RE: (erielack) EL June Calendar

[<DJagC_@_bellsouth.net>]

Schuyler,

RE: Who was Graham

According to the article "Graham Cutoff" by M.B Wakefield published in the
September 1951 Railroad Magazine he was James Marshall Graham. Wakefield
says he came to the Erie as a vice president in 1904 following stints as the
head engineer on the B&O and various other engineering positions on other
railroads. The Graham line was opened to traffic on January 13, 1909 and
Graham passed away on February 3, 1909. 

The article details the construction of the line and includes some
construction photos of the Moondna Viaduct and the Otisville tunnel.
Referring to Graham, Wakefield calls the cutoff "a pulsing monument to the
memory of the man who planned it" and said "the cutoff was conceived and
engineered by Graham."

Dan Conrad
ELHS 

- -----Original Message-----
From: Schuyler Larrabee [mailto:schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net] 
Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 10:11 PM
To: 'EL Mail List'
Subject: RE: (erielack) EL June Calendar

Ed,

The location "Graham" is rather in the boonies.  You can get there by
following some of the roads
off Route 209 northeast of Port Jervis, looking for "Guymard."

"The Graham Line" is often misunderstood.  What I'm about to type is my
understanding of it, and it
may not be totally correct.  The original ERIE Main Line went over
Shawangunk Mountain right through
the village of Otisville.  As of a couple years ago, you could still find
the edge of the platform
in the hollow in the middle of Otisville where the line ran, as a curb
embedded in a parking lot,
with a give-away curve in it toward the east end.  The line then zig-zagged
down the east side of
the mountain before heading in a slightly straighter path toward Middletown.

But the Western end of the Graham Line originates at the point shown in the
photo, on the ascent of
the west side of Shawangunk Mountain in a flyunder (so to speak) where the
eastbound line, all the
way to the right in the photo, was at a lower grade, and when a sufficient
difference in elevation
was achieved, it burrowed under the original main line.  The two tracks then
traversed the mountain
side and then went into a tunnel directly under Otisville, essentially on a
simliar alignment.  The
Graham Line and the old main intersected east of Otisville (see
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/prtj08ne.jpg
), and then split again at Howells Junction (you can see this location prior
to the Graham Line on
this view: http://docs.unh.edu/NY/gshn08nw.jpg ), with the old main heading
toward Middletown, and
the rest of the Graham Line heading somewhat northeast.  This line then
curved around about 90d to
the south to line up with Moodna Viaduct, which runs more-or-less
north-south.  At the east end of
the Viaduct, the line curves around the north end of Shunemunk Mountain.
You can see that here:
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/schu35ne.jpg   From there, the line went south
downgrade to rejoin the
original main line at Newburgh Junction, near Harriman.  Look here:
http://docs.unh.edu/NY/schu35se.jpg .  So, the overall Graham Line went
between Newburgh Junction
and Graham.

Note there is a parallel between the Graham Line and the DL&W's construction
of the cutoffs.  Both
replaced curvey track through towns with straighter lines through relatively
unpopulated territory.

That spur you noticed was the original ERIE Main Line still reaching up to
Otisville from the
Howells Junction area.  I have no idea when service to Otisville was
suspended.  Ten - fifteen years
ago, you could find that old ROW because of the very wide open paths in the
trees.  Some of this is
still visible in Google Earth.  At Otisville, see the line running southeast
from town, there is a
very straight line at about 135d from north.  If you go east toward Howells
(shows up as a named
place in GE) look for Derby Road, which is a bridge (is it still?) over the
Erie Main.  Just to the
left of Derby Road you can see the curving line of the original main/branch
to Otisville off to the
south of the line.  From there it heads south of west, along the edge of
some swampy/wet areas, and
you can catch the sharp curve as it turns north to align with the run up to
Otisville.

So, who was "Graham?"  I don't have his first name right to hand, but he was
the engineer who laid
out the line, I believe an ERIE employee.

SGL

> The picture at Graham Junction is interesting.  I have seen several
similar ones but I never have
visited the location.  I've
> been to Port Jervis a lot but thought Graham was somewhere in the
wilderness.  I wonder why Erie
continued to push
> freights over the mountain when they had the Graham cut-off (actually
longer than the original
line) in place.  What
> does this location look like today?  I was also interested in the map
included in the "Booster"
article in TRAINS.  It
> shows a spur from Howells into Otisville in 1953.  How long was this spur
left in place?
> 
> Ed Montgomery





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