operate left-handed -- thereby defeating the very idea of an express highway. Furthermore, all the 20 or more overhead bridges would have to be completely rebuilt to allow vehicular traffic to pass underneath safely.

Among those interested in preserving the subway and increasing its scope are the Rochester Times-Union and Democrat & Chronicle, which are served exclusively by the freight service; the Delco Appliance Corporation and Rochester Products Divisions of General Motors; Eastman Kodak Company; the Chamber of Commerce; and the Junior Chamber. At least all these organizations have had representatives present at one time or another during recent conferences in the subway issue. They are further mindful of the great snowstorm of a few years ago in which all the surface bus lines were completely immobilized. People naturally turned to the subway which operated on schedule, carrying thousands more people and keeping many war plants in operation when they otherwise would have been forced to close down.

At the request of these groups, experts from the Erie Railroad recently examined the Rochester subway from end to end. They made a study of every phase of operation, present assets, future potentialities etc. and came up with three major recommendations:

1. Extension of the subway to Mt. Read Blvd, for freight service
2. Abandonment of passenger service now being provided at a loss
3. Abandonment of freight service east of Meigs Street.

These conclusions, it must be realized, are those of a group of steam railroad men, unskilled in the problems of city transit. A perhaps more constructive plan has been submitted by the ERA, calling for "subway feeder" service on a number of the heaviest motor-bus lines so as to "relieve downtown congestion and increase subway riding."

Perhaps, before long, something will be done to make Rochesters subway system its pride and joy, In the end, the old Erie Canal might indirectly be responsible again for making the flower city a greater community in which to work and live.

 

Rochester Subway Roster PASSENGER EQUIPMENT #44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68 -- steel, arch roof, single ended interurban. Balancing speed of 45 MPH, seating capacity of 56 persons. Built by Cincinnati Car Co. in 1923 for the Rome-Little Falls interurban. These cars are used for regular service. #2006, 2008, 2010 -- wooden, monitor roof, single-ended, center-door cars built by Brill in 1912 as trailers for NYSR Rome-Little Falls interurban. These cars are used as rush-hour trippers and seat 50. #2008 is at present stored at City Hall Station. FREIGHT EQUIPMENT #0205 -- Wooden freight motor, ex, #205 #L-1 -- Steel, 1200 volt locomotive, built by GE in 1928. #L-2 -- 35-ton gasoline locomotive, Plymouth, 1928. Note: When the final surface lines were abandoned in 194l, ten 1907 Kuhlman streetcars were transferred to the subway and stored at City Hall. They are, #614, 6l5, 6l6, 617, 620, 623, 627, 628, 638 & 639. WORK EQUIPMENT 014 -- Single-truck rotary plow, former R&E. 0105 -- Line car, built by Jackson & Sharp, former Rochester & Sodus Bay #105. 0200 -- Single-cab motor Differential flat-car, wing plow attachment. 0214 -- Single-cab flat motor car. 0220 -- Single-cab Differential dump car. 0330 -- Differential dump car trailer. 0331 -- Differential dump car trailer. 0343 -- Work and tool car, ex. R&SB express car. 2002 -- Flatcar trailer, ex. passenger car. 2006 -- Flatcar trailer, ex. passenger car. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HEADWAY (from City Hall station) Daily -- Every 10 minutes from 5:50 to 8:30 AM (with an extra at 7:06). Then every 15 minutes until 9:00 AM and every 20 minutes until 3:20 PM. Headways increase again for the evening rush hour, with a peak reached between 4:47 and 5:16 PM, during which cars run as often as every 4 minutes. Service then tapers off to a half hour schedule after 6:50 PM with the last car leaving City Hall Station at 1:30 AM. Saturdays -- 20 minute and half-hour service. Sundays & Holidays -- Half-hour service.

Other News THE ROCHESTER SCENE Meetings of the Civic Development Council of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce during September and October have featured heated discussion on the feasibility of using the eastern portion of the subway as far as Meigs St. as a highway to connect with the state thruway. The connection will be built in the future, but a choice of two alternate routes must be decided by the City Council. The road can parallel the subway as far as Meigs, or it can drop into the subway bed and result in a "saving" to the city of $300,000. Opinion is very divided in the Civic Development Council, but it is believed that many of the Chamber trustees do not favor abandonment of the subway. State engineers have pointed out that the entire width of the subway would be needed, which means that freight service would have to be abandoned. This would be in direct opposition to commitments made to firms who have expressly located along the subway for the purpose of moving freight. The whole situation was aired by five members of the Civic Development Committee on the radio on October 29. Among those defending the subway and urging its expansion was ERA Staff Correspondent L. E. Klos, who has been very active in subway matters during the past year. Announcement by the Rochester Transit Corp. that it will soon acquire a fleet of diesel buses to augment its present roster was made in October. The new buses will arrive around Christmas, undoubtedly RTCs idea of a Yuletide present. -- Lloyd S. Klos

Publications 200 SELECTED CAR BUILDERS PHOTOS, PUBLICATION "C" (January 1950): Available from Barney Neuburger, 6330 S. Laflin St, Chicago 36, Ill. for $l.25. 16 pages, average of l4 photos to a page. Contains photos of representative cars built from the 1890's to the pre-PCC days. ICC REPORT ON FINANCIAL & OPERATING STATISTICS OP ELECTRIC RAILWAYS OPERATED FOR THE YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1948 (Statement #4937): 22 pages, available from Interstate Commerce Commission, Bereau of Transport Economics & Statistics, Washington, D. C. MAIL BY RAIL: The Story of the Railway Mail, written by Bryant Alden Long, ERA #473, in collaboration with Prof. W. J. Dennis of Parsons College. 400 pages, 15 chapters including one on electrics, and illustrated with steam and trolley photos. Special pre-publication price of $3.50 or less. To reserve a copy and to assure publication, send Name & Address - no money - to: Long, Box 355, Montclair, N. J.