It’s the Pits!

During the period starting just before World War II and continuing into the late 1950s a massive construction project was undertaken in the Catskills in order to supply drinking water for New York City. This project involved the construction of both reservoirs, often drowning existing villages including the ironically named town of “Neversink”, and massive tunnels to carry the water underground into the city. As can be imagined, this project consumed massive quantities of materials, and in the era that I’m modeling (1951) one of the offloading points was Livingston Manor, NY, one of the two towns on my layout.
I was first made aware of this source of traffic several years ago by a former Manor resident, Wayne Levitt. Shortly afterwards I came into possession of a set of copies of car movement records from Livingston Manor that showed daily deliveries of multiple carloads of cement to “Walsh and Perrine” (sic). Cursory web searches failed to locate this company, but I quickly found references to “Walsh-Perini”, showing perhaps that spelling was not a great concern to O&W station staff!

The Delaware System (as this section was known) was a huge undertaking. Some idea of the scope of the project can be seen in this clipping from a July, 1948 issue of The Catskill Mountain News which references the town of East Branch, NY, just north of my chosen locales:

“Will Unload Dam Materials at East Branch 

Since the building of the big diversion tunnel at Downsville began great quantities of material have been unloaded at the Arkville station of the New York Central and sent down the valley. There have been great machines, hundreds of loads of material, enormous steel beams, truckload after truckload day after day of all the things required in a great construction job. The Hancock Herald says this is to be changed and the material is to come by the Ontario &Western to East Branch. We quote from the Herald: "The Delaware county supervisors at their special session last week approved a proposal by the Ontario & Western railroad to strengthen the bridge leading from the village of East Branch across the Beaverkill and East Branch to Route 17, with credit to be allowed against back taxes owed to the county and the town of Hancock. The superintendent stipulated that the work be done under the supervision of the county superintendent of highways, Malcolm MacPherson. 

 “Thus far in the Downsville dam construction the bulk of materials needed by the Walsh-Perini companies in their $14,000,000 contract have been handled over the New York Central to Arkville, involving a long haul by truck to Downsville. The haul from East Branch to Downsville is shorter. To be used in construction, among others are the following:

• "260,000 barrels of Portland cement.

• "2,000,000 pounds of steel piling.

• "1,950,000 pounds of structural steel.

• "50,000 pounds of cast iron pipe.

• "Large quantities of sand and gravel.

"Much of this material is likely to be produced at widely separated plants, so that the O. & W. with its affiliated connections could handle it. Repairing and strengthening the East Branch bridges in this way fits into the picture.”

For many years I had no idea what facilities were needed or used in Livingston Manor to handle this traffic, other than a reference from Wayne to a “cement silo” located near one leg of the old locomotive wye. With no better information to bo by I quickly kitbashed an IHC cement plant to be a place holder on the layout and got on with the job of building appropriate covered hopper models based on this shown on the car lists, then having the local crews deliver cars these cars during my operating sessions.

Last year Jeff Otto, the archivist at the O&W Society, came across some blueprints labeled “Changes to Wye Tracks at Livingston Manor for Cement Unloading Facility” and asked if I wanted a copy. Duh….! It turns out that the O&W re-laid one of the tracks that formed one leg of the old wye (represented on my layout by that spur), moving it slightly farther away from the main for more clearance and elevating it slightly. Under the track they located a pit for the covered hoppers to dump into. The drawings showed some nice elevations and plan views, and the unloading pit was shown in some detail as well. So, armed with this new information I scratch built the loading pit from styrene some months ago:

You can see my HO scale copy of the original drawings In the background of some of these photos…

This thing sat on my workbench collecting dust until this past week when, inspired by a trip to operate on Dick Elwell’s fantastic Hoosic Valley layout, I decided to get off my duff and do something with it. Out came the Stanley knife, a steak knife (great for slicing through foam) and other assorted implements of destruction along with latex construction cement and all manner of ground covers.

I ripped up the spur rails, cut away the roadbed where the pit would be going as well as removing a good chunk of the foam from in front of the pit. Like the O&W did, I removed a section of the ties on either side of the pit and glued in new ones on a slightly different alignment. (Unlike the O&W, I left my track at the same height. I had intended to elevate it slightly, but then thought better of it when I realized that it would make spotting cars in this location next to impossible!) I glued in another section of foam under the now gaping hole in the scenery to form the “floor” of the unloading area, then installed the pit.

A few hours later I was re-laying the rail and dumping in ground cover and ballast. For the rocky slopes on either side of the pit I just dumped some coarsely sifted paving stone mix into place and secured it with diluted white glue.

Here’s what it looked like at this point:

In one my e-mail conversations with some of the Livingston Manor locals that remembered this spot they recalled dump trucks being used to move the cement. Always assuming that cement mixers would have been used I asked if they were sure. “Of course I’m sure!” came back one of the replies “One of them ran over my dog!” Being ever the sensitive soul, I asked if he remembered what color it was. He probably thought I was inquiring about the dog. I, of course, meant the dump truck….

 I ordered two of the new Classic Metal Works dump trucks. They’re probably a little on the small size as this e-mail mentioned short trailers, but work for me. I ordered green ones. Some cement dust was about all that I added.

What I’m still not clear on is how the cement got INTO the trucks. I suspect that there was some sort of bin and conveyor like the one near the bottom of this page but I’m not sure. The O&W drawing show only what work the railroad had to do to make the site ready, not what Walsh and Perrine did in order to use it. The more you know…..  

I’d welcome any insights if you have suggestions for unloading. Any thoughts?