This last Wendsday I Skied and rode Snowmobiles on the Old Pennsy Main Line from Corry PA to Mayville NY. It was intresting as in the winter you can see the old Telagraph poles and signal boxes that you cant see in the summer. It is amazing that you can pretend that you are at the throttle of a First generation diesal locomotive bouncing down the Right of way of a snowmoble trail on a abondoned right of way. The Trail that I was on had room for two tracks and can be seen a couple of issues back in Trains or Classic trains when they had trains running on it. New York snowmobiles trails are groomed and make excellent jogging,Mountain Biking and X-contry ski trails. Problem is that you hear a snowmobile coming then get out of the way as they can do 100 miles per hours on a straight away! New Yorks state snowmoble trail maps can be gotten from the " I Love NY" Phone number on there website. There are thousands of miles of state funded trails from Chautaqua County New York that interconnect all the way to Bangor Maine and into Canada. Many of the trails are on RR ROWs with a few parrreling Active Right of ways so be care full and right with a Club listed above or with a cell phone and a buddy. There all also Poker Runs were Snowmobilers ride for charity(personaly i would want to see trains put back in on these Right of ways) Remember that the only time a many of these right of ways are open is during the winter (Summertime the farmers close them off) So get your rare milage in now!
…Are the trails owned by the State and if so, how can the farmers legally close them off seasonally…?
Part of that ROW is an underground natural gas pipeline, laid in the 1980’s. I remember it being put in from Clymer to somewhere around Sherman, or possibly a little more toward Mayville. I believe it ties into a pump station off the ROW NW of Mayville. I don’t know where it goes from there or if it is still under pressure. Hundreds of gas wells were drilled in that area, but most are no longer producing.
They are owned by both, The snowmobilers get permits and insurance that can often cost up to 100,000 a club or even more