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New York and Putnam Railroad

Postcard of Park Hill station, circa 1907-1915
Overview
Reporting mark	NYP
Locale	Manhattan,The Bronx, andWestchester andPutnam Counties,New York
Dates of operation	1881; 144 years ago (1881) – 1958; 67 years ago (1958)
Successor	New York Central Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge
Route map Harlem Line toWassaic Brewster 53.82 mi 86.61 km Putnam Junction 51.84 mi 83.43 km Tilly Foster 49.58 mi 79.79 km Carmel 47.20 mi 75.96 km Crafts 45.13 mi 72.63 km Mahopac Lake Mahopac Branch Shenorock Lincolndale Mahopac Mines Mahopac Falls 44.38 mi 71.42 km Lake Mahopac Mahopac Mines Branch 42.25 mi 67.99 km Baldwin Place 39.96 mi 64.31 km Granite Springs 37.94 mi 61.06 km Amawalk Mohansic State Hospital (planned but never opened) Mohansic Branch 36.76 mi 59.16 km Yorktown Heights 35.04 mi 56.39 km Croton Heights 33.57 mi 54.03 km Croton Lake 32.52 mi 52.34 km Kitchawan 30.44 mi 48.99 km Millwood 27.04 mi 43.52 km Briarcliff Manor pre-1931 alignment 23.92 mi 38.5 km Graham Whitsons pre-1881 alignment Pocantico Hills Tower Hill Tarrytown Heights 20.41 mi 32.85 km Eastview Beaver Hill 18.14 mi 29.19 km Elmsford 16.60 mi 26.72 km Worthington Woodlands 14.72 mi 23.69 km Ardsley 13.86 mi 22.31 km Chauncey 13.02 mi 20.95 km Mount Hope 12.01 mi 19.33 km Nepera Park 11.92 mi 19.18 km Gray Oaks 10.50 mi 16.9 km Nepperham 9.44 mi 15.19 km Bryn Mawr Park 8.09 mi 13.02 km Dunwoodie Getty Square Park Hill Lowerre 6.52 mi 10.49 km Lincoln Caryl Mosholu Getty Square Branch 4.82 mi 7.76 km Van Cortlandt Kings Bridge Hudson Line toPoughkeepsie Fordham Heights University Heights Morris Heights High Bridge 0.0 mi 0 km Sedgwick Avenue 155th Street Port Morris Junction Harlem Line toGrand Central v t e

TheNew York and Putnam Railroad, nicknamed theOld Put, was a railroad line that opened in 1881 betweenthe Bronx andBrewster inNew York State. In 1894, it was acquired by theNew York Central system along with the nearbyHudson River Railroad andNew York and Harlem Railroad. Starting in 1958, the railroad began to be incrementally abandoned. Today most of its former roadbed has been converted torail trails.

The New York & Boston Railroad (NY&B) was chartered on May 21, 1869^[1] to build a line fromHighbridge on theHarlem River in New York northeast toBrewster. At Brewster connections were to be provided to theNew York & Harlem Railroad for travel north toAlbany, and to theBoston, Hartford & Erie Railroad toBoston. The railway would see several name changes and reorganizations before construction commenced.^[2]

The New York, Boston & Northern Railway (NYB&N) was formed on November 18, 1872, as a consolidation of the NY&B with two companies to the north — the Putnam & Dutchess Railroad (P&D) andDutchess & Columbia Railroad (D&C). The P&D was a plan for a line to split from the New York and Boston atCarmel to a point midway along the D&C. The D&C opened in 1871, running from theHudson River to theConnecticut border. TheClove Branch Railroad was to serve as a short connection between the two parts of the planned line.

The New York, Boston & Montreal Railway was organized on January 21, 1873, as a renaming of the NYB&N. It continued north toChatham on what is now the defunct section of theHarlem Line and then used the Harlem Extension Railroad intoVermont. ThePanic of 1873 caused the cancellation of the leases and mergers on December 1 of that year. Construction on the P&D and D&C stopped; D&C later became part of theCentral New England Railway, the Harlem Extension became a part of theRutland Railroad, and the Clove Branch Railroad was abandoned in 1898.

