Saturday, April 13th

On Saturday, we had three crews working.

At Mt. Tremper, Al Johnson was painting CMRR 701.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207925

At Longyear Siding, George Peck continued work spiking, tamping and ballasting Longyear siding, helped by Art Vogel, Neil Remsen, Dave Heick and new Volunteer Bill Lohrer.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207922

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207923


In Kingston, track crews working west of C-9 inserted 52 ties. Large amounts of brush were cleared from the ROW on the high fill approaching the cars at Rte. 209 from the east. Repairs to the JD 410 backhoe were completed and the machine was returned to service. Working today were; Earl Pardini, Al Schoessow, Raphael Demeglio, Steve Gollow, Frank Libihoul, and Mark Glaser.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207919

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207920

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207921


Sunday, April 14th

On Sunday, George Peck, Gary Lowe, and Bill Lohrer finished up work on Longyear siding, placing it into service for full sized trains.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=207998

In Shokan, Paul Sternitzke, Todd Syska, Bruce Devorkin and I cut the line open from Shokan to MP 20.1:

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208000

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208001

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208002

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208003

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208004


In Kingston, track restoration work leading to the retrieval of stationary cars at the railroad's Rte. 209 crossing continued. 49 ties were fully spiked, 42 inserted. Safety ties are now under the rail from approx. one train legnth west of C-9 to a point one half rail legnth east of the Lion Gardiner. Additional brush clearing was undertaken on the north and south sides of the coaches providing a good view of the cars and CMRR ROW to the east. Todays crew included, Earl Pardini, Al Schoessow, Ron Epstein, Bob Blake, Steve Gollow, John Patane, Ernie Hunt, George Bain, and Mark Glaser.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208005

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208006

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208009

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208010

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208011

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208012

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208013

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208014


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

Friday, April 19th

Steve Gollow will be working cleaning up the area near 209 and the RR.


Saturday, April 20th

Saturday we will have two crews working.

In Kingston, in the morning the CMRR will participate in Kingston's Operation Clean Sweep to clean up the ROW throughout Kingston. The 401 and work train will be used to pick up trash. Crews should meet at Cornell Street at 9am - all hands call!

After lunch and completion of the cleanup, crews will return to 209 to complete plating and spiking of track all the way out to 209.

In Mt. Tremper, George Peck will continue work completing Longyear's siding. He will start there at 9am.

Al Johnson will be working readying the 701 and 702 for service at Mt. Tremper Saturday starting around 10am. He could use help over the next few weeks to clean the coaches and install celestory windows and lettering on the 702.


Sunday, April 21st

In Kingston, crews will meet at Cornell Street at 8am and move to the work site east of 209 at 9am.

In Mt. Tremper, George Peck will continue work on the Longyear siding starting at 10am.


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

Friday, April 19th

On Friday, Steve Gollow continued clearing brush west of 209.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208205


Saturday, April 20th

On Saturday at Mt. Tremper, Al Johnson and Ray Farrell continued work cleaning and painting coaches 701 and 702.

George Peck, Art Vogel, Dave Heick and Neil Remsen, assisted by Ray Farrell, moved the work train to Longyear Siding.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208244

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208245

In Kingston on Saturday CMRR's participation in Kingston's 'Operation Clean Sweep' included a thorough cleaning of the ROW from O'Neil St. to Westbrook Lane. Both litter and large items were removed by crews and taken in the side dump to Cornell St. for later disposal. Just west of Chandler Dr., the railroad loaded several tons of tie remnants into a 30-yd. contaner and cleaned up several piles of debris which had been dumped adjacent to the tracks. The crew included Earl Pardini, Al Schoessow, Steve Gollow, Raphael Demeglio, Walt Otto, Bob Blake, Frank Libihoul, John Patane, Peter Fluchere, Jim Bruck, Ron Epstein, and myself.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208208

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208209

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208210

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208211

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208212

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208213

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208214

Later in the day, crews returned to the ongoing tie project west of Earl Pardini Bridge (C-9) fully spiking 26 and inserting 2 @ Gil's farm crossing. Participating today were Earl Pardini, Al Schoessow, Steve Gollow, Jim Bruck, Walt Otto, Bob Blake, Raphael Demeglio, Ernie Hunt, George Bain, Ron Epstein, Peter Fluchere, John Patane and Mark Glaser.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208215

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208216

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208217

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208218

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208219

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208220

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208221


Sunday, April 21st.

