Original NYC Mainlines???

Hope this helps:

The Michigan Central Railroad had its beginnings in the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, which was incorporated in 1832 to build a railroad across Michigan from Detroit to St. Joseph. Michigan attained statehood in 1837 and almost immediately chartered railroads to be constructed along three routes:

• the Northern, from Port Huron to the head of navigation on the Grand River;
• the Central, from Detroit to St. Joseph;
• the Southern, from the head of navigation on the River Raisin, west of Monroe, to New Buffalo.^[1]

The state purchased the Detroit & St. Joseph to use as the basis for the Central Railroad. About the time the railroad reached Kalamazoo (in 1846) it ran out of money. It was purchased from the state by Boston interests led by John W. Brooks and was reorganized as the Michigan Central Railroad (MC). Construction resumed in the direction of New Buffalo rather than St. Joseph, and in 1849 the line reached Michigan City, Indiana, about as far as its Michigan charter could take it.^[1]

To reach the Illinois border the MC used the charter of the New Albany & Salem (NA&S) (a predecessor of the Monon Railroad) in exchange for which it purchased a block of NA&S stock. The MC continued on Illinois Central rails to Chicago, reaching there in 1852.^[1]

The Great Western Railway opened in 1854 from Niagara Falls to Windsor, Ontario, opposite Detroit, and in March 1855 John Roebling's suspension bridge across the Niagara River was completed, creating with the NYC a continuous line of rails from Albany to Windsor. The Great Western (which had track gauge of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)) installed a third rail for standard gauge equipment between 1864 and 1866. Vanderbilt, who had started buying MC stock in 1869, tried to purchase the Great Western. He did not succeed and turned his attention instead to the Canada Southern Railway. It had been incorporated in 1868 as the Erie & Niagara Extension Railway to build a line along the north shore of Lake Erie and then across the Detroit River below the city of Detroit. He acquired the railroad in 1876; MC leased it in 1882. Conrail sold the Canada Southern to Canadian National and Canadian Pacific in 1985. NYC leased the MC in 1930.

Thanks for the history.  But in the PC days...was the line west of Buffalo already under the control of CN?   And did all of the PC traffic through Detroit and Ann Arbor etc come up from Toledo?  

The Water Level Route is Albany to Buffalo, paralleling(generally) the Erie Canal, and now(also generally) the NYS Thomas E. Dewey Thruway.

The Erie has been realigned twice in a major fashion(1862 & 1917) to actually be closer to the NYC in many areas, farther in others. East of Rochester(Fairport & East) the Water Level Route parallels both the canal and the West Shore(what's left of it, anyway). Check out Google Earth and Bing bird's eye and you can make out where the old Shore roadbed splits off to the south going east.

Thanks for the info...I didn't realize the "Water Level" designation only applied to the part in NY State.  

Well, you got me to question that now.

It does include the Hudson River parallels too. Here is a map from Wikipedia:

Also portrayed as part of the "Water Level Route" are The Auburn Road(Syracuse-Auburn-Seneca Falls-Canandaigua-Rochester), The Peanut Line(Canandaigua-Ionia-Honeoye Falls-Batavia-Niagara Falls), and the Geneva Connector(Seneca Lake-Lyons).

I was not aware these were included too.

I assume most of the parallel bits and pieces of track shown was abandoned by Conrail?  Some being an older alignment?

Some was abandoned before 4/1/76, including the Auburn Road from Pittsford to Canandaigua. The Peanut Line had been long gone by Conrail's arrival.

Rockwood Street(Rochester) to Pittsford of the Auburn was torn up finally in the 1980's.

The Auburn Road is still in operation as FLRR from Canandaigua to the CSX interchange at Solvay near Syracuse.

The West Shore track in Rochester is a southern bypass of the city branching off at Perinton to the east and rejoining the main line at Attridge Rd in North Chili to the west.

Why was the Erie Canal built parallel to the lake?  Why not use the lake for a water transportation route?

So the last piece I cant find info on...when watching the classic GreenFrog videos of Penn Central.  They focused a lot on the Ypsilanti and surrounding area.  Lots of freight, the mail train, and passenger.  Did this PC traffic come across Canada from Buffalo..or Toledo to Detroit...Detroit to Porter Junction?

Also I read they want to build new Windsor tunnels in Detroit to handle double stacks...yet it looks to already have been chopped away for double stacks???  Why do they no longer use both tracks when they were well used in the 80's and 90's?

"Niagara Falls"

It may not be technically correct, but for descriptive purposes, most of the people I know refer to the entire line all the way to Chicago as the WLR, to differentiate it from other NYC lines

Alot of the freight traffic you saw came out of Toledo and Detroit,  I remember two trains a day from Canada that went to Elkhart then on to Chicago.  The East Tube of the tunnel was always larger in the beginning.   I worked at West Detroit Tower and certain high car trains had to use the east tube.  THen it was enlarged to handle high cube box cars, and covered tri level auto rack cars.  After Con Rail, the tunnel was sold to the CNR Rwy.  THere control started just east of Bay CIty Jct. at W. Grand Blvd. and included the train shed at the depot,  They turned that area into a container terminal with the hopes of starting up some new traffic, they then sold off their area to the CP.

Marty

The Route to Lake Erie Required a 570' climb from the Hudson. By the midpoint near Syracuse, the canal was already 118' above Lake Ontario, itself 240' above the Hudson(a canal was built from here to Ontario to provide the only all-US route to this Great Lake from the Atlantic) and with the Niagara Escarpment yet to be climbed to the west.

In the FWIW category, the stretch of track between Geneva and Lyons Junction is owned by NS and currently OOS.  NS and FGLK have been discussing the sale/transfer of the trackage to FGLK for some time.

Poppyl

I grew up next to the NYC east of Rochester NY. I always understood "Water Level Route" to apply to the main line that followed up the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and continuing west across the state. I suppose by implication it might be supposed to include the main line continuing west to Chicago.

That was the railroad that fueled my interest in trains from a young age.

The "Water Level Route" comprised the entire 960 mile length of the mainline, from New York City to Chicago via Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and Elkhart. Other than Albany Hill, there is no grade in excess of 0.3% anywhere. The Water Level Route ran up the Hudson, along the Mohawk, and along the southern shore of Lake Erie on its way to Chicago.

Yes ... and another point to consider is that the early canals were being built to serve inland areas, before the age of railways. And boats for lake traffic would have to be larger to handle the weather out on open water - too large for the longer distance canals of the era.

ive been a fan of the nyc for 40yrs and this is what i have aways seen in print,even on the company made movies.-jim

Slowly I turned...step by step...inch by inch...

"The Water Level Route" was an advertising department slogan, often combined with "You Can Sleep", a not-so-subtle dig at the competing PRR. The implication being that your comfort would be intruded upon due to the PRR having to scale the Allegheny Mountains with all the attendant fuss and commotion of adding and removing helpers and the like.

Think of it as "The Friendly Skies" of its day.

Is the busy CN or CP ( unsure which) that runs from Buffalo towards Detroit the former NYC Line?  its double track.  I think it starts in the area of the Niagra Falls Via station..then curves up towards the Toronto direction...then on the Detroit.