Catskill Mtn. RR Brush Cutting – Saturday, September 30th

On Saturday, September 30th, Earl Pardini, George Cook and I plan to lead a crew working to clear the line west of Hurley Mountain Road (County Route 5) starting at 9am. Our goal is to reach MP 7.5, where we stopped last time (coming from Stony Hollow). Earl will bring his backhoe so we can clear several washovers near MP 6, and also clear the rails where there is fill on the tracks at MP 6.55. George will bring his track car and will follow us up the line.

This will open the line from Kingston all the way to West Hurley, and enable the CMRR to move the cars stored off of Route 209 to the siding at West Hurley.

Hurley Mountain Road (County Route 5) is about 1 mile west on Route 28 from Exit 19 (Kingston) of the NY Thruway. After turning left onto Hurley Mountain Road, proceed 2/10ths mile until you cross the tracks. We will park near the crossing.

Weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 64 degrees Saturday with a light breeze.

New volunteers are welcome as always.

Ernie Hunt

Today we had an eleven man crew cutting the last uncleared track between Kingston and West Hurley. We started at Hurley Mountain Road, MP 5.95, and worked west to MP 7.5, where we quit two weeks ago coming east from Stony Hollow. The crew today consisted CMRR President Earl Pardini, George Cook, Joe Marsh, Steve Kijak, Chris Bigham, Dave Baker, Travis Rapp, Freddie Rasmussen, myself, and two new volunteers, Eric and Ed. Earl brought his backhoe, and George and Joe each brought their track cars.

There were two private driveways that had severe washovers, and Earl cleared them both with the backhoe, plus a couple other smaller washovers. We encountered a broken rail at MP 6.5, and Earl made a special tie out of a log, cutting two cradles for the rails, that held the rails together enough for our track cars to use. A new rail will be put in later.

Once past these driveways the cutting was pretty light up through Siding 7 to MP 7.5, where we stopped two weeks ago, coming east from Stony Hollow. The line is now clear from the Kingston shops, MP 2.8 to the end of the Glenford Dike, MP 11.4. We will start there later this month for the final push to clear the last part of the line from Phoenicia to Kingston between MP 11.4 and 16.

After we made it to MP 7.5, Joe and George ran their track cars up to the crossing at Route 28A, MP 8.32, before returning to Hurley Mountain Road.

This brings us to 14.75 miles of track cleared so far in 2006.

Pictures from today can be found here.

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

Ernie Hunt

Catskill Mtn. RR Brush Cutting – Sunday, October 8th

On Sunday, October 8th, Tom Healy and Chris Bigham plan to lead a crew working to clear the line from the west end of the Glenford Dike, about MP 11.4, towards the crane at MP 16. We plan to start about 10:00 am at the end of the West Hurley siding, about MP 10.4, which is about 1,000 feet west of the former station site at about MP 10.2.

West Hurley is 5 miles west on Route 28 from Exit 19 (Kingston) of the NY Thruway. Just before you reach the West Hurley post office, and about 3/10ths mile after the stoplight at Zena Rd, turn left onto a small dirt road leading into the woods. At the end of the road, after about ¼ mile, turn right and proceed along a dirt road about 1000 feet, until the road reaches a small turnaround by the siding. We will park in this area.

Tom will be bringing his track car, and the CMRR put a work flat on the siding for our use. Sometime during the day Tom will run the crew in his track car down to the Route 28A crossing (MP 8.32) so everyone can see the track we have cleared to date.

Weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 67 degrees Sunday with a light breeze.

New volunteers are welcome as always.


Ernie Hunt

Today a 5 man crew headed by Tom Healy and Chris Bigham cut west from the end of the Glenford Dike, MP 11.3, to milepost 12. Joining them were Al Johnson, Matt Giardino, and Ed Palmatier.

There are now only 4 more miles left to cut to reach the crane at MP 16 in Ashokan. When that is done the line will be completely clear between Kingston and Phoenicia.

A few pictures from today and yesterday can be seen here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

We plan to have another crew working next Saturday, October 14th. Details to follow.