On Sunday, Art Vogel lead a crew consisting of Karin Vogel and Neil Remsen that cut open the line from Shokan to Stony Hollow.

Also on Sunday, track crews reached the coaches @ Rte. 209 after installing a total of over 130 safety ties in the project. Today, 40 ties were spiked/gauged and 12 were inserted completing the track upgrades required for the initial movement of the equipment east. Today's crew included; Earl Pardini, Al Schoessow, Steve Gollow, John Patane,Frank Libihoul, Edwin Winstanley,Ron Epstein, Jim Bruck, Tony Bochinno, John Watson, Raphael Demeglio, and Mark Glaser. Many thanks to all who worked on this important project!

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208246

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208247

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208248

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208249

A work train coupled onto the Lion Gardiner at around 6 P.M. and pulled it and CNJ 4322 east and fully over C-9 for a photo op requested by a reporter from 'Railpace Newsmagazine'. Before departing east, crews were photographed standing next to the consist on the high fill just before the Rte. 209 crossing. The coaches are now tied down just east of Gil's farm crossing @ MP 5.31.

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208250

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208251

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208252

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208253

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208254

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208255

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208256

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208257

At Cornell St., Earl Pardini and Ernie Klopping worked on the Fairmont 110B tamper's diesel engine repair.

What a great weekend!!!!

Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

Congrats on reaching that impressive goal!

Where is Lion Gardiner going? There was mention of "a new home" in one of the photo captions.

And, who gets the revenue from those billboards along the railroad? Presumably the County, since they own the ROW?

Howard P.

Howard,

There is a move afoot to save the LG. Not a done deal yet, but its looking good. Will announce when it happens. Hopefully the move will happen in June.

As for the billboard - Penn Central sold the rights many years ago to a billboard company, so its not the county that gets the revenue.

EH

Congratulations from here, too. Bet the trail people are mad now because you've made more progress and moved those cars!

I am curious about the heritage of the equipment in the shots. One coach is definitely an ex-Lackawanna MU car, but I don't know about the other one, and the flat car looks especially intriguing; it looks shorter than most, although it doesn't appear to be an "FG," or gun flat:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32679&p=169522

Correction, took note of the captions above, and one car is ex-CNJ, and the other car is the Pullman Lion Gardiner.

Heritage of cars:


Flat - CMRR 201 - Ex LBR 27

Diner - Lion Gardiner - D&H 154 - NYC 418

MU - NJT 4322 - DL&W 2322

West of 209 are CNJ 1198 and 1204

Also Penn. Gondola 518399 and NYC Ballast Hopper (CR) 51467


EH

J3a,

LG is a Pullman-built car, a 1915 NYC diner, later a/c'd and sold about 1944 to the D&H, where it became #154. Sold about 1966-67 to Empire State Railway Museum, and stored by ESRM at CNJ's E'port shops. Used in 1967 on a number of High Iron Co steam trips with CPR 1238-1286. In spring of 1969, LG was one of the first four pieces to arrive in the weed-filled station area of the then forming Valley Railroad at Essex, Conn., still in D&H two-tone gray.

The Lion Gardiner name was applied in 1971, when the car was used for a number of special events and charters during the early days of the Valley Railroad, up to about 1975 or so. The book party for Mike Koch's "The Shay Locomotive" was held on board the car. Frozen water pipes, due to improper winter prep, along with a poor storage location, and the early steel car construction, all added up to LG never being used again by VRR.