The New York, Westchester & Putnam Railway was formed on July 3, 1877, as a reorganization, and was leased to the New York City & Northern Railroad (NYC&N), formed on March 1, 1878. BetweenEast View andPocantico Hills, the NYC&N built a segment leading to a perilous 80-foot-high trestle over a marsh-filled valley.^[3] Because of the dangers of crossing the bridge, which often required that trains slow down to a crawl, the line was rerouted west around that valley in 1881. The bridge was torn down in 1883, and the valley became theTarrytown Reservoir.^[4] The line finally opened under the original plan, ending at Brewster, in April 1881. That year, theNew York & New England Railroad opened to the north, using some of the grade built for the P&D and D&C. The West Side & Yonkers Railway was leased to the NYC&N on May 1, 1880, extending the line south across the Harlem River to the northern terminal of theNinth Avenue Elevated at155th Street. It was merged into the NYC&N by 1887. In the 1910s, theInterborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) of theNew York City Subway purchased the bridge across the Harlem River to move its elevated lines north intothe Bronx, cutting the NYP back to Sedgwick Avenue. The Yonkers Rapid Transit Railway was opened in 1888 as a branch from the NYP at Van Cortlandt northwest toYonkers. It was merged into NYP by 1887.

The company went into receivership by 1887 and was reorganized as the New York & Northern Railway. By 1894 it was reorganized as theNew York & Putnam Rail Road Company (NY&P) byJ. P. Morgan, who in turn leased the railroad to theNew York Central & Hudson River Railroad (NYC&HR).^[1] The line eventually became the Putnam Division of theNew York Central Railroad (NYC) by 1913. The line lacked a direct connection to NYC's flagship station,Grand Central Terminal (GCT), which hurt ridership throughout its existence. Workweek commuters and weekend tourists were forced to transfer atHighbridge to reach GCT.^[5] The Sedgwick Avenue-Van Cortlandt section and the Yonkers Branch were electrified in 1926.

Several short branches were eliminated after the 1920s. The Mohansic Branch nearYorktown Heights, originally built to serve a mental institution that was canceled by Albany, went first. In 1929,John D. Rockefeller Jr. had the tracks removed from hisPocantico Hills property, eliminating four stations while creating one. The nearby village ofEast View was obliterated to build the new line. TheGetty Square Branch was abandoned on June 30, 1943.^[6] Despite a legal battle by Yonkers residents which reached theUnited States Supreme Court to save it, the line was scrapped in December 1944.^[7][8]

Besides the regular Sedgwick Avenue–Brewster service, service also operated fromGolden's Bridge on theHarlem Division via aconnecting branch to Lake Mahopac, and then over the Putnam Division to Brewster, where it returned to the Harlem Division. Trains taking this route were said to go "around the horn".

The Putnam Division lacked a second track, electrification, commuter parking and direct service to GCT, all of which the parallelHarlem andHudson Divisions had, resulting in declining patronage. In 1956, the New York Central asked for permission to discontinue service on the line. On May 14, 1957, the Public Service Commission allowed a 15 percent increase in fares, but required that service be run on the Putnam Division on a limited basis. On March 12, 1958, the Public Service Commission authorized the NYC to end passenger service on the Putnam on June 1, 1958. At the time, the line had less than 500 daily riders, and discontinuing the line was expected to save $400,000 annually. The last trains ran on May 29, 1958, as there was no weekend service on the line.^[1][9] Service "around the horn" via the Harlem Division's Lake Mahopac Branch continued until April 2, 1959. Until 1962, when NYC'sWest Shore Railroad was upgraded, the Putnam served oversize freight trains, due to the lack of tunnels on the line. Tracks between East View and Lake Mahopac began to be removed in 1962.

The NYC merged with long-time rivalPennsylvania Railroad to formPenn Central (PC) in 1968. Freight service on the northern part of the Putnam ended in March 1970. The southern end of the line remained in service until the closing of theA&P warehouse in Elmsford, in 1975. The decrease in traffic fromStauffer Chemical cut back the line to Chauncey by 1977.Conrail took over the bankrupt PC in April 1976, but had no plans for increasing business. The last customer was theStella D'Oro bakery in the Bronx, which stopped using the railroad in 1989, after which Conrail wanted to sell the right-of-way to the city and Westchester to reduce its tax bill.^[10]

In 1991, theRegional Plan Association proposed extending the line and connecting it with theIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (1 train) of theNew York City Subway.^[10]

TheMetro-North Railroad uses the remaining stub nearMarble Hill station to store maintenance-of-way and contractors' trains, and for material delivery in the vicinity of West 225th Street.^[10] The roadbed north of the former Van Cortlandt station has been converted into thePutnam Greenway,South County Trailway,North County Trailway, andPutnam County Trailwayrail trails.