Ernie Hunt

Catskill Mtn. RR Brush Cutting – Saturday, October 14th

On Saturday, October 14th, Earl Pardini, Steve Kijak, Steve Gollow and I plan to lead a crew working to clear the line east of Hurley Mountain Road (County Route 5) starting at 9:30am. Our goal is to reach the cars at MP 5.5, and to clear out the area between MP 5.4 and 5.5 south of the washouts towards the farmer’s field. George Cook and Joe Marsh will bring their track cars. This area was fully cut last February, so we will only be dealing with recent growth.

This will allow the CMRR access to the washouts between MP 5.4 and MP 5.5 so they can put cribbing under the tracks and move the cars out of this precarious area. The plan is that the cars will eventually be moved to the siding at West Hurley, four miles up the line.

After lunch we plan to run the track cars up to MP 12 to see the cutting we have done up the line. If by that time we have finished our work near MP 5.4, we will cut more west of MP 12.

Hurley Mountain Road (County Route 5) is about 1 mile west on Route 28 from Exit 19 (Kingston) of the NY Thruway. After turning left onto Hurley Mountain Road, proceed 2/10ths mile until you cross the tracks. We will park near the crossing.

Weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 54 degrees Saturday with a light breeze.

New volunteers are welcome as always.

Ernie Hunt

On Saturday, October 14th we had a successful time cutting in both Kingston and west of West Hurley. In Kingston we cut three pathways to the cars at 209 from the nearby farmer's field, and we also cleared around the cars, and on the line west of the cars, so cribbing work can start next weekend. Our morning team consisted of George Cook, Chris Bigham, Ed and Eric Palmatier, Dave Baker, Al Johnson, Burr Hubbell, Steve Kijak, myself, and Dick Wilhelm.

After lunch we moved to West Hurley and loaded up George Cook's track car, and a CMRR flat, and went to MP 12 to continue cutting past where last week's crew quit. Dick Wilhelm had to leave, but Steve Gollow and Joe Marsh joined us, increasing our crew to 11.

We cut past the Glenford Siding to about MP 13.75. We believe it will take only one more session to reach the crane at MP 16.2.

This brings our total miles cut for 2006 to 17.8 miles, including today.

More pictures from October 14th can be found here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR


Ernie Hunt

Do you follow this work with a weed spray to avoid having to do it all over again next year?

The CMRR plans to start spraying the worst portions next spring.

EH

While we were clearing the tracks by route 209 and west of West Hurley last Saturday, a 70 person "army" organized by a local politician cleaned the railroad tracks from MP 3.2, Downs Street, west to Kingston Plaza, MP 3.78. This is the result - an unbelievable sight.



http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 523146.jpg

Many who came were volunteers from one of the local Bruderhof communities, in addition to local people from the neighborhood, as well as a city work-release crew. A big thanks to all who helped here last Saturday.

Here is what the same area looked like on August 5th, when we did our first maintenance cut there:




EH

Catskill Mtn. RR Brush Cutting Saturday, October 21st

On Saturday, October 21st, Joe Marsh, Steve Kijak and I plan to lead a crew working to clear the line from the west end of the Glenford Siding, about MP 13.75, towards the crane at MP 16. We plan to start about 9:30 am at the end of the West Hurley siding, about MP 10.4, which is about 1,000 feet west of the former station site at about MP 10.2.

West Hurley is 5 miles west on Route 28 from Exit 19 (Kingston) of the NY Thruway. Just before you reach the West Hurley post office, and about 3/10ths mile after the stoplight at Zena Rd, turn left onto a small dirt road leading into the woods. At the end of the road, after about ¼ mile, turn right and proceed along a dirt road about 1000 feet, until the road reaches a small turnaround by the siding. We will park in this area.

Once we reach the crane at Ashokan, we will clear room for a siding there(heavy chain saw work). Earl asked that the East end switch be placed 100-150 feet east of the DEP crossing where the crane now sits. We will also need to cut some trees just west of the crane.

