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I watched, and found it interesting.  They made the claim that the railroads didn't kill the Erie (Barge) Canal as a viable commercial concern, but the St. Lawrence Seaway did.  That claim is rather contrary to most everything I've read about competition between railroads and canals, but perhaps the Erie/Barge canal was the exception to the general rule. 

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

but perhaps the Erie/Barge canal was the exception to the general rule. 

Nope.

The St. Lawrence didn't really come into prominence until after the writing was on the wall for the Erie.

Read about the fare wars. The railroads deliberately lowered fares during the summer, when the canal was in operation and raised them in winter. They kept undercutting the canal on price and since speed was no contest, it quickly became apparent that the only thing the canal was good for was bulky items that weren't time sensitive - lumber, gravel, sand.

Maybe the St. Lawrence didn't help the canals any, but railroads were the real reason for the death of the canal. 

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8 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

Nope.

The St. Lawrence didn't really come into prominence until after the writing was on the wall for the Erie.

Read about the fare wars. The railroads deliberately lowered fares during the summer, when the canal was in operation and raised them in winter. They kept undercutting the canal on price and since speed was no contest, it quickly became apparent that the only thing the canal was good for was bulky items that weren't time sensitive - lumber, gravel, sand.

Maybe the St. Lawrence didn't help the canals any, but railroads were the real reason for the death of the canal. 

Funny that the only three things the barges were good at moving were necessities for building railroads and running locomotives

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2 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

I'm hoping someone gets a wild hair to make more of the Lehigh Valley Railroad bed a trail - it runs about 1/4 mile from the house....?

Our local trail group has been working on a local abandoned rail bed the old fashioned way with lots of manual labor. The ride I did Labor Day weekend raised money to support their effort. They included a couple miles of their new trail as an optional part of the day's ride. I was riding my 520 with 32s on it so rode it. I didn't see any other cyclist from our ride but lots of local kids making use of it. It's crushed limestone.

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2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

Our local trail group has been working on a local abandoned rail bed the old fashioned way with lots of manual labor.

I have the Link Trail which connects the Finger Lakes Trail (which, in turn is part of the North Country Scenic Trail ) with the Erie Canal trail. Theoretically I could hike from PA to Maine or North Dakota or something like that. 

Part of the Link Trail is on the old Lehigh Valley Railroad bed. It once ran from Scranton to Camden NY. The Link ends at the canal and the Canastota to Camden section is almost all privately owned. There's one small section of rail bed in use as a trail in Sylvan Beach and some of it is in use as snowmobile trails, but it's really not open in any contiguous fashion. It'd be nice if it was.

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10 hours ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

Nope.

The St. Lawrence didn't really come into prominence until after the writing was on the wall for the Erie.

Read about the fare wars. The railroads deliberately lowered fares during the summer, when the canal was in operation and raised them in winter. They kept undercutting the canal on price and since speed was no contest, it quickly became apparent that the only thing the canal was good for was bulky items that weren't time sensitive - lumber, gravel, sand.

Maybe the St. Lawrence didn't help the canals any, but railroads were the real reason for the death of the canal. 

See, now this is what I'd understood as well.  So why would they make such a statement? :scratchhead:  I guess it might depend on what their definition of 'demise of the canal' would be.

Many places in upstate NY have old railroad beds from railways that went bankrupt, or in some cases the bed was built and they never put down any rails because they ran out of money.  Often you can see these as a line of trees in a farmer's field or a dirt trail on Google satellite view, and then you can trace the old rail bed from town to town.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

So why would they make such a statement?

The only thing I could think of is they’re conflating the Erie Canal with it’s successor the Barge Canal. I’d imagine the St Lawrence Seaway put the hurt on the Barge Canal.

 

16 minutes ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

Often you can see these as a line of trees in a farmer's field or a dirt trail on Google satellite view, and then you can trace the old rail bed from town to town.

Can confirm: have spent a LOT of time tracing stuff like that. (Which is why you get dragged on these rides in pursuit of the untamed Anserini). There are some places where it’s just plain been wiped out.

In my immediate vicinity, I have the Lehigh Valley (red), the O&W (yellow) and the “New” Oneida Lake Canal (blue).

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You can see where the two railroads went after they left Sylvan Beach (back When Railroads Went to the Beach) - the O&W along the north shore of the lake, to Oswego and the Lehigh on to Camden - but the whole joint bridge, the Y and the tail track have been obliterated in Sylvan Beach. It’s said that Eddies Restaurant was built on top of the former train station.

 

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