NEB&W Guide to Port Henry, NY - Lake Champlain & Moriah

Last Update: 2009-08-12

Port Henry Table of Contents
Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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LC&M Structures

• These photos show the LC&M shops just west of the Rt. 22 overpass. The roundhouse was built in 1872, only a couple of years after the line opened (1869), and the adjacent shops, the following year, '73.
  • [Photo c. 1800's, courtesy Town of Moriah Historical Society.]
  • [Photo courtesy Bridge Line Historical Society. Guess that's part of the shop complex in the background. But note how steep the grade was.]
  • [This is definitely the roundhouse. (They might have had to enlarge the doors.) In the background is the car repair.]
  • [Aerial engraving c. 1889, of just the LC&M facilities. Note there was the shop complex just up from the road crossing, and an office building which looks like a house just across the tracks from the ore company's ornate mansard roofed office, which owned the LC&M. Of course, the entire wood trestling complex and the tracks into the Cedar Point furnace were LC&M, too.]
  • [Aerial view c. 1922 of just the shop complex.]
  Not sure when the LC&M office was demolished. The shop complex came out just after Republic Steel took over and dieselized, c. 1940.

• The LC&M tracks crossed over Rt. 22. There was a waiting shelter right there for any passengers. Can't see if it was there in the 1889 engraving. The shelter was torn down in 1936. The bridge was removed in 1993 because of clearance issues.
  • [Photo from the Town of Moriah Historical Society.]
  • [Another view c. 1930 from our collection.]
  Interesting enough, regular passenger service was discontinued way back in 1885, although irregular service continued, in mixed train service. There was a car, no. 3, which while looking like a cupola-less bobber caboose, was listed as their only coach in '38, downgraded to just a caboose by '40.
  • [Photo c. '39, courtesy Bridge Line Historical Society.]

LC&M Equipment

• The LC&M was incorporated in 1867 and built in 1869, as an isolated 7 mile line from the lake up into the iron mines. (The line from Vermont via the Addison and the floating bridge across the lake connected it c. 1870.) The line was abandoned in 1968, basically the same time that Republic Steel ceased operation of the Troy blast furnace.
  Mineville is about 1,300 feet above the lake so the road had to climb about 186 feet per mile on average, or 3.5% grade. (Since sections were relatively flat, other sections were steeper than this.) I understand the locos were always on the downward side of the train to prevent run-aways, and the tender end was lowest to keep the water covering the crown sheet of the fire box.

• Up through 1927, LC&M freight cars were allowed off-line, but by '38, they were limited to on-line service only.

• In 1915, according to Moody's, as of that date, they had 17 miles of sidings, 7 locos, 7 "cars", three passenger cars, 287 freight cars and 6 "service" (guess MOW) cars.

• I can't find the LC&M listing in Westerfield CD version of the ORER's prior to 1919. In 1919, they listed two box cars (no. 610 was a 29 foot car and no. 611, a 34-footer). They had five 36-foot flats (nos. 630-634) and another four flats a mere 18 feet long, rated at just 9 tons (nos. 635-538). The flats were gone by '24, the pair of box cars still there in '27, gone by '38. And they had three classes of ore cars (see below).
  Also in 1919, they had a combine, no. 501, and two other undefined passenger cars, nos. 502 and 503. No. 500 was an official car, which was a parlor car. They didn't list any separate cabooses until 1940.

• In 1938, the LC&M had 67 ore cars, two "scrapers", one "wreck", (total of 14 MOW cars), one passenger car, no. 3, one official car, no. 500. None of the ore cars were used in interchange service.

• In 1940, no. 3 now listed as a caboose. In neither listing, no dimensions were given for this car but there is a photo of a four-wheel cupola-less caboose which I think is no. 3. (I was told it was a coach but I couldn't quite believe it until I saw the '38 and '40 listings. As a "coach", it is even shorter than the famed Overton cars of the Sierra.)
  • [Photo c. '39, courtesy Bridge Line Historical Society.]
  (Actually, regular passenger service had been discontinued way back in 1885, with irregular service via a mixed train, used for years afterwards. There was a LC&M waiting next to the Rt. 22 overpass, which was torn down in '36, even though no. 3 was still listed as a coach two years later.)
  In '46, they rebuilt a steel ore car into a caboose and no. 3 was not listed in '49, so I would guess no. 3 was retired c. '46.

• The growth of the size of the LC&M ore cars as of c. 1919 with the largest car, on the left. The smallest car could hold 10 tons, the second, 20, and I believe the biggest, 50 tons.
  • [LC&M ore car evolution. The cars are on the top of the hill behind the office building.]
  • [LC&M ore car evolution. The stick on the side of the two older cars were levers for the hand brakes.]
  In 1919, there were 218 of the wood "jimmies", nos. 1-218, out of 306 total cars on the roster. In 1924, there were 108 cars, nos. 1-188, all gone by '27. These wood cars were 8 ft. 5 ins. long inside and 5 ft. 3 ins. high from the rails, with a cubic capacity of 100 and rated at 10 tons.

