# Utica, NY-1949



## Davidfd85 (Jul 4, 2011)

I grew up outside of Utica and found this picture. Its fun to see where things that are there now weren't there then. 
This is the main east/west rail line through New York state. Yards at the top and bottom of picture. Passenger station (Union Station) just above the bridge. Rail served warehouses top center left. Left side is harbor for Utica from the NYS Barge canal. Round house lower left corner. Just a all round pretty neat picture.


----------



## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

I also like pictures from back in time. Shots of all the cities when they were full of all kinds of manufacturing. Steel mills, textiles plants, car manufacturers etc, all kinds of businesses.

Back when America was the home of the free.
Manufacturing all kinds of things, all over.
Take Crap from no one.

Look at us now! 

Give you one example.....Detroit!
But look at all of the other cities that used to be bustling with making all kinds of things.
They are slowly going to turn into Detroit's too, look all over the states.

I used to deliver a lot of chemicals all over NY state, 80% of the plants are gone now just ghost towns of what they used to be.
Look what happened to most of the steel plants.

I will stop here, I don't want to "trash" the thread too much. :smokin:
But till now it just sat here and no one has said anything.:dunno:
I guess no one likes old overhead pictures.
Where did you find that picture?


----------



## Davidfd85 (Jul 4, 2011)

I found it on a Face book group about East Utica. They are finding and posting really old pictures one after another but this is the only one that showed the rail lines so far. Its funny I lokk at it and see things that are still there and others that I had no idea of. Like just below the bridge on the right side is a group of factories. I had an Aunt that worked in one of them, it was a fishing tackle company. She hand made split bamboo fly rods. My father had one she made and when he passed 10 years ago it was given to me and it is signed by my Aunt. The only reason I started looking at the page was that I was looking for old Utica Fire Dept pictures. My Great Grandfather was a member. I have an old home movie now on VHS of them working with the trucks and it should be about the same time frame.


----------



## Davidfd85 (Jul 4, 2011)

I found a couple more shots of around the train yard and inside the station. As kid my mother used to take me there quite often, we would go out to the passenger ramps and watch the then NYC passengers come and go and any freights that happen to come by.


----------



## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Those are some great pics, love that kind of stuff. 

Magic


----------



## FRED On Board (Jan 2, 2014)

Davidfd85, et al...

The aerial image overlooking Utica is quite fascinating!...And, in summary, I echo much the same expressions of Member big ed and yourself...I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, lived there until age 32 and remember the two RR stations and a number of the classification yards in and around the city...To see what has changed via Google Earth is an interesting experience.

I had travelled from Buffalo to Schenectady (and back) via rail as a Boy Scout in the late 1950's, as part of a group to tour the General Electric plant...I wonder if I might have been travelling over that section of track as we moved through Utica?

Thanks for posting that "peek" into the present day infrastructure of railroading in Utica and a reminder of my experience as a railfan in my youth!

Bruce /FRED On Board
ATSF, BN, SP, UP


----------



## Davidfd85 (Jul 4, 2011)

Yes that is the main east/west line across the state so you did travel across those very tracks. The passenger station is just above the bridge and the GE plant you spoke of is or was located just off frame at the top to the right of the tracks. The plant is now closed, it was sold to Morton Thyocal (sp) and moved operations to Vermont. That happened in the mid/late 80s.

Here is another shot I found of Union Station, Utica when it was being built in 1914.


----------

