Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Railroad Bridge Over Stony Brook Glen

One of the most impressive engineering feats of the the Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern Railroad in New York was its bridge over Stony Brook Glen near Dansville, NY.  This iron bridge was built in 1883 and was 750 feet long and 236 feet high.

The undated postcard shows the original bridge in the background
and a newer bridge (built in 1907) in the foreground

Photograph was taken around 1900 by W.H. Jackson
and was used by the Detroit Publishing Company

Postcard view showing the bridge in the wintertime

Postcard view, old bridge removed.

A New Railroad

An Important Enterprise

A very important new railroad enterprise has just been assured for Allegany county. It is no less than the extension of the Olean & Friendship narrow gauge to Belvidere, Angelica, Swains, Nunda and Mt. Morris - or near the latter point - where it will form an important connection with the extension of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.

The importance of this will be understood when we state that the connection at (or near) Mt. Morris on the one hand, and at Olean, with the B., N.Y. & P., on the other hand, introduce to this county and section a distinctly rival line of railroad to the Erie.

The right of way is being bought and paid for from Friendship to Belvidere. The work of grading is going rapidly forward, and it is expected that much of the line - at least that from Friendship to Angelica - will be completed and in running order before Jan. 1st. It is owned by the great syndicate, represented by Chapman, Clark, Post & Martin, Seligman and others, and evidently means business in earnest.

References

• Wellsville Daily Reporter. November 1, 1881.  Provided by Richard Palmer.

The Origin of The Word "Hojack"

Watertown Daily Times, Sept. 2, 1903

The name "Hojack" was the name given in derision at one time to the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Division of the New York Central.  It was applied in the yards at Suspension Bridge. When the Oswego train over the R.W. & O. road was about to leave each day one of the employees would stand on the platform and call out to the man in the roundhouse whose name was Jack Donohue, "hojack," and the Oswego crew made its appearance simultaneously and the road was thus christened, "Hojack."

And it was a sure enough hojack road in those days, too. The power was light and the cars small. One of the old type of engines if seen today would make a railroad man feel like putting it in a shawl strap and carrying it off. There have been many improvements since the line was first known ad the Hojack, but thee are many more necessary, including a better roadbed and two tracks the entire length  of the pike. 

New Passenger Station of the Lehigh Valley at Rochester, N. Y.

The Railroad Gazette, August 25. 1905

 The Lehigh Valley is building a new passenger station at Rochester, N. Y. The station and approach is an elevated structure built over the 'Genesee river and the raceway, adjoining the Erie canal, on the south side of Court street bridge. The entrance to the station will be froln Court street bridge. It will be a onestory brick building; 51 ft. x 61 ft. outside, with a clerestory over the general waiting-room, with windows on all sides and a vestibule and porte cochere entrance leading from the sidewalk of the Court street bridge. The building will be carried on steel girders resting on masonry piers.

The interior is divided into a general waiting room 29 ft. x 48 ft.; ticket and telegraph office, 16 ft. 6 in. x 9 ft. 6:lh in.; baggage room, 16 ft. 6 in. x 25 ft. 2 in.; men's toilet room, 11 ft. 10 in. x 16 ft.; women's toilet room, 11 ft. 10 in. x 12 ft.; women1s rest
room, 11 ft. 10 in. x 19 ft. 8 .in.; vestibule, 1~ ft.10in.x9ft. 6in., and ne\vstand, 6 ft. x 9 ft. The boiler room is in the basement and the coal bins are hung from girders under the 'building. The clear height of the general waiting room is 21 ft. 4 in. and of all other rooms about 11 ft.

 All platforms around the station will be of concrete and covered, except the extension of the Court street bridge concrete sidewalks in front of the building. The platform along the east side of the building will be 16 ft. wide, and on the south side or rear of building 18 ft. 6 in. wide. There will be a neat pipe railing around all platforms.

 The viaduct track approach and train shed will be carried on a steel bridge construction resting on stone walls and piers 'built along the river and in the raceway. The train shed platform will be of wood, 365 ft. long, with a wooden umbrella canopy roof 305 ft. long. The canopy will be 13 ft. wide. The viaduct approach will be 566 ft. long. There will be a driveway or court-ya.rd about 60 ft. x 70 ft., leading in from Court street bridge. The drIveway will have asphalt finish on a concrete bed supported by steel girders resting on masonry piers.

 The express building will be a one-story brick building, 28 ft. x 50 ft., with a concrete platform 11 ft. wide in front of it. The exterior of the passenger station will be built of dark mottled buff pressed brick, with a battered base of rock faced dark red vitrified paving blocks, with blue stone water table and sill course. Keystones of arches, lintels and sills will be dressed blue stone. The tower finials and trim will be terra cotta. The roof of the main building will be slate, with copper flashing, and the exterior finish of the express building will be similar to that of the main building.

 The interior finish of the passenger station will be plastered walls with quarter-sawed oak wainscoting and trim. The ceiling of the general waiting-room will be a bealned ceiling with ornamental composition consoles. Floors will generally be maple except in the vestibule and toilet rooms, where there will be a concrete marble chip terrazzo floor. The interior of the building will be well lighted by windows at each end of the general waiting room and upper lights in the clerestory. The lighting at night will be by electric fixtures. The building will be heated by steam from a boiler in the basement under the east side of the main building.

