RIVER SUB DVD -- Click For Details
The CSX River Subdivision
Cementon, NY to Alsen, NY 1 (of
2)
Added 4/2008; Last updated 6/2008. Copyright © 2008 Lewis Bogaty
This much we can say. Cementon and Smith's Landing are one and the same. Alsen is north of Cementon. But where one ends and the other begins, we have no idea. The area under discussion extends for the length of the double track between CP 102 and CP 106.
Getting there: From Saugerties, Exit 20 on the NY State Thruway, head east on Ulster Avenue, Routes 212 & 32. Turn right onto Market Street and then left onto Main Street to stay on 212 & 32. In one block, Main Street becomes Route 9W North. Follow Route 9W north through Malden and West Camp to Cementon. From Cementon to Alsen, Route 9W follows the tracks, weaving back and forth from west of the tracks to east of the tracks, passing under the tracks through single-lane tunnels.
CP 102, South End of the Double Track
Above: CP 102 as it looked on April 25, 2008,
seen from Patterson Road.
Above: Q118, led by an increasingly rare engine
still in Conrail paint, heads south through CP102 on June 28, 2008.
The hold-point for
southbounds waiting at CP 102 is at mile 103.2.
Above and Below:
Southbound Q417 is
stopped, awaiting a northbound at CP 102 on November 2, 2007.
The hold point at mile 103.2, where the train is stopped, is just north of this
bridge over Route 9W.
Above & Below: As the northbound arrives, Q417
begins slowly creeping south.
Route 9W, on the left, dips down
here
and passes under the tracks through the southernmost of the two tunnels.
Click to see this train waiting for a northbound earlier at CP
118.
Along the Double Track
In the morning, southbound trains can be viewed from Route 9W near Washington Street, just north of the southern tunnel under the tracks.
Above: Q254 heads south through Cementon on
March 30, 2008.
On the east side of the road and tracks are several cement plants. Marquette and St. Lawrence are the names historically associated with the cement plants in Alsen, but at this date Holcim is the only company whose name is displayed. We simply do not know more than that. A spur at mile 104 near the Smith's Landing sign on Route 9W goes down the hill to the Lehigh cement plant in Cementon. C711 services this plant. The Alsen yard sidings run from MP 104.6 to 105.4. Coal and coke are delivered to the cement plant there, the coal by unit coal train V828. Unit empty coal trains E468 to Russell, Kentucky, or E827 to Newell, Pennsylvania, take away empty coal hoppers. The "Marquette" crossing is at MP 105.7, and may not be blocked for more than 15 minutes.
Smith's Landing Siding:
Lehigh
Above: Viewed from the south, local train C711 crosses Route 9W as it
pulls hoppers off the cement plant siding. August 18, 2004.
Below: C711 viewed from the north on June 30, 2008.
Three Below: Once off the siding, C711 clears the switch and reconnects
to the rear of the train on
the main track. June 30, 2008.
