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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 1 of 6 |
| Description: |
Date approximate. The docks are closed, but still intact. The only activity is some cleanup in the lower yard, a leftover from the ferry days. Note the B&O gon (viewed just to the right of the return track) below in the flats. |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:43:00 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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69 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 2 of 6 |
| Description: |
An excerpt from a Rochester Library map found here: http://photo.libraryweb.org/rochimag/rpm/rpm00/rpm00582.jpg Genesee Feldspar Company and its three tracks had been gone for many years by 1971. If you didn't know there was once a diamond in the dock lead, you never would have known it. All the other tracks indicated in this map were there up to the end, including the tail track shown to the left of the Feldspar trackage. |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:43:30 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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76 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 3 of 6 |
| Description: |
Date approximate. B&O crane X176 working down below, on scrap duty. I don't have an official number, but was told the elevation of the upper portion (where I'm standing) down to water level was about 85 feet. |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:44:01 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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137 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 4 of 6 |
| Description: |
Date approximate. This is the tail track viewed looking to the north. The switch in the foreground on the right (behind the phone pole) was for the pair of tracks on the dock itself. The switch in the background, dead center on the tail track, allowed cars to be pulled from the yard (behind me to the left) and shoved out onto either of the dock leads. Locomotives were not permitted on the dock structure itself (posted sign: "no locomotives past this point" or similar wording - sorry, no photo), so each cut of cars was placed on a previous cut and shoved out until the leads were "full". Gravity takes it from there. Typical operation involved pulling a cut of loads from the yard (maybe 7-8 cars) past the switch, stopping to tie down the hand brake and open the knuckle on the lead car, then flipping the switch and shoving out onto either of the dock leads. If it looks like the tail track rises slightly going away from the camera (which would make sense), it probably does. I don't remember. If anything, it was at least level. The areas on either side descend toward the turning basin and the river, so the tail track was built on an embankment. It's still there today, should you want to go for a hike. You'll find some rotting ties and maybe a leftover spike or two. With regard to the Feldspar leads, the diamond had to have been between the two switches, but there's no evidence of it in this photo. It had to have been long gone before I got there. |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:44:35 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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72 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 5 of 6 |
| Description: |
No, it's not 1971 anymore. This is today's [approximate] view of the tail track in photo 4 of 6. Obviously, a lot of dirt has been pushed around since 1971. The path behind the swinging gates descends to the turning basin and the river. The remnants of the tail track are to the left of the path. It's hard to tell with everything leafed out, but in the dead of winter, you should be able to see the tail track appear to rise on your left as you walk down the path. |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:45:18 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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64 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
B&O Charlotte Docks - 6 of 6 |
| Description: |
A lot of stuff in this view: At left is the current CSX (old NYC) Charlotte branch. The large facilty is the current International Paper (former Weyerhaeuser) plant, aka Rochester Folding Box, the last northern-most customer as of today (October 2020) on the Charlotte branch. [The track is OOS just to the north, slighly outside this view] The road at the bottom is Boxart Street, which now terminates at the Turning Point Park parking lots, which appear as a pair of blacktopped rectangles. The visible paved pathway (running north-south) leads from the parking lots down to the river. Just to the left (running roughly 6 o'clock to 11 o'clock) are the remnants of the tail track. If you go for a hike, you'll find it. Somewhere in the woods between the current CSX and the tail track was the location of the Roberts Dock, a predecessor of the Yates Dock, itself a predecessor of the Charlotte Dock. Years of operation for the Roberts and Yates docks are unknown to me. I assume operation of the Yates and Charlotte docks overlapped until the Charlotte docks became fully functional, obviating the need for the Yates dock. [The Yates dock location is to the north, out of view] There are paths (some paved!) in the Roberts dock area , but nothing to indicate the presence of a facility, in this case, gone for more than a century. Just for good measure, off to the far right and across the river, the roadbed of the former NYC State Street branch is visible in the trees, in the West Irondequoit neighborhood known as "The Flats". |
| Photo Date: |
11/6/1971 Upload Date: 10/13/2020 8:46:08 AM |
| Location: |
Rochester, NY |
| Author: |
Christopher Smith |
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70 Comments: 0 |
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