Lowville and Beaver River Railroad

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

The Lowville & Beaver River Railroad interchanged at Lowville with the Utica & Black River Railroad (U&BR). The U&BR reached Lowville in 1868 and Carthage in 1871. The L&BR was an 11-mile shortline from Lowville through Beaver Falls to Croghan planned in 1880 but it was not built.^[2]

In 1903 James P. Lewis backed the short line to serve his mills at Beaver Falls.^[3] The Lowville & Beaver River Railroad was open on January 13, 1906.^[4][5][6]

The L&BR was dieselized in 1947, while #1923, their remaining steam locomotive, was last used on standby service in case the diesel needed repairs. It last operated in January 1957.^[7] The L&BR likes to call 1912 "12" and 1923 "23". The locomotives of the L&BR were numbered 10 (4-4-0), 1912 (4-6-0), 1923 (2-8-0, Also a sister engine of A&A 18 and Minaz 1549, 1414, and 1824), 1947 (GE-44 Tonner Diesel), 1950 (GE-44 Tonner Diesel), 1951 (GE-44 Tonner Diesel) and 8, a Shay owned by the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York.^[8][9] All of the diesels are GE 44-tonners.

From 2010 to 2012, Lewis County and GVT negotiated the sale of the LBR infrastructure to the county. Plans called for the LBR route, which was offered for $425,000, to be used for a museum train operated by the Railroad Society of Northern New York, which had been based in Croghan in the mid-1990s. The MHWA route from Lowville to Carthage was also to be sold to the county and converted to a rail trail.^[10] On April 30, 2012, however, the county decided against purchasing the infrastructure.^[11]

River Marine Inc. of Cape Vincent, NY recently purchased the former Carthage train depot^[12] on Mechanic Street. River Marine also owns the railway yard in Lowville, NY.^[13] Ronald J. Trottier the owner of River Marine Inc. plans to lease the railroad between Cartage and Lowville. His plan is to run tourist trains and rail bikes, human-pedal-powered open air vehicles that ride the rails.^[14]

The #1923 steam locomotive, an Alco 2-8-0, has been preserved as part of the Steamtown, USA National Historic Site, Scranton, PA.^[15]

The L&BR was placed out-of-service after the paper mill in Beaver Falls closed on January 24, 2007.

The Lowville and Beaver River Railroad filed for abandonment on January 14, 2025^[16] and entered into an agreement with Lewis County in November 2025 to be purchased for use as a recreational rail trail^[17].

This is in addition to the abandonment of the West Carthage to Lowville segment of fellow with GVT subsidiary Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad at the same time^[18]. The Lowville-to-Carthage branch line had only seen occasional revenue car storage on its northernmost portion.

The 10.57-mile (17.01 km) long route of the LBR ran from Lowville through the valley of the Beaver River via New Bremen and Beaver Falls to Croghan. In Lowville, there was a connection to the MHWA route to Carthage, which was part of a connection formerly running from Utica to Clayton on the St. Lawrence River, but whose section from Lowville south to Lyons Falls was abandoned in 1964. The LBR had a small depot in Lowville.^[19]

The branch line crossed the Black River on a 1,100-foot (340 m) long Warren swing through truss bridge.^[20]

• CNYrailroadnut's Lowville & Beaver River Railroad picture gallery
• Railway Historical Society of Northern New York

More Media related to Lowville and Beaver River Railroad at Wikimedia Commons