8 THE CALL BOARD NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. August 1993

THE CASTLETON CUT-OFFPart I: Selkirk Yard

By Tim Truscott & Dick Barrett

With the tremendous growth in trafficon the New York Central in the first 'decadeof the twentieth century, it became evidentthat Albany was becoming a bottleneck fortraffic between New York City, New En-gland and the West. When the route throughWest Albany was originally constructed,the railroad was not faced with the trafficdemands which were later experienced,nor did it have the engineering and finan-cial resources which were available afterthe turn of the century. Therefore, the "Al-bany bottleneck" was, in a sense, a heritagefrom the early days of railroading when therequirements of the twentieth century couldnot be foreseen.

The bottleneck seemed to have two prin-ciple causes: Albany, and hence the WestAlbany Hill, was at the junction of theMohawk and Hudson divisions of the NewYork Central, as well as the SpringfieldDivision of the Boston & Albany; hence,all traffic converged at Albany and it waslike trying to squeeze a 26-inch waist intoan 18-inch corset to get all the trafficthrough. Second, the grade at West Albanymeant that Boston & Albany trains had toovercome a rise and fall of 130 ft., whilewestbound Hudson Division freights hadto be split into two, three or four sections inorder to negotiate the hill; the pusher loco-motives required on the West Albany gradeplaced a substantial demand on therailroad's motive power resources.

The sheer volume of traffic at the Al-bany division junction was substantial. Bythe time the bottleneck problem was solved,the B&A averaged 2,000 cars daily in and

out of Albany; the Hudson Division of theCentral averaged 1,200 cars and the RiverDivision of the West Shore averaged 1,200cars, for a total of 4,400 cars coming fromor going to the east and south. The volumeof traffic at Albany to and from the westaveraged nearly 4,400 cars per day. There-fore, the total movement of cars throughthe Albany gateway was about 8,800 carseach day.

To ameliorate the problem of the bottle-neck, the Central began planning a majorengineering project which drew strong re-sistance from Albany politicians. Part ofthe solution was to relocate part of thisjunction, and therefore some of the traffic,out of Albany. The second part of the solu-tion was to find a location where gradeswould not be a problem. Both parts ofthesolution to the bottleneck problem seemedto lie at Selkirk, just a few miles south ofAlbany. Naturally, Albany politicianswanted to keep jobs in Albany, and theyfound ways to thwart the project for aboutten years.

In 1913 the New York Central orga-nized a subsidiary company, the HudsonRiver Connecting Railroad Corporation,which was the enti ty under which the projectwas carried out and owned. The project,known as the "Castleton Cut-Off," wasvalued at $25,000,000 and was regarded bythe New York Central as a substantial rail-road engineering achievement as well as amajor contribution to public transporta-tion. The Central predicted the projectwould have an important effect in speedingup the vast percentage of the nation's busi-ness which flowed through the Albany gate-way. The "Castleton Cut-Off Project" was

comprised of three parts:1) Construction of Selkirk Yard, which

was touted by the New York Central to bethe most modern and efficiently plannedfreight car terminal yard in the world. Sel-kirk Yard, whose west end was to be thewestern terminus of the Hudson River Con-necting Railroad, was to be located be-tween Feura Bush and Selkirk.

2) Construction of a new high-level steelbridge spanning the Hudson River east ofSelkirk Yard with a clearance of 135 ft. fornavigation. The bridge, located south of thevillage of Castleton, came to be named the"Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge" inmemory of the President of the New YorkCentral who met an untimely death a fewmonths before the bridge opened in No-vember of 1924. Smith conceived theproject, and it was during his tenure asPresident of the New York Central that theproject was brought to fruition.

3) Construction of several miles of newrailroad to connect Selkirk Yard and thebridge with the Boston & Albany atNiverville and the New York Central atStuyvesant, both on the east side of theHudson River.

It is the Selkirk Yard portion of the"Castleton Cut-Off' project which is thesubject of the present article.