After that, we will run to MP 6 to make sure the line from Hurley Mountain Road to the cars is clear, and help Earl put some cribbing under the cars off of 209.

Weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 56 degrees Saturday with a light breeze.

New volunteers are welcome as always.

Ernie Hunt

On Saturday October 21st, we had a 10 man crew working from two different directions to complete the last brushcutting on the Catskill Mountain RR's mainline between Kingston and Phoenicia. The westbound crew out of West Hurley, MP 10.2, consisted of John Voelcker, Steve Kijak, Joe Marsh, George Cook, Chris Bigham, myself and two new volunteers, Thom Johnson and Bill Brosnan. The eastbound crew out of Ashokan, MP 16.2, consisted of Tom Healy and Dick Wilhelm.

Both crews met at MP 15.1 at 3pm, where we held a "golden spike" ceremony. See pictures from today here:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/show/?byrail ... ountain_RR

This brings us to a total of 19.35 miles of track cleared in 2006, and brings our track reopening program to a close for 2006. 11 more miles remain between Phoenicia and Giggle Hollow, and we plan to reduce that gap significantly next spring.

We still plan to complete two more projects before the winter weather sets in. Next week we plan to put cribbing under the stranded cars off of Route 209. Once the cribbing is in, track repairs will commence and we will move the cars out of the washed-out area to repair the track. Once the trackwork here is complete, we will do trackwork further up the line to get the cars off of 209 up to West Hurley.

Our other major project is to do preparation work for installing a switch at Ashokan, MP 16.2, as part of a runaround for this future terminus of the Catskill Mountain Railroad. By doing this we will be able to move the crane parked there off the mainline. In order to install this siding, quite a few trees need to be cut down, and we started on this project by cutting many pine trees at MP 16.25 before we stopped work for the day.

Ernie Hunt

Catskill Mountain RR Work Day Saturday, October 28th

On Saturday, October 28th, Earl Pardini, Steve Kijak and I plan to lead a crew putting cribbing in the washed-out track under the passenger cars just west of the Route 209 crossing outside of Kingston. We also plan to start moving the cars out of the section of washed out track (Earl will move the cars with his backhoe). We will need picks and shovels for this work, so please bring these (and extras for others) if you have them. We plan to start about 9:30am.

To find this location, exit the Thruway at Exit 19 in Kingston, and head west ½ mile on Route 28 until you reach the intersection of Route 28 and Route 209. Turn south on 209. The crossing is about 6/10ths mile south. We will park on the east side.

If we have time later in the day, we will head up to Ashokan and continue cutting the pine trees there. For this work, we will need chain saws and weed-wackers, so bring these also if you have room.

Weather is expected to be cloudy with a high of 56 degrees Saturday with a little wind. There is a chance of a morning shower, but it is expected to be generally a dry day.

Be sure to bring work gloves, heavy boots, and a hard hat if you have one, plus vests and flags, if you have them, for signaling traffic on route 209 if we move some of the cars to the other side of the highway.

New volunteers are welcome as always.


Ernie Hunt

CMRR Workday for 10/28/06 postponed to 11/4/06

The CMRR Workday scheduled for 10/28/06 has been postponed to Saturday, 11/4/06, due to heavy rains and high winds expected in Kingston tomorrow.

I will send out a notice next week confirming the 11/04/06 date and time.

Ernie Hunt

This revival of a project that looked almost dead to most eyes is pretty amazing. When I made a brief visit to the area in 1998, I could have sworn it would become a rail-less trail within five years. And the fact that some 70 persons from the local community turned out to help recently is very impressive.

It has been quite a year - I am amazed how much has happened, though the CMRR was previously doing more than people realized - mostly in out of sight areas of the line. But reopening the main line to Kingston opens up a lot of possiblities, as this contains the most scenic stretch of the line.

New volunteers have helped energize the CMRR this year - ten new volunteers have become members in 2006 (to become a member you must volunteer for 40 hours) and another ten are on their way. Almost every weekend we have a new volunteer joining up.

We were all sorry to get rained out today, but if the next weekend is half decent we will be back out in force.

EH