Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg RR

Introduction

The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg, commonly known as The Hojack Line, operated along the south shore of Lake Ontario, from to Oswego.   Different segments of the line were abandoned at different times.   In various areas the defunct railroad's right-of-way is in use by other railroads, such as the Somerset Railroad.   That part known as the Hojack was started by the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad (LOSRR).   The RW&O started out in 1842 as the Watertown & Rome Railroad.   It was built to link Watertown with Rome on the Syracuse & Utica, one of the original roads to consolidate into the New York Central in 1853.   Around the time of the NYC consolidation another railroad came into being, the Potsdam & Watertown Railroad.   This obviously was to link Watertown with Potsdam, New York in St. Lawrence County near Massena.   In 1861 these two railroads mergred into the RW&O.   A branch line from DeKalb Junction (near Canton, New York) to Ogdensburg was later added.   In 1864 the RW&O laid a line from Pulaski to Oswego and merged the Syracuse & Northern Railroad.   In 1858 the Lake Ontario Shore Rail Road was chartered from Oswego to the Suspension Bridge, which crossed the Niagara River between New York State and Canada.   In 1870 this company was only running from Oswego to a nearby community called Hannibal.   The RW&O, seeking expansion, merged the LOSRR and finished the line to the Suspension Bridge by 1875.   Eventually, existing towns like Sodus in Wayne County would prosper and towns like Barker in eastern Niagara County would be born.   However, the consolidation drove the RW&O into bankruptcy.   The RW&O earned the name, according to Spike System's Webville & Hypertext RR, "Rotten Wood & Old Rusty Rails".   Interestingly in 1872 the RW&O took over the Black River & Utica Railroad.   The Black River flows from the Adirondack Mountains through Watertown to Sackets Harbor, New York.   By 1878 the RW&O ended up in the hands of the management of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western.   The DL&W's management only cared about the DL&W and left the RW&O to die, so to speak.   By 1882 the RW&O was in better hands.   The new owners built the Ontario Secondary (Beebee line) from Charlotte, New York, where the Genesee River flows into Lake Ontario, to Rochester, which the Hojack missed, but the new management wasn't enough to save the RW&O.   In 1891 the RW&O became a subsidiary of the New York Central and mergred with it on April 13, 1913.^Wiki