Somerset Railroad (New York)
The Somerset Railroad (SOM) was a small freight railroad in Niagara County, New York, operated by CSX Transportation from 1983 to around 2021. It was built to move coal to the Kintigh Generating Station, also known as the Somerset Power Plant, a 675 MW coal plant in Somerset, NY.
The line used a mix of old and new tracks. From Lockport it ran on the former International Railway Co. route that started as the Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach line in 1900 and became part of IRC in 1902. From Newfane, the railroad followed the old Hojack Line to Appleton and West Somerset, then turned onto new trackage to reach the power plant. The Somerset Secondary loop covered about 15.6 miles (25 km).
The Somerset Railroad owned 428 gondola coal cars, but CSX provided locomotives and ran the trains. Before 1998, Conrail powered the trains; after Conrail’s split, CSX provided the power. Coal trains typically loaded in Youngstown, Ohio, traveled to Erie, PA, then Buffalo, and north on the Niagara Branch, switching to the Lockport Subdivision and finally onto the Somerset Secondary.
Although the power plant had its own gondolas, CSX hopper cars were commonly seen at Kintigh. Coal was unloaded with a rotary car dumper at the plant. In Lockport, a chemical plant called Vanchlor received chlorine by rail.
The first Somerset train ran in November 1983, powered by four Conrail GE B23-7 locomotives, led by unit 1926.
In March 2020, The New York Times reported that the Kintigh Generating Station would shut down as part of Governor Cuomo’s carbon-emission plan, with electricity likely sourced from plants in Pennsylvania. After the plant closure, CSX filed for abandonment of the line in October 2020. In spring 2022, CSX tore up the line from beyond the chemical plant spur to the power plant, marking another abandonment of the Hojack right of way. Before abandonment, CSX collected Somerset cars for scrap, with a few cars remaining in other services.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 03:41 (CET).