The Sackets Harbor & Saratoga Railroad

Jon Patton photo

Jon Patton photo

Map of old grade with photos.

  The birth of the Adirondack Branch starts back in 1848 with the idea of building a railroad from Saratoga to Sackets Harbor on Lake Ontario to tap into the shipping business there.

  By 1850, they had set the amount of stock at $2.5 million in shares of $1,000 each; as here on the left.

In 1852, three survey crews set out into the wilderness to find preliminary routes.  By January of 1853, they had completed over 500 miles and the engineering department under A.F. Edwards drew up this map and made a detailed report for the shareholders.

Here is a portion of the map which starts at Sackets Harbor and heads past Watertown and Carthage.  They also had a branch up to French Creek.

Here is the detail for Sackets Harbor and their plans for docks.

Here is the detail for French Creek with the track making a loop around the peninsula.

Here is a detail of the line heading east from Croghan to Old Forge and Raquette Lake.

Here is a detail as the line turns south toward North Creek as well as a branch to the iron ore mine at Tahawus.  This branch follows the same path as the one finally completed in 1945.

This is the last section from North Creek south to Saratoga Springs; the same location as it was finally finished in 1871.  This shows one alternate ending in Ballston Spa. 

  In 1854, actual work finally began!  Ground was broken in Hadley and about 20 miles of disconnected sections were graded that year.

  Here is a fill near Crystal Dale in Lewis County photographed by Russ Nelson and part of his website on unfinished railroads in New York.  See the "Related Links" section to see his site.

  Here is another section with a stone wall on McPhilmy Road south of Crystal Dale.  This photo is also by Russ.

On May 8th, 2010, I found this section of SH&S grading at the Warren - Saratoga County line.  This 20' high fill was on both sides of the creek at the county line and there is some stone work along the creek. This is only about 100' west of the existing tracks.

Following this north, I came to a cut in the hill which was still very evident after over 150 years.  It looks like someone had used it in the past to do some logging.

For a detailed timeline of Sackets Harbor & Saratoga Railroad history use this button.