Monorail, monorail, MONORAIL!!!

This would appear to be the last year for the monorail at the Midtown Plaza in downtown Rochester. An announcement was made this fall that the historic building with attached office tower will be razed to provide space to build a new corporate headquarters for Paytec.

My wife and I took the kids to ride the monorail one last time and to visit Santa. We also went across Clinton Ave. on the Skyway bridge to see the H.O. train display in the Chase Concourse. It's good to see that improvements are made from year to year on the 4 display layouts maintained by the Rochester Model Railroad Club.

While talking to the monorail operator we discovered that the fate of the attraction like the monorail itself is litteraly up in the air. The Rochester holiday institution ws offered to the Strong Museum of Play who expressed no interest in taking the 50+ year old train. I'm anxious to hear the fate of this unique holiday attraction, I hate the thought of it ending up as scrap metal or disappearing to a far off land... Time will tell.

The pile got a bit bigger today...

The coal pile at Russell Station that is. We heard the train blow for Dewey Ave. early this afternoon while I was shoveling the driveway so once I was done we went to watch. The train was halfway across Greenleaf Rd. when we pulled up so I figured we'd grab some shots on Ling Rd.

The first shot is of the tailend inching across Ling Rd. About 24 cars later came the power, a GP-38-2 and GP-40-2. The snow piles at the edges of the road had already been knocked down so this must not have been the first train since all the snow we got. The last 2 shots are of the power heading back up to get the second half of this cut that were left just west of Greenleaf Rd.

Oh, and on a personal note, I would like to send out a heartfelt thanks to the "nice" "lady" in the silver Ford Focus with the duct tapped mirror for her concern. Luckily, she took time out of her "busy"(bodied) day to verbally scorn me for pointing a camera in the direction of a train and a powerplant. After a comment regarding my possible lack of my parent's marital status at the time of my birth she decided a call to the local P.D. was in order. I'm sure they had other more important work to be doing than to cater to a lonley old bitty's laments. The officer was very professional about it and asked me what I was doing. I simply responded that the baby and I were there to watch the train before going home. That was it, "Have a nice day!" and off he went. Thanks Lady! (I use the term lady loosley, she had the mouth of no lady I've ever met.)

CSX commuter service!?!?

In a word, no, but it is starting to look more like North White Plains (or Northeast) than Rochester Yard around here. That MP15 looks like it's ready to head up to Wassaic with it's 2 car train! The James Fenimore Cooper #6184 and car #6148 were in Rochester today coming or going I'm not sure which. That isn't too rare in and of itself but the Rochester Chapter of the NRHS's Empire State Express cars were also in the yard. The coaches along with the R.P.O. Alonzo B. Cornell are being ferried to the museum's property in Rush, N.Y. "BING","Attention at Rochester, now arriving on track eleven, The Empire State Express, with nonstop coach service to Oatka Junction with connecting service to Industry, New York running forty years late, is now boarding."