Selkirk Yard was constructed on an areaof flat land six miles long by one mile wide,thereby minimizing grading problems. Theyard was graded for a capacity of 11,000cars, although track for a smaller capacitywas actually laid, and the site was esti-mated to have a potential capacity of 20,000cars on 250 miles of track. Construction of

August 1993 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. THE CALL BOARD 9

the yard was reported to require 22,000tons of steel and 430 switches.

Selkirk Yard was actually two yards,side-by-side: a unit for eastbound trafficand a unit for westbound traffic. Each unithad its own hump for gravity switching ofcars, and the switches were electricallyoperated from towers. The eastbound unitwas situated on the south side of the yard,while the westbound unit was on the northside. Each unit included receiving trackswhere incoming trains are delivered. Aftergoing over their respective humps, the carsmoved onto classification trackage. Finally,the cars reached advance tracks, wherethey were made into outgoing trains.

The yard was equipped for night illumi-nation with "flood lighting," apparently aninnovation at the time. The floodlights weremounted on tall towers. Electricity for illu-mination and other uses was purchasedfrom the local utility. An elaborate tele-phone system was also installed in the yard,with a one-story brick telephone exchangebuilding located near the middle of theyard. Also located near the middle of theyard was a two-story wooden yard-master' soffice. Other smaller buildings for supervi-sion, car recording and dispatching werestrategically located throughout the yard.

The Selkirk engine terminal, located atthe easterly end of the yard, included tworound houses with stlls 120 feet long. Oneof the roundhouses was builtto accomodate32 locomotives, while the other held 30.While the two roundhouses were physi-cally connected, each had its own electri-cally-powered turntable, and each had itsown hot air ventilation fan system. Theengine terminal also included seven ashpits and a modem concrete coal storagechute consisting two 600-ton bins servedby conveyers.

Adjacent to the roundhouses was a build-ing for the administration of the mechani-cal department, a machine shop, storehouseand oil storage house. In addition, a nearbypower house contained three 400-horse-power boilers, electrical transformers, aircomprressors and water pumps for fire pro-tection. Selkirk Yard had its own watersupply system, with a 16-inch main con-necting a large pumphouse, located southof the Castleton bridge on the Hudson River,with SOO,OOO-gallonstorage tanks locatedat each end of the yard. A railroad Y.M.C.A.was constructed near the east end of thefacility.

In 1966, as the Penn Central merger wasapproaching, the New York Central under-took a reconstruction of Selkirk Yard. Theproject, estimated at $19.7 million, was to

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make Selkirk the largest east-west freightyard on the New York Central system. Oneof the innovations of the new yard was to bea computer operated freight car classifica-tion system to handle the 2,300 cars per daywhich passed through Selkirk in 1966; Sel-kirk was reported to be the first applicationof this new technology. New York CentralC.E.O. AlfredE. Perlman was on hand witha trainload of railroad officials, stockho ld-ers and securities analysts for the symboliclaying of the first rail for what was tobecome the Alfred E. Perlman Yard.

When Perlman Yard opened in 1968,

there were reported to be 133 miles of railwith over 400 switches on 632 acres. In-stead of two complete yards, an eastboundand a westbound with a hump in each one,the new yard consolidated some functionsfor both east- and west-bound traffic, andincluded a single hump for both. Capacityof the new yard was said to be 8,329 carsper day. By the time a new $4 million dieselservice facility was opened a year later, $29million was reported to have been spent onthe project. At that time, Selkirk was re-ported to employ 800 workers.

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THE "CASTLETON CUT-OFF"(HUDSON RIVER CONNECTING RAILROAD)

Comprising highoolevel brklge and twenty-eight miles of doub1eolrack railroad

The "Castleton Cut-Off," a huge construction project undertaken bythe New York Central to alleviate the bottleneck In Albany, was underthe corporate name of the Hudson River Connecting Railroad andIncluded Selkirk Yard, the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge and theconnecting trackage to the Boston & Albany Railroad at Niverville,Selkirk Yard and the West Shore Railroad and the New York Centralmainline at Stuyvesant. (New York Central Lines Magazine)