"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message ...

On Tue, 03 Jun 2014 15:00:04 -0400, John Grossbohlin wrote:

I'm clearing 4/10ths of a mile of old
railroad right-of-way, by myself, that will become part of a trail
network. It's my personal fitness program for the season!

Darn! Not that I don't approve of trails, but as a RR buff and modeler I
sure wish you were clearing it for a tourist train :-).

You're about 57 years too late on this one... the railroad was liquidated in
1957 and outside of the locomotives it was scrapped... I occasionally find
an old spike, tie plate, or piece of coal, and there are some long rotting
ties in places, but otherwise it's gone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...estern_Railway

You might be interested to know that the brush hook I have is from the New
York Central Railroad... they ceased to exist as NYC in 1968 when they
merged with the PA Railroad (PRR) and became Penn Central... that name is
gone too! When I obtained the brush hook it had no handle and there was
evidence of inept sharpening on a grinder but I took care of both problems
and it's a fine tool. I think there is some kind of good karma to be had by
using an old railroad tool to built a rail trail... maybe not!