I took a trip down to try to view the post-fire remnants of The Deleware & Hudson Colonie Engine Shop today, and what a sad trip it was.

I found two workers therer boarding up one of the small storage buildings, and nicely asked them if I could walk around for a few minutes and snap some photos. I told them I would stay out of any buildings. I was sternly told "sure, go ahead, make it quick". 10-15 mins. tops.

One full 36 exp. roll of Ektachrome later, I walked back to the storage building and asked a few more questions. Once the guys realized that I was just a buff, and not some media photographer or other offical-type person, they opened up a little more in conversation.

As stated by one of the men: The buildings will be coming down as soon as possible. "The permit applications are going through right now, and once the permits are through, that's it." While Guilford unloaded the D&H itself back about 10-15 years ago, they never sold the Colonie Property with it.

The guys were pleasant enough, and since they were kind enough to let me walk the property, I offered to go and get them some Coffee or something, since it was a pretty lousy day weather-wise up here.

He smiled back and said "Thanks, but that's ok. We'll be gone soon, but you'd better get your ass out of here before the Railroad Police show up. He can be a bit of a Barney Fife!" So, with photography done, I left.

The lesson to be learned from my trip, although blatently obvious, bears repeating:

--It's ALWAYS better to do some snooping WITH permission. It never hurts to ask, and if they say "no", then that MEANS "no". I'm sure that if I would have just stormed onto the property with lenses blazing, then my welcome would have been short-lived, and there would have been NO reason for them not to call the Police on me.

Let's not forget that the friendly next-door neighbor of the Colonie Shops just happens to be the Watervilet Arsenal, and I can safely assume that THEY would not have been as nice if I was caught exploring the grounds. So go the times that we live in.

So, there you are. This has been a Public Service Announcement. We now return you to your regular programming.

(I'll post up some pics when the slides return from Kodak).

Chip Ordway

ordway1440@aol.com