Fairport Train Viewing Platform

The platform stands on Liftbridge Lane East in the village of Fairport, 13 miles (21 km) east of Rochester, between the Erie Canal parking area and the CSX main line. It was designed by the Fairport Perinton Partnership for a Better Community, which began the project in 2006, and it opened to railfans in June 2020 as what the Partnership calls a sanctioned, safe and covered location. Railpace names it the Albert H. Knapp Rotary Pavilion.

A speaker wired to a radio scanner relays CSX radio traffic around the clock (Railpace), so you usually hear a train called before you see it. The benches were fabricated from train axles and wheels donated by CSX. The Village of Fairport describes the site as complete with a restored train caboose, seating and the sounds of active trains, and cameras on the platform feed a public live stream.

The Main Street grade crossing is about 120 m (400 ft) west of the platform, and the Partnership promises "lots of horns and fast action" there. Main Street's restaurants and shops are within walking distance, which makes this an easy stop to combine with a canal-side walk.

Fairport is a village in the town of Perinton, Monroe County, that grew up as a busy Erie Canal port. The platform sits just north of the canal, and the Partnership's Fairport Junction page notes the Erie Canal is just across the parking lot from the rail platform.

About 150 m (500 ft) to the south, the Fairport Lift Bridge carries NY Route 250 (Main Street) over the canal. Built in 1913-14 by the Lackawanna Bridge Company of Buffalo and opened on August 15, 1914, it is a decagonal structure with no two angles the same and no square corners on its floor (Wikipedia).

The railway itself is three tracks wide here (Partnership) and runs straight through the village on a west-north-west to east-south-east alignment, crossing North Main Street at grade. Expect a small-town soundtrack: crossing bells, horns for the Main Street crossing, and CSX radio chatter from the platform speaker.

Railroads reached Fairport in 1853 (Wikipedia, Fairport). Today the line through the village is CSX's Rochester Subdivision, with the platform at milepost 361 (Railpace). Railpace places Fairport two miles west of where the West Shore Subdivision peels away from the main line, which it rejoins at milepost 382 near Churchville; the Fairport Perinton Partnership describes the site as three tracks at the junction of CSX's Rochester and West Shore Subdivisions.

The platform idea was formed in 2006 by the Fairport Perinton Partnership for a Better Community, which talked with CSX, other railroad towns with platforms and railfans. CSX took an interest to promote safety and curtail trespassing through the village (Railpace). Railpace reports a $125,000 construction cost: Fairport Rotary gave $2,500, the Fairport Perinton Merchants Association $30,000, CSX a $10,000 grant, and the Village of Fairport and its Office of Community and Economic Development covered the remainder. Fairport Electric fabricated the benches and installed the signal. The platform opened to railfans in June 2020 (Partnership).

A platform built specifically so the public can watch a busy Class I main line legally, with the railroad's own support, is rare. Fairport adds a scanner speaker that plays CSX radio traffic around the clock, benches made from CSX axles and wheels, a hump signal from Buffalo's Frontier Yard, and public live cameras, all in the centre of an Erie Canal village with a 1914 lift bridge a few steps away.