Author Description

HOJACK: Remembering the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad and Division, By Peter Gores & John Taibi, with David Link & Richard Palmer. 1,396 images (267 color), maps, drawings, ephemera. HOJACK is the definitive story of the historic and surviving contemporary lines of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad and after its 1891 acquisition by the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad - the RW&O Division. The word Hojack is a term of endearment that has always meant the RW&O railroad past, and even present lines. At its height, the RW&O Division was comprised of just over 700 miles of trackage, which spanned the length and breadth of upstate New York. The RW&O railroad and division extended from the Adirondacks to the Niagara Escarpment, and from the Mohawk River Valley to the St. Lawrence River and on into Canada via Massena. The RW&O was a diversified railroad whose far-flung territory produced shipments of everything from apples to forest products to paper and Hematite ore. Over time, the railroad transitioned from early to more modern steam locomotives, which eventually gave way to the Diesel era. The railroad changed as well. Not just from the RW&O to the NYC&HR, but to the (new) New York Central Railroad and on to the Penn Central, Conrail, and CSX eras. HOJACK would not be a complete work if it did not also explore the shortline railroads that developed because of the emergence of the RW&O as a through trunk railroad. Shortlines, such as the Lowville & Beaver River, the Massena Terminal, and the Norwood & St. Lawrence - just to name a few - are also thoroughly presented historically and contemporarily in HOJACK.