The Turntable at Genesee Junction 

Genesee Junction was once the junction of three Railroads, just south of Rochester, NY.
- The New York Central. (originally the New York,Westshore & Buffalo)
- The Baltimore & Ohio. (originally the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh)
- and the Pennsylvania railroad. (whose ROW here was originally the Genesee Canal towpath!)

Today, it is STILL the junction of three railroads!
- CSX - running on the original NYC Westshore.
- Livonia, Avon, & Lakeville, also using former Westshore tracks.
- and the Rochester Southern railroad, using the former B&O.
the PRR line is abandoned, tracks are gone, and today the roadbed is the Genesee Valley Greenway trail.

Only the LAL and CSX interchange directly at the Genesee Junction yard, LAL has trackage rights (from CSX) to run through the yard to access the R&S mainline, and they then run north into Brooks ave yard and interchange with R&S there. R&S has trackage rights (from CSX) to run through the yard to access the small bit of PRR north of the yard, to access a few R&S customers on that spur.

R&S and CSX do not interchange cars at Genesee Junction however, they interchange at Lincoln Park further north.

Years ago, while reading the "New York" forum on railroad.net, I came across several threads about a mystery turntable pit lost in the woods near Genesee Junction. no one seemed to know much about it, or even exactly where it was. I looked for it a few summers ago, but couldnt find it in the dense forest. So I thought I would look during the winter, when the vegetation is less of a hinderance.

So on April 20, 2002, I went in search of it again. I walked out the Greenway trail toward the tracks, turned west and walked down alongside the small LAL interchange yard, then just turned into the woods. it was all downhill! definately not enough flat land for a turntable, I came across a dirt trail, wide and easy to follow, with many recent motorcycle tracks in the mud. I turned right (west) and started following the trail. swamps/ponds/wetlands are to the left, definately not land that once supported railroad tracks! after walking down the trail a short ways, suddenly there it was! right along the trail. the abandoned turntble pit! it was much Larger than I expected it to be! and much Newer! it was built in 1910! its really in excellent shape, Im assuming it was used from 1910 up until the end of steam, probably late 40's..so it has been abandoned approx. 50 years.

Pictures!

Here is a very cool panoramic photo by Bob Melville. Bob took several photos, then used a computer program to seamlessly stitch them together into one panoramic image. thanks Bob! 

There are no known photos of the Genesee Junction turntable in use, or even with the turntable bridge intact. But here is a great video that illustrates what it would have looked like, and how it would have been used to turn a single steam locomotive. Frostburg Maryland, 2013, video by Esteban Tobar: 

Map, aerial photo, and Lidar image:

Here is a map from 1924, sent to me by Les Wilson. Map discovered at Rochester Public Library by Charles Woolever. 

And a modern map of the Junction area: 

And the final map, showing how the junction fits into Rochester railroading as a whole, map from "A History of Rochester Railroads" 

The modern Railroads: (2008)
 

CSX trains through the area are typical of CSX trains anywhere else.. typical CSX Road Power of the early 21st century..mostly lots of GE widecabs! CSX uses the "Westshore" (as it is still called through Rochester) as a bypass route through Rochester..Today's "Westshore" is a single-track line running from Chili to Fairport, connecting with the "mainline" (the CSX Rochester sub, originally the New York Central mainline) at both ends. CSX took over these routes from Conrail in 1999. (NYC to PC to CR to CSX)
 

The second railroad at the junction, the Rochester & Southern, maintains a fleet of older EMD 4-axle power, GP's and switchers. See the R&S page for more detail. R&S arrived on the scene in 1986, taking over the line from Chessie system. (BR&P to B&O to Chessie to R&S)
 

And the third modern railroad in the area, the Livonia Avon & Lakeville. LAL runs on the former Erie Rochester branch (Erie to EL to CR to LAL) from their base of operations in Lakeville, north to Henrietta, then runs on a portion of the Westshore (alongside the CSX westshore) from Jefferson road in Henrietta over to Genesee Junction. (The LAL also operates a portion of the LVRR Rochester branch, but that route is not related to Genesee Junction.)

LAL 420 and 425 have been the primary "road power" for many years now, running north up to Rochester from Lakeville. 420 and 425 approach the yard from the East, and cross the Genesee River, today they left their train behind south of Jefferson road, and ran light to the yard to pick up cars:

Almost a year later, the same pair are sitting at the East end of the yard, about to depart with their train and head back south: 

The Livonia, Avon & Lakeville is famous for its well maintained Alco fleet, check the Alcos of New York State page and the LAL Railfan Network for more info on this very interesting shortline.  

To find the turntable pit:

Park where the Greenway trail crosses Ballantyne road, just west of RIT and the river. Walk north up the Greenway trail, (notice the Genesee Canal to your left!..yes, that is the actual canal!) but don't go all the way to the westshore tracks, instead, as you get near the end of the greenway trail, after crossing over Black Creek but before the barricade at the end of the trail, look for a dirt trail heading off to your left.(west) Follow this trail, you will be walking between the ponds/swamps on your left, and trees to your right. down the trail a little ways the turntable pit will suddenly loom on your right. (immediately north of the trail) It's buried in the forest between the trail and the tracks.
 

It's now been confirmed that this turntable was a turntable only, no adjoining roundhouse ever existed here! this turntable was used to turn steam engines only. NYC Westshore local trains came out of Syracuse and Buffalo, interchanged with the PRR and B&O at Genesee junction, the steam locomotive was turned on the turntable, and they then reversed course and ran back to where they started. It was used during the New York Central steam era, from its construction in 1910 until the end of the steam era in the early 1950's. Upon the arrival of first generation road diesels in the late 1940's and 50's, (Alco RS-units and EMD GP's) turning locomotives was no longer necessary, and the turntable was abandoned. The exact year of last use, abandonment, removal of the turntable bridge and removal of the lead track is unknown, but it would have been in the late 1940's or early 1950's.

Charles Woolever has been doing much "digging for info" while researching his upcoming book on the PRR Rochester Branch. (which crossed the west shore at Genesee Junction)

Charles says:

"I interviewed an employee who worked the Genesee Junction tower. He was an NYC employee. The turntable was installed in 1911. There was a need to turn the small to mid-sized steam engines being used by the NYC on the Syracuse to Rochester turn. This turn basically came from Syracuse to Rochester and picked up the freight from the BR&P and PRR left at the junction there. It returned
to Syracuse. He didn't mention if the turn performed any other work along the line. The turn would come in, make it's train in the yard at the BR&P interchange and add cars from the PRR interchange tracks. Then they would turn the engine and head back to Syracuse.

The turntable stopped being used by WWII, he thought 1944 but couldn't remember. He didn't remember the reason but it was mainly due to larger steam engines being used and they no longer fit the table. I'm sure traffic patterns played a role too."

-Charles Woolever

Thanks Charles!
 
Related Links:

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Genesee Canal.

The Genesee Valley Greenway trail.

Greater Rochester Railfan page

Rochester Railfan Network

LAL Forum on Railroad.net

New York Forum on Railroad.net

Alcos of New York State

LAL Railfan Network

A History of Rochester Railroads
 

Scot Lawrence
Rochester, NY
Page started April 2002

Updated April 2008.

Updated May 2025
 

Return to Scot's main page:    www.scotlawrence.com