On Saturday, June 30th, Tom Healy led a crew on a maintenance run from the Boiceville Trestle to Shokan, a distance of 5 miles. Present were Tom Healy, Russ Hallock, Ron Epstein, Peter Fluchere, Al Schoessow, Ed Palmatier, John Patane, Bill Brosnan, and George Cook.

The crew left around 9:30, and made it to Shokan by 2:30 clearing the tracks of debris along the way, including a crossing installed by the DEP at MP 18 or so. On the way back, they weed-wacked areas where grass and weeds had gotten high, as well as cut low-hanging branches. Some
photos:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 613756.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 213662.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 813630.jpg

Clearing out the DEP crossing:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 213567.jpg


EH

Saturday, July 7th

West Hurley

On Saturday, July 7th, a crew led by George Cook will be working on clearing the line from MP 6 to 16, and will meet at the west end of the former West Hurley station site at MP 10.5 or so at 10:30am. George Cook will bring his track car, and we will clear debris from the line from MP 6 to 16, and focus on certain areas that need work like the Glenford Dike and the Route 28A crossing at Stony Hollow. Please bring picks for the 28A work, chainsaws for clearing the line, and weed wackers for areas where grass has built up. Volunteers who have never ridden this section of the line are especially encouraged to attend.

For those who have not yet been to West Hurley, directions from Kingston are as follows: From Exit 19 of the NY Thruway, proceed west on Route 28 about five miles. Just before you reach West Hurley, and about 3/10ths mile after the stoplight at Zena Rd, turn left onto a small dirt road leading into the woods. This road is almost directly across from the West Hurley Post Office. At the end of the road, turn right and proceed west about 1000 feet until you reach a turn around and can see the end of the West Hurley siding. We will park in this area.

Phoenicia

The Phoenicia Track Crew will be working on repairing track maintenance equipment in preparation for the upcoming track blitz to Cold Brook. They will be starting around 9am in the Phoenicia yard and can use any help on this repair project.


Sunday, July 8th

On Sunday, July 8th, Earl Pardini will lead a crew in Kingston at the Cornell Street yard continuing work on the N5B Caboose renovation, the Davenport 0-4-0 restoration, and planning for moving the fence later this Summer. They will be starting around 9:30am.

Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
Catskill Mountain RR

On Saturday, July 7th, we had a good day at West Hurley - 11 volunteers came: George Cook, John PAtane, Bob Blake, Dave Baker, Al Johnson, THom Johnson, Russ Hallock, Peter Fluchere, Chris Bigham, Bill Brosnan and myself.

The line is now cleared of debres from MP 16 (Ashokan) to the private crossing at MP 6.55 where dirt on the crossing, coupled with the late hour, halted our progress. Around MP 15 there are some big trees that need to be pushed off the ROW, but a track car can get through.

We weed-wacked the worst weed-filled areas, including the Glenford dike; we also weed-wacked around the crossings at Stony Hollow and Hurley Mountain Rd. I repainted the milepost at MP 6. Some photos:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 456543.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 487542.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 527611.jpg


We plan to run our mowing machines on this section in the next few weeks, now that the line is clear of downed trees.

Between our maintenance runs on the reservoir, Pine Hill, and West Hurley, the line is now clear and passable from Kingston to Phoenicia, as well as from Pine Hill to Highmount.

On Sunday, July 8th, the CMRR hosted a NARCOA meet between Phoenicia, MP 27.5, and Shokan, MP 16.4. About a dozen cars participated on the first NARCOA run ever on this stretch of track. Many thanks to Tom Healy and Joe Marsh for arranging this event. Photos:


http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 722472.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 333556.jpg


Also on Sunday, the CMRR had a good turnout in Kingston at the Cornell Street shops. Work consisted of finish work on the dump truck, further work on the N5B caboose and the Davenport 0-4-0.


EH

Friday, July 13th:

On Friday, July 13th, the CMRR will march in the annual Children's Day Parade in Kingston. Dick Wilhelm will bring his track car as our "float". This should be a good advertisement for our upcoming service in Kingston.

Volunteers are strongly encouraged to join the parade with their families. Line up will be at the Kingston High school on Andrews Lane at 5-5:30pm; the parade will start at 6:00 pm and go from City Hall to Kingston Plaza. You can park at Benedictine Hospital on Mary's Avenue behind the High School. There will be fireworks afterwards.

Train crew personnel are encouraged to wear their normal attire used in train service. Al Schoessow will be wearing his engineer clothing and John Prestopino will wear his conductor uniform.


Saturday, July 14th:

On Saturday, July 14th, I will be leading the brush crew at MP 22.5 just north of Cold Brook Station. The purpose will be cutting trees and other preparation work for tie replacements in this section later in the summer. We will work from MP 22.5 (where we stopped last time) to Cold Brook Station, MP 22.1.

We will meet at 10am. Please park near the now-closed auto bridge over the Esopus at MP 22.38, which is 1/4 mile north of Cold Brook Station. Cold Brook Station can be reached by taking Route 28A west from Boiceville. Shortly after crossing the Esopus, turn north (right) onto Cold Brook Road. The station is about 1/2 mile up the road on the right. Bring chainsaws and clippers. We will be having lunch at Russ's at 1pm, and after lunch may do some cutting on the operating section or west of Hummingbird Lane along Herdman Road.

The Phoenicia Track Crew plan to meet at 9am in Phoenicia, and will continue to repair track machinery in preparation for our tie replacement blitz which will start later this month. Those who would like to assist them in this work are most welcome to come.

Win Goodier, our member from Virginia, will be joining us cutting on Saturday. We have saved some nice trees for him!



Sunday, July 15th:

On Cornell Street in Kingston, Earl Pardini will be leading a crew continuing restoration work on the dump truck, the N5B caboose and the Davenport 0-4-0. They will begin work at 9:30am.

Win Goodier may do some cutting along Herdman Road Sunday afternoon. If you want to join him, please contact him directly.


Saturday, July 21st.

Tentative plans are to begin removal of tie plates and spikes from marked ties east of MP 22.7 in preparation for tie replacements to begin on July 28th.


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
Catskill Mountain RR

On Saturday, there were two crews working on the CMRR.

In Phoenicia, George Peck, Dave Mason, and John Isaksen worked on equipment maintenance, and took the tie inserted down to MP 22.7 to mark ties and make other preparation for our upcoming tie blitz to Cold Brook. Tom Healy and Dick Wilhelm worked on various equipment in the yard.

In Cold Brook, Win Goodier, his girfriend Debra, Todd Syska, Zef Fessendon, Al Johnson and I cut trees from MP 22.5 to Cold Brook station widening the the ROW in preparation for the upcoming tie blitz.

Some photos:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 310863.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 110916.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 311017.jpg


After lunch, we went to MP 30.1 on Herdman road, and cut east towards MP 29.9, where we stopped last time. We made it to MP 30, and cut a small gap at about MP 29.95. We should be able to punch through next time, and with 1/2 mile of track cleared, can start running track cars on this section.

Some photos:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 611153.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 611218.jpg

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 211294.jpg


EH