History of the Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal Railroad
Overview:
The R&IT or Rochester and Irondequoit terminal Railroad is a fictitious what if railroad located in western NY. The railroad has operations spanning from Rochester, NY to Niagara falls, NY. The R&IT formed as a result of the fall of the Penn Central railroad consolidation into Conrail. The R&IT would be chartered and sponsored by NY state to take over the operation Irondequoit branch in Rochester, NY on April 1, 1976 and with further aid of the state the Falls Road in 1986. Our model railroad takes place in the spring of 1997.
The Prolog, The Irondequoit branch (1846-1974)
Starting in the 1840s the growing city of Rochester was looking to develop a rail connection from the city to Lake Ontario connecting the existing Auburn & Rochester and the Tonawanda Railroad. The Rochester & Irondequoit (R&I) railroad was chartered in 1846 to serve this purpose and would begin construction the same year. This line was built by the city paralleling the Genesee River.
In 1853 the New York Central (NYC) attempted to buy the line upon its start up, however, the city and the NYC couldn't reach an agreement. This would result in the NYC building the parallel “Charlotte Runner” completed in 1853 the runner ran on the other side of the Genesee river Paralleling the R&I.
The Lake Ontario Shore (LOSRR) Railroad would reach Rochester in 1853 built alongside the shore of lake Ontario. The NYC and R&I would build interchanges with the LOSRR. The LOSRR would go on to strike a deal with the city to lease the R&I. This provided them easy access to the valuable industries along the gorge. The city, seeing the impact of turning down the NYC, didn't want to repeat their mistake. The R&I would operate under the LOSRR name during the lease.
In 1875 the LOSRR would be acquired by the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg (RW&O). The RW&O would branch across the gorge in 1882 near the existing NYC station. The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (BR&P) would build a branch to Charlotte in 1889 providing a new interchange with the RW&O. In 1892 the RW&O would fall under the ownership of the NYC. The route of the R&IT still being owned by the city prevents a full merger and the NYC would only gain trackage rights over the city owned route.
Big changes hit Rochester (1975-1976)
Big changes came around in 1975 with rail traffic declining and railroads all over hitting hard times. A change was on the horizon. The old R&I line saw an end of through trains and reduced online traffic. With Conrail set to form on April 1, 1976 Conrail started looking into what they could consolidate. During this Conrail determines the mid-section of the R&I to not be necessary and wants to abandon it. The city of Rochester doesnt want to see their railroad shut down with this the city refused to sell the line to Conrail. The City would start to look for operators of their line. Some local businessmen with aid from the state would step in and form the Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal Railroad (R&IT) to operate the prior city-owned line. Conrail would however strike a deal to retain access to Bee Bee Station.
The Early Years (1976-1986)
The R&IT would begin operations with Conrail on April 1 1976. The R&IT operated from downtown Rochester to Irondequoit serving their online customers using a hodgepodge fleet of second hand ALCOs, early EMD GPs, and switchers. The railroad had interchanges with Conrail and the B&O. The online industry in the early days included the Genesee brewery and a small terminal in Irondequoit as well as some other small industries. A yard would be built at Norton Street as the main yard and repair facility on the R&IT.
The Big Expansion (1986-1990)
Conrail further looking to reduce their trackage and maximise their profit looks to abandon the Falls Road. The R&IT sees this as an excellent chance to expand their network. The state, seeing the value of the line to local industry and acknowledging there's no single operator that can afford to take over the line, purchased the line from Conrail in 1986 and agreed to a lease with the R&IT. With this the R&IT gains trackage rights from High Falls to CP 373 to access the falls road from their existing line.
Some background information, The Falls Road was a NYC secondary route from Rochester to Niagara Falls following the Erie Canal with a handful of online customers seeing through auto traffic from Canada. Through the late 80s the R&IT took over trackage from Conrail between Rochester and Lockport granting them new online customers. There was no bridge traffic as Conrail is the only interchange partner on the west end. Major notable traffic is Auto traffic from Canada and Freight bypassing Buffalo.
Regional PowerHouse (1990-1997)
Looking to continue to grow, the R&IT looks to expand to the old LV yard in Niagara. The CN or D&H occasionally used the yard. The terminal would also grant them access to many more interchange partners. In 1996 the R&IT would take over ownership of the falls road from the state and expand to Niagara. This would lead the R&IT to an upgrade project of its fleet by acquiring new modern GPs. The R&IT in doing this took over the dispatching responsibilities of the line and based it out of their Norton St yard. This expanded the interchange partners of the R&IT to CN, CP, CSX, D&H, NS, and Conrail. Niagara yard despite being the larger yard would remain more of an outpost of the R&IT and their major operations center would remain the Noton St yard.
The Niagara Junction Railroad (NJR) was intended to join Conrail however with objections of shippers and Canadian roads objected over the loss of competition. The shippers bought the NJR and continued to operate it with interchange with the R&IT. The R&IT would provide switching services occasionally in addition to the NJR switcher. The NYS&W seeing an opportunity to expand their operation partnered with the R&IT and D&H to move sealand stack trains over the R&IT from Niagara to Rochester then over Conrail between Rochester and syracuse. That brings us to the current 1997 on our model R&IT.
You noticed the lack of passenger service right?
In 1983 the NY state started looking into providing express service between Rochester and Niagara with stops at major centers along the way. Unfortunately Amtrak was uninterested in such a service. With that the state went to see if they could find an alternate carrier however, one would not arise until 1986.
The R&IT was looking to expand operations to lockport on the state owned falls road. The state offered the young R&IT aid and a break on the lease if they would operate the passenger service. With this the R&IT started looking into the potential to operate such a service. After some negotiations with the state the R&IT would launch the service with 4 rebuilt ex Metra E8s and 12 budd coaches. Trains would run with power on both ends and 6 coaches. One train set departing from the west as the other departs from the east. The Railroad would run 3 trains a day in each direction. Delays from the lack of priority on Conrail operated sections of the line would drive people away from the service causing the standard of service to decline. Contracts with the state would keep their service around however it was common in the 90s to see trains with a coach or 2 missing due to equipment malfunctions and lack of ridership. In 1996 with the contract with the state ending, many expected the service to be discontinued. That same year the R&IT acquired the remainder of the line from Conrail/NYS.
The R&IT remained hopeful that with some changes passenger service could be profitable. The E8s and budd cars would leave the R&IT being replaced by Budd build Rail Diesel Cars (RDC). The RDCs being a much more economical method of providing the service saw short term success as the newly implemented R&IT dispatcher could give the necessary priority to make the trains fast and on time. The R&IT would end up ultimately discontinuing the service by 1999 as ridership dropped steadily in the years following the new RDC service implementation.