Mr. F. D. Hyde, 7 East 42d street, New York City, designed the station, has the contract for its construction, and also the approach. It is expected that the new station will be placed in use by next December.

The Passing of the R.W.& O. Division

Watertown Daily Times, Sept. 4, 1908

      In another month the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg division of the New York Central will no longer officially be known as such. The main line, running from Suspension Bridge on the west, along the shore of Lake Ontario to Massena Springs on the north, with its numerous branches,  will then be known as the Ontario division and the St. Lawrence division: the point of bisection being at the west end of the Watertown yards.

    It will, however, be many a day before the public will forget the road as the "R., W. & O."  That is an euphonious name and, while it does not fittingly locate the line, there being other and larger cities touched by it than those enumerated in its corporate title, people will be prone to hang on to it.

     In the old days,  when railroads were sometimes given nom-de-plumes, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad was referred to throughout its serpentine length as "Rotten Wood and Old Rusty Rails." That was in a time when the appellation was most fitting. The past decade or two, however, has seen much improvement in conditions on the line, and the rather unpleasant (to officials) reference has not been heard in that time to any extent. 

     Then, too, there is the "Hojack," a name given to the line by some one, no one knows who. Where the name originated no one knows either. Even the "stovepipe committee" says it has no knowledge of its origin and what the "stovepipe committee" does not know is hardly worth while. One old railroader, however, says "Hojack" is a western word and means "two streaks of rust and the right of way."  Be this as it may, one thing is certain, the officials of the R., W. & O. hate the word "Hojack," and wax warm and sore whenever they hear it used.

    It would seem that in the selection of names for the new divisions, the selector has exercised pretty fair judgment. At least no better name for that portion of the road from the Bridge to Watertown could be chosen. "Ontario" division at once suggests the lake and it is along the lake's south shore that the road runs.

     So, too, in the other name, St. Lawrence, a fitting title was selected. the portion of the line to carry that name is the road that leads to the big river  and its Thousand  Islands and, too, much of it within the county of St. Lawrence.

     But, as we said in the first place, the people will be a long  time forgetting to call the line the "R., W. & O."

The Work of Villains

Rome Sentinel Nov. 14, 1876

Thursday evening ties were stuck up endwise through a culvert about three miles out of town, on the R.W.& O.R.R., and ties were piled on the track, together with a stone weighing about 1,000 pounds. The locomotive drawing the 8:15 passenger train, south, struck the pile, scattering it and breaking the ties in the culvert. The pilot and head-light of the locomotive were shattered. The following note was found in a stick by the side of the track at the culvert: “R.W.& O.R.R. This will be a lesson to you to pay your employees of the road more wages 90 cents per day and $1.00 is’t enouf we will have reasonable pay for our labor or we will run every train from the track take our advise. – Mrsrss.” 

Saturday night an attempt, exactly similar, was made to wreck a passenger train on the Black River road at Deer River. A note of the same import as the above, directed to the Black River Railroad authorities, was found by the side of the culvert in which the obstructions were placed at Deer River. It is thought both attempts were made by tramps, probably by the same persons, for purposes of plunder.  On the Richfield Springs branch of the D.L.& W.R.R., an attempt was made to wreck a passenger train only a few evenings since, by placing a huge rock on the track. The engineer discovered the obstruction in time to avoid a collision with it.

Railroad Ends Era in Chapin

The State Public Service Commission has approved a New York Central petition to discontinue all services at the Chapin station, two miles north of Canndaigua. The PSC order is effective immediately.
Principal change which he order will create at Chapin will allow the railroad to remove the double track section which extends for about a quarter mile near the former station.
"Chapin is now a non-agency station in Ontario County," the PSC report says, "which handles carload freight only, under the jurisdiction of the railroad's agent in Geneva. There is no local carloading business here, but a team track is maintained for the handling of carload freight.
"The petition alleges that there have been no carload shipments, neither inbound or outbound at Chapin from Jan. 1, 1958 to Sept., 1961. The railroad claims that team track facilities are available at Canandaigua, approximately three miles west of Chapin station. It is stated that in the interest of economy the railroad desires to discontinue all facilities and remove the team track here.
"Based upon the absence of carload freight business during the period exceeding 3 1/2 years, it is evident that public convenience and necessity no longer require the team track facilities at the Chapin station. The railroad's proposal would accomplish a saving in operating expenses without undue inconvenience to the shipping public. It is accordingly recommended that the railroad be authorized to discontinue all services and facilities at the Chapin station and to mend its tariffs accordingly."
The PSC order closes out 110 years of railroad activity in the Chapin hamlet area. The railroad was allowed o remove the railroad station four years ago, shortly after passenger service was discontinued on the Auburn division. The original depot was built in 1851 about a quarter mile east of the last station. Mature residents of the area can recall when Chapin was a regular stop for ten trains east and west each day and a flag stop for another half dozen.