The Crescent Branch

In 1976 with the creation of Conrail, it was decided that the Penn Central Crescent Industrial Track would be abandoned. Since the line connected with the D&H at Green Island, the D&H took over operations actually running it for the State Of New York. Ford had a tractor division located in Crescent/Latham that provided a small amount of business. This didn't last long and the D&H sought to abandoned the line.

Here's a PC switcher coming around the curve northbound for Crescent at the Lansing Lane crossing in Cohoes.

PC crewman watching for debris on the track as the northbound local coming up from Troy to Crescent crosses Lansing Lane in Cohoes.

Here's a PC switcher running light heading northbound from Lansing Lane in Cohoes to retrieve cars at the Ford plant in Crescent.

Northbound just ready to cross Lansing Lane in Cohoes on the way to the Ford plant in Latham. A spotter was always on the front of the train looking for debris, rail gauge problems, etc.

View looking north to the Manor Ave crossing in Cohoes. The new ballast was installed by the D&H.

They're throwing the switch for the runaround at Reepmyers. The
spur for the Ford plant is behind the power to the left.

Here is looking eastward from Reepmyers Feed warehouse and the train is being
separated to switch at the Ford plant.

The power running around the train at Reepmyers in Latham getting
ready to head back down through Cohoes to Colonie. Reepmyers warehouse is on
the right and the site of present day Clemente Cement is on the left. Shot
looking westward toward the Route 9 overpass.

Switching at the former Ford tractor plant off of Route 9 in Latham.
The power is heading to the Ford warehouse to pick up empties to be brought
back to Colonie. The photo is looking northwest and the power is crossing
Fonda Rd in Latham. The former Reepmyers Feed warehouse can be seen at left.

View from the main looking northward to the rail entrance to the Ford tractor plant off of Route 9 in Latham.

D&H operation on the T&S branch pulling a boxcar out of the former
Ford plant in Latham. Just behind the photographer the spur track will go up
a slight grade to reconnect with the main.

A Leased RS3 heading south from the Ford plant crossing Manor Ave in
Cohoes. Brakeman had to flag the crossing since there weren't any automatic
crossing gates/lights.

Here's a southbound coming from Crescent/Ford plant. Location is in
Cohoes, just having passed under the former Johnston Ave bridge, southbound
parallel to Garner Street. Former St. Agnes RC church is in the background.

Here's a southbound heading back from the Ford plant. The
flat behind the engine was returning from Ford. Bucket assemblies were
placed on the flatcar and shipped to Ford for assembly to tractors at the
Latham facility. This shot was taken looking nw from the Garner St bridge in
Cohoes. This was the 'wye' that was formerly used to turn steam engines when
the Cohoes yard was active. The remains of the north leg of the wye can just
be seen at the center right of the photo. The wye went back to service a
textile storage warehouse. Today this site is partially filled in and
overgrown. The bridge is filled in and the warehouse has been replaced with
new housing. This wye was located about 1/8 mile north of the Cohoes yard.

This shot was taken of a southbound D&H train fromCrescent looking nw from the Garner St bridge in
Cohoes.

Southbound just from Crescent ready to cross Lansing Lane in Cohoes.

Crescent And Cohoes

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