The Mohawk and Malone Railway was a railroad that ran from the New York Central Railroad's main line at Herkimer north to Malone, crossing the northern

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York (state), New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the hi ...

at Tupper Lake Junction, just north of Tupper Lake. The road's founder, Dr. William Seward Webb, was president of the Wagner Palace Car Company and a Vanderbilt in-law. He began by purchasing the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Herkimer, Newport and Poland Railway, which ran from Herkimer to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, converting its trackage to , and straightening it to avoid multiple crossings of the West Canada Creek. He then had track built from Tupper Lake to Moira and thence to Malone. A separate company, the St. Lawrence and Adirondack Railway (also controlled by Webb), completed the line to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec. The Mohawk and Malone opened in 1892 from Malone Junction to Childwold Station with a branch from Lake Clear Junction to Saranac Lake. The line was sometimes erroneously called the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad (even though a separate company with this name also operated in this time). After 1893, it was controlled by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. In 1913, it merged with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad as the "Adirondack Division" of the New York Central.

Use for regional New York Central passenger train service in the 20th century

Through the first half of the 20th century, the New York Central ran day and night trains on the route for service from Utica to Montreal via Lake Clear Junction and Malone. In the post-World War II period, the NYC's '' North Star'' train, and later, the ''Iroquois,'' provided direct sleeping car service from New York City's

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

to Lake Placid. In 1953, the NYC terminated service north of Malone toward Montreal. In mid-1957, the company cut mainline service back from Malone to Lake Clear Junction, with all service terminating on the Lake Placid branch that left the division's main route at Lake Clear Junction. On April 24, 1965, the NYC ran its final train on the route. In the 1990s, service on the southern segment of the route between Utica and Thendara would return with tourist excursions run by the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. In the mid-2010s, the State of New York attempted to convert most of the Utica-Lake Placid segment to a rail trail. However, the Adirondack Railroad successfully won an effort in court to resist rail removal. The New York State Supreme Court ultimately sided with the railroad on September 26, 2017, annulling the rail trail plan in its entirety. In 2020, pro-trail advocates persuaded the New York State Legislature to amend the Adirondack Park Act to allow removal of former NYC tracks from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid (34 miles) and to build a new rail-trail there instead, thus negating the prior Court decisions. Track removal occurred between October, 2020 and November, 2021, with trail completion planned in 2024. New York State has completed renovation of the long-decayed tracks from Big Moose to Tupper Lake, and the Adirondack Railroad plans to expand passenger service from Utica beyond Thendara and Big Moose to Tupper Lake (108 miles) in Spring, 2023.

Stations

Stations served in final years of passenger service, 1957 to 1965 * Lake Placid station *Ray Brook * Saranac Lake Union Depot *Lake Clear Junction *Tupper Lake *Childwold (service eliminated between 1959 and 1960) *Sabattis *Big Moose * Thendara station (noted on NYC timetables as near Old Forge, a resort village, 1.9 miles to the northeast) * Remsen station (service eliminated between 1959 and 1960) * Utica Union Station

References

External links

Prototype History - The Adirondack Line''New York Times'', "FINANCIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.; Mohawk and Malone Bonds." May 13, 1893.''New York Times'', "NOW FOR THE ADIRONDACKS.; DR. WEBB'S RAILROAD OPEN FOR BUSINESS." June 26, 1892Details for several of line's stations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohawk Malone Railway Defunct New York (state) railroads Railway companies established in 1892 Railway companies disestablished in 1913 Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad 3 ft gauge railways in the United States Subdivisions of the New York Central Railroad

Use for regional New York Central passenger train service in the 20th century

Stations

See also

References

External links