Gulf Curve At Night. With temperatures hovering between ten and fifteen degrees and wind gusts approaching 30 miles per hour, I opted for this "night shot" of a westbound CSX train rounding the famous "Gulf Curve" in Little Falls, New York, at 8:49 p.m. The shot was made immediately following a meeting of the Gulf Curve Chapter, NRHS at the Little Falls Library. The cold temperatures allowed me to emphasize the working factories along the river. (Note the steam rising from the various boilers.) This picturesque curve has a violent and deadly past. The Mohawk River (visible at left) once cut deep into the valley walls here at Little Falls, and the tracks rounded a very steep curve to the right of their current location. Despite at least one early attempt at realigning the curve and at least one early mishap, nothing was done until the New York Central's "Lake Shore Limited" went off the tracks here shortly after 11:30 p.m. on April 19, 1940, killing 31 (including the engineer) and injuring 51. After the crash, the Central commenced an ambitious plan to reroute the river and the railroad to ease the strain on passing trains. The new "curve" seen here sits atop a man-made fill deposited in 1947 into the original river channel. The original "curve" would have existed in the dark area to the right of this photo. If you examine closely the rocky bank of the Mohawk River directly underneath the radio tower in the center of this picture, you might envision the riverbank extending far to the right. That will give you an idea of the original alignment. To this day, trains on the curve are restricted by timetable instruction to 55 m.p.h. (passenger) and 50 m.p.h. (intermodal and freight) by CSX. A historical plaque placed by the aforementioned NRHS chapter marks the site on nearby Route 5 where rescue crews staged to tend to the survivors of the 1940 calamity.
This album seeks to portray classic New England and Upstate New York imagery. It showcases the most perfect examples of regional identity, with special attention to structures and landscape.