• In '24, there were 23 of the four-wheel steel cars, nos. 400-424. The four-wheel car, no. 401, was not listed in 1938, but there were 11 cars left, reduced series 403-418. (Hard to believe four-wheel cars were still in service as late as '38.) They were 10 ft. 0 ins. long inside, 6 ft. 9 inches to the extreme height from the rail, and rated at 17 tons. Their cubic capacity was a mere 200 (compared to say, a USRA twin hopper at 1,880).

• The most modern car in the photo of the evolution was one of 12 cars built in 1900, nos. 300-311. They were basically shorty versions of the GL fishbelly-side-sill hoppers. Photo courtesy Al Westerfield, who makes a cast resin version of these cars.
  • [The fishbelly side-sill ore cars, including 303 and 304.]
  • [LC&M ore car evolution. The fishbelly side-sill car is on the left.]
  In 1919, there were 9 of these cars left, nos. 300-302, 305, 306, 308-311. (What makes this confusing is that by this time, nos. 303, 304, and 307 were a different type of car - see below.) The fishbelly side sill cars were 20 ft. 6 ins. long inside and 9 ft. 4 ins. to the top of the sides, rated at 50 tons and a 458 cubic capacity. They were all gone by '24. (It is strange the four-wheel cars were still on the roster in '38.)

• In the May 26, 1917 Railway Review, in the ad for Pressed Steel Car Co., there was a photo of a LC&M 60-ton ore car. It would be called a taper side car, but had 7-panel sides, or in other words, one more rib. The ribs over the trucks were channels and I think the rest were angles.
  In 1919, there were 43 of these cars, nos. 303, 304, 307, and 312-352. (Note that the first three car numbers were intermingled with the fishbelly side sill cars, above.) In 1924, there were two cars, nos. 303 and 307, and another 52 cars, nos. 312-363, with identical dimensions so the fleet had grown. In 1938, there were 46 cars, series 303-363, and in '49, series 318-361, 21 cars.
  They were classified as HM-type cars, the same as regular hoppers. They were 20 ft. 6 ins. long inside, only 7 ft. 6 ins. wide inside (8 feet wide outside), and 8 ft. 9 ins. to the top of the sides. They only had a capacity of 556. Perhaps the MDC taper side car could be kitbashed to model these.
  • [LC&M 349, 1917 Pressed Steel ad.]
  There is currently one of these 1917 ore cars on display at the Port Henry depot.
  • [LC&M 326, c. 2001.]
  • [No. 326, April 2002, in better shape.]
  • [No. 326, April 2002. Another view.]

• In 1924 and '27, there were 10 steel ore gons, nos. 701-710, which were 17 ft. 5 ins. long inside and 9 ft. 2 ins. to the top of the sides from the rail (with a vertical brake wheel five inches taller). They were rated at 50 tons with a capacity of 700. They weren't on the roster back in 1919, still 9 left in '43, all gone by '50. I have no idea what these were.

• The other 37 ore cars on the LC&M's roster in 1949 were former Delaware & Hudson cars, built in 1925 and purchased in 1940.
  • [D&H 3117, c. 1935. From our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [D&H 3117, broadside, c. 1935. From our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [LC&M 723 c. 1965. Photo courtesy John LaRue.]
  • [A caboose kitbashed from one of these ore cars. Gerrit Bruins c. 1960's photo.]
  These ore cars had rectangular sides and sloped ends, even though the cars had a 70 ton capacity. They looked identical to a class of DM&IR cars, U-12, discussed elsewhere. The LC&M cars were renumbered into the series 711-750. The cars were 19 ft. 5 ins. long inside, with a cubic capacity of 841.

• The LC&M also converted an ore car from an unknown series into a steel caboose. (Although I'm pretty sure it was one of the ex-D&H cars.) This caboose was acquired by the nearby Battenkill, a tourist line, and since then it has been sent back to Port Henry, where it sits on display next to the depot.
  • [LC&M caboose c. 1965. Gerrit Bruins photo, from our collection.]
  • [Another view with an ore car, too, 1965 Bruins photo]
  • [Another 1965 Bruins photo looking toward the south.]
  • [Restored caboose, April '02, being investigated by Greg Snook and Will Gill.]
  • [Caboose placard, April '02.]

• In later years, the LC&M was also using ore cars lettered RSCX for Republic Steel. These, in theory, could have been sent off-line but my sense is that like the LC&M cars, they stayed on line.
  • [RSCX ore car, 1980's.]
  • [A pair of RSCX ore cars, 1980's.]

See our Layout Guide for Port Henry and the history of Port Henry iron making.

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