A pseudo replica of the former Bryn Mawr Park station at the former Palmer Road grade crossing is in use as a grocery.The station inBriarcliff Manor was purchased by the village in 1959 and converted into theBriarcliff Manor Public Library.^[11] The station inMillwood remained until 2012, but it was torn down in May 2012 due to structural instability. The station in Elmsford serves as a restaurant. TheYorktown Heights station had its exterior restored and is the centerpiece of the town park. The station inLake Mahopac has been an American Legion Hall since 1965.^[12] The freight house inBaldwin Place and the station inTilly Foster remain but are on private property. Skeletal remnants of the Van Cortlandt station remain inVan Cortlandt Park.

The Getty Square Branch still shows evidence of its existence, with vestiges of the railroad and stations, and neighborhoods exhibiting characteristics oftransit-oriented development.^[13]Getty Square station, originally ahead house andtrain shed, was replaced by an office building, which still stands and is ornamented on its exterior and in its lobby with images oflocomotives. The 3.4 miles (5.5 km)-long right-of-way is part of the trail system inVan Cortlandt Park, including the bridge that carried the branch over theHenry Hudson Parkway. Old railroad ties can be found along the right-of-way. The right-of-way within New York City ends at a parking garage for an apartment building in Yonkers. To the north of the apartment building, another parking lot was built. The bridge over the adjacent street was walled-in where the ROW used to pass underneath.^[10]

Abutments of the former branch can be found at School Street across from Herriott Street, McLean Avenue near South Broadway, and the former Lowerre Station on Lawrence Street at Western Avenue. The former Caryl Station on Caryl Avenue between Saratoga and Van Cortlandt Park Avenues, with the tunnel into Van Cortlandt Park walled-off by cinder blocks, is now the Caryl parking lot and playground.^[14] A lot of the intrusions on the branch were from the expansion of outside storage from adjacent industries, which broke up the right-of-way in many places, especially in Yonkers.^[10]

Private homes that once served the branch include the termini houses of thePark Hill station's adjacentfunicular, on Undercliff at Park Hill Terrace,^[15] and on Alta Avenue^[16] north of Overcliff, and the home of the railroad's president, also on Alta Avenue. North from the Yonkers-New York City boundary, the path of the route generally follows the path of theSaw Mill River Parkway until it reaches East Irvington.

• 
  Skeletal remains of Van Cortlandt station inVan Cortlandt Park
• 
  Milepost 6 located in Van Cortlandt Park; former railbed on left
• 
  Bryn Mawr Park station replica in 2007
• 
  Yorktown Heights station, listed onNational Register of Historic Places
• 
  Getty Square Terminus Station Building, 20 South Broadway, Yonkers, NY
• 
  TheBriarcliff Manor station, now part of the village library
• 
  Bridge overNew Croton Reservoir

Map of the New York and Putnam with sections labelled by the first companies to operate the line

NOTE: Stations along pre-1918 Manhattan terminus and pre-1931 Tarrytown Heights alignment are shaded in darker gray.

• New York Central Railroad

• Bang, Robert A.; Frank, John E.; Kowanski, George W.; Vondrak, Otto M. (2007).Forgotten Railroads Through Westchester County. Port Chester, New York: Privately printed.ISBN 978-0-9762797-3-0.
• Carmel Town Historian; Putnam County Historian's Office (2010)."A Guide to the "Old Put" for Bikers and Hikers"(PDF).Putnam County Online.Archived(PDF) from the original on June 29, 2016.
• Gallo, Daniel R.; Kramer, Frederick A. (1981).The Putnam Division: New York Central's Bygone Route through Westchester County. New York: Quadrant Press.ISBN 0-915276-29-1.
• Kelley, Ed (2005)."'The Old Put' Suburban New York's Lost Railroad". Archived from the original on September 14, 2005.
• Klein, Daniel A. (2004). "The Phantom SpurRetracing the Vanished Getty Square Branch of the Putnam Railroad".National Railway Bulletin.69 (2):28–37.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toNew York and Putnam Railroad.

• Timeline of Putnam Division events
• Stations along the trail on the Putnam Division Right-Of-Way
• Old Putnam Line Blogs (Rich's Pedal Point)
• Putnam County Existing Stations: has pictures of old Put stations.
• Westchester County Existing Stations: has pictures of old Put stations.

• Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad
• Defunct New York (state) railroads
• Railway companies established in 1894
• Railway companies disestablished in 1913
• 1869 establishments in New York (state)
• 1894 establishments in New York (state)
• American companies established in 1894
• Subdivisions of the New York Central Railroad

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