Today's train of thought takes us to a fairly lightly travelled section of the CSX in upstate New York.
Besides being home of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, Jefferson County, NY gets more than its fair share of snowfall due to the lake effect snow each winter due to its location along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.
The former New York Central St Lawrence division between Syracuse, NY and Montreal, Quebec was awarded to CSX during the 1999 breakup of Conrail. In addition to through traffic to and from Montreal, traffic along the line also includes military equipment in and out of Ft Drum and interchange with shortlines like the Massena Terminal, Mohawk Adirondack & Northern and New York & Ogdensburg.
In 2010, CSX and Canadian Pacific reached an agreement where CSX shifted traffic off the St Lawrence Subdivision and onto the Delaware & Hudson between Albany, NY and Montreal in exchange for greater access for CP to the New York metropolitan area using trackage rights from CSX and Metro North. This move had led to speculation that CSX is looking to divest itself of the St Lawrence subdivison. A wikipedia entry claimed that the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic was seeking to acquire the line, giving it one contiguous route between Syracuse NY and Eastern Maine via Montreal.
Here, railpictures.net contributor Joe Hance catches CSX Road Slug #2270 (rebuilt from a retired GP30) heading south with a local past the Depot Cafe in Adams Center, NY on October 13, 2008. It's not unusual for the area to already be blanketed by a few inches of snow by this point.
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