Lion Gardiner was the patriarch of the Gardiner family, owners of Gardiner's Island in Long Island Sound between Connecticut and LI. The name was given by VRR's Oliver Jensen.

Howard P.

As could be expected, HP, gives this forum a weath of knowledge,


Keep up the fantastic work Catskill, I can see first hand your uphill battles, and Its a Story worth telling

I look forward to your photo updates and keep fighting a good fight with the Trailraiders,and NIMBY's, and the County

Saturday, April 27th

Saturday we will have three crews working.

In Kingston, we will switch back to trackwork in the operating section getting the track ready for opening day. Crews will meet at Cornell Street at 8am. Projects include changing rails at Westbrook Station, finishing the guard rails at Pardini Bridge (C9), realigning the track at the bridge, and to insert ties as needed on the line.

In Mt. Tremper, with Longyear siding complete, George Peck will start track work at Rock Cut. They will meet at Longyear siding at 9am.

Al Johnson will again be working readying the 701 and 702 for service at Mt. Tremper Saturday starting around 10am. He could use help over the next few weeks to clean the coaches and install celestory windows and lettering on the 702.


Sunday, April 28th

In Kingston, crews will meet at Cornell Street at 9am to continue track repairs on the in-service section of the line in Kingston.

In Mt. Tremper, George Peck will meet at the Longyear siding starting at 10am to do trackwork.


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

The latest. EH.

A state Supreme Court justice has blocked the Catskill Mountain Railroad from moving two deteriorating rail cars into the city of Kingston, at least for now.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 197025.txt

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=208380

The city had made good on a threat against the Catskill Mountain Railroad, parking a truck on the tracks near the Washington Avenue crossing so the railroad can’t moved two dilapidated train cars from the town of Ulster into Kingston for repairs.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 078580.txt

"We don't get no respect, no respect at all."

Well, at least you know where the guy stands.

Just my opinion, but it seems these guys are actually afraid of having you succeed. That means if you actually accomplish something, they'll fight back all the harder. Good for your in a way, but it means you had better be prepared for trouble of some sort anytime you do anything--but then, I don't have to tell you that.

Keep it up, and once you get out of that town (or past it), the bozos won't be able to do or say anything, you'll be out of their jurisdiction.

Any chance you can get someone to "pull rank" on this outfit, i.e., the FRA, or would that have its own problems?

EDIT: Did some checking around, and it looks like this guy has issues with other people, too--it's not just you.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 351979.txt

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 886773.txt

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 213761.txt

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/20 ... 991334.txt

http://www.kingstonx.com/2013/04/08/gal ... ant-money/

Hmm, how do you deal with such personalities? I can personally tell you you'll never convince them, they are always right. They remind me of the boss who was sure his spelling of some word was right, but his secretary knew better, and even suggested they look up the word in a dictionary. Even that wasn't enough for this boss, who said to his secretary, "It's not my fault the book is wrong!"

Think the message through before you send it; it'll very likely aggravate the mayor even more than he already is, and he'll try to make life harder for the railroad just out of spite.

Than again, there's nothing you can do to please such people, so maybe you want to consider aggravating him anyway for sport.

These are the same tactics that people employed "in the old days". One railroad wants to build a level crossing with another railroad. The other railroad says "no way" and blocks the build site with train cars. The second railroad would then move the cars in the middle of the night and build the crossing anyway.

WWJJHD? (What would James Jerome Hill Do?) ;)

While I have loosely suggested we could aggravate the mayor for sport, let us also recall another lesson to use with our judgement.

http://ivn.us/ars-politica/2013/04/25/t ... ersuasive/

In the meantime, I am confident the Catskill Mountain people will come out on top on this one. If the comments about the mayor blocking a railroad are true, then he and his attorney have committed a grave error--specifically, a bungle. They could be made a laughingstock for this.

Ah, wouldn't it be wonderful if these guys set a booby trap for themselves?

I'll leave that to the law-abiding Catskill Mountain people.

And it's not just here; the Adirondack Scenic people have the same problem:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32021