The starting point of this particular post is the fact that the Spring 2026 CSNY Study Tour is coming up April 3 and 4, a Friday and a Saturday. The meeting location is Newark, NY, and the focus is the Erie Canal in Wayne County including the Sodus Canal. Never heard of the Sodus Canal?

Registration information will be forthcoming here, as well as on the CSNY Facebook page.

The connection to the photo below is this: I took the photo during the Fall 2024 Study Tour of the Black River Canal. However, when a collection of antique automobiles happened to be on the same property as some canal ruins in Lowville, we got distracted. 1. Guess the year and model?

If you’ve never been on a CSNY study tour, most attendees ride the coach, with ongoing commentary from a local guide or two. In the photo below, attendees are transferring from the coach to Venera, an excursion boat. 2. Guesses?

I’m unfamiliar with the Cohocton area, but I’m guessing this photo was taken during a study tour of the Genesee Valley Canal. 3. Makes and years of truck, car, and pickup?

I don’t believe this photo was taken on a study tour, but it should be relatively easy to identify. 4. Guesses?

The location of this photo should be easy. What I find amazing is the vintage of the cars juxtaposed with the woman aboard the barge.

Any thoughts? 5.

The two barges are being towed by a tugboat. Any guesses on the tugboat? Might it have been a Bouchard boat? When did canal barges cease to have crew/families aboard?

Guess the lock? With some of these it might be easier to identify the location of the photo than the year of the car. 6.

7. Location and automobiles?

8. This would truly be a classic.

My guesses: 1. 1933 Chevrolet. 2. Coach is a 1950s Flxible Clipper; car is a 1959 Ford. 3. 1958 International, 1960 Dodge, and 1957 Chevrolet pickup. 4. Lock 17 and 1959 Chevrolet. 5. It’s clearly lock E-6, and the two cars in the middle . . . not sure, but to the left it’s a late 1940s Buick and to the right, it’s an early 1950s Pontiac woodie. 6. I wanted to say a 1957 Packard, but the grille is wrong. So, how about a 1957 Studebaker President. 7. Spencerport looking north, and I’d say an Oldsmobile, a Plymouth, a Ford wagon–all mid-1950s–and an older Buick in a time when cars were all two colors. 8. Since this was in the CSNY archives and the canal and the railroad run parallel to each other across central NY, I’m guessing the canal is nearby, passibly off to the right.

Got any photos of 1940s and 1930s automobiles/trucks along the canal? I’d love to see them. I’ve got more of these also. Let me know if you want to see them.