Back on (the) Track

Group aims to start 'holiday event' train service

The Catskill Mountain Railroad is seeking to connect communities through rail.

By Bonnie Langston, Freeman Staff
November 4, 2007, Life Section, Page 1:

Rain did not dampen the beauty of "Carmen Miranda" last weekend as she moved along the tracks of the former Ulster and Delaware Railroad viaduct below Col. Chandler Drive, within view of Kingston Plaza.

No. She was not an apparition of the curvaceous South American dancer of the early 1900's, the woman known for wearing a hat loaded with bananas and other tropical fruit. Instead she is a more than half-century old train engine come to life through efforts of the Catskill Mountain Railroad. More specifically, an RS-1, manufactured in Schenectady, as Saugerties volunteer Ron Epstein is sure to mention - along with other details - to anyone who shows an interest.

"I refer to her as Carmen Miranda," he said. "She has beautiful lines".

Beyond the adoration, Epstein shares a desire along with other railroad members to get the RS-1 back on track, or more specifically, back on the track in time for the Christmas season as one in a series of "holiday event" trains. Volunteers are working in "bursts of activity" hoping for an initial run this season.

"Do we see it happening this Christmas? Well ...." said railroad chairman Harry Jameson. "we're working as hard as we can. That's as much as I can say. We should be down to the plaza before the holiday season, but I don't know if we are actually going to be able to get all the way down to Washington Avenue, and that's really what we kind of need to do to start the whole process."

The Catskill Mountain Railroad entered into a quarter-century lease 16 years ago with Ulster County, which in 1979 purchased 38.6 miles of track that once part of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. The run between Phoenicia and Boiceville is known in the area, but more recently the railroad has been making efforts in Kingston, where it operates a rail yard on Cornell Street, a short distance from the city's main post office.

As Jameson said, the current focus in the city is the development of a holiday theme. The RS-1 locomotive, a flat-car and caboose will comprise the ride which, he said, is expected to feature Santa and his elves, holiday lights and other decor. The festive touch will add pizzazz to an already upgraded look - a new black paint-job with a red lightening strip and yellow highlights.

Volunteers have re-decked the flat car which will need side rails before it can take on passengers, and they are restoring a caboose where it awaits a new floor and other touches at the Cornell Street yard.

Once these things are accomplished and the tracks are restored, a ticket booth will be set up at Westbrook Lane, Jameson said. Train service will run from there to Washington Avenue - which it will not cross - then return, about a 45 minute round trip at a leisurely rate of "somewhat slower" than the Phoenicia train that moves at 12 mph, he said. Despite the progress by hard-working crews, however, the clock is ticking.

" I don't want to get everybody pumped up and disappoint them, " Jameson said, "but that's our vision. If it doesn't happen, then probably Easter would be our next attempt." Future plans call for themes such as Independence Day and Halloween, too, he said.

About 10 volunteers, most of them in yellow slickers negotiating rain and resultant mud, worked a recent Saturday to move things along, including Earl Pardini of Kingston, president of the Catskill Mountain Railroad. While he engineered a John Deere backhoe, dislodging and discarding rotted ties, Tom Healy, a train dispatcher for the New York City Transit Authority, operated a tie-handler that picked up sound ties and placed them accordingly. Some men wielded shovels. Others stood by to admire their comrades' work before pitching in.

"The Catskill Mountain Railroad bug - once you get it, you never get over it," said Ernie Hunt, who was among the latter group.

The bug took a big bite out of Hunt when in February of last year he became a member. Shortly thereafter he took on the position of volunteer coordinator. Hunt, who works in pension-fund management in New York City, spends weekends in Tannersville with his wife and daughters at there home there - that is, when he is not volunteering for the railroad.

His first job with the railroad was clearing debris and overgrowth along the tracks in Kingston.

"It's not an armchair involvement," Hunt said. "You have to go out and do something."

One of the younger members, 20-year old John Patane of Lake Katrine, a student of criminal justice at Ulster County Community College, joined New Year's of last year, the day after his initial contact.

"I was hooked," he said. "I've probably been here almost every weekend, even in the snow last year."

He and his fellow volunteers don't seem to mind such hardships. One man told Hunt he would gladly pay to take part. Interest in the railroad is reflected in its volunteer roster, which jumped from 40 to more than 100 in the past two years. Members come from diverse backgrounds including a chef, state trooper, school teacher, college student, Internet consultant, property manager, and real estate appraiser, Hunt said. Women work primarily in the railroad's education component.

Jameson said about half the volunteers are from Ulster County, including a large contingent from Kingston. The remaining numbers, he said, are nearly evenly distributed between elsewhere in the Mid-Hudson Valley and "all over the place," including Virginia, Long Island, and New York City.

The group is not only "intrepid", he said, but shares a sense of comraderie, a cohesive and common bond to follow its vision.

"There's the everyday nuts and bolts of ‘How are we going to do this?’ and ‘How are we going to do that?’ and debate about what’s going to be the best way,’ Jameson said, “but ultimately there’s the common vision of running the train.”

Jameson, owner of Town Tinker tube rental in Phoenicia, became a member of the railroad’s board of directors in 1983, the year it went into service in Shandaken for people who use Esopus Creek for recreational purposes, like kayaking and canoeing, but primarily tubing. He became the railroad’s chairman in March of last year.

Jameson said he is excited not only about the holiday theme train but also a planned tourist train with a dining car. In its travels, the train would pass “great views” of the Ashokan reservoir, he said.

“Ultimately, our vision is to run trains from Kingston to Highmount at somepoint,” he said. “Focus for the first major step is to run from Kingston to Phoenicia, and once we get that train in operation, then we’ll try and put the rest of it together."

The train likely will originate west of Washington Avenue, Jameson said, which means it will not run throughout the city. Parking is expected in the vicinity of the Thruway interchange, he said. Jameson said the operation probably will be daily with up to four trains depending upon distance and turn around time. But none of this is going to happen soon.

“That’s a long way off in the future,” he said.

In fact, Jameson has some disturbing thoughts about that. Will he be able to hop on the train in Phoenicia, do business in Kingston, then return as he has dreamed about during the past two decades?

“Twenty years later, I’m thinking to myself, “Gee, I’m hoping I can do that before I’m dead. Time is passing by, you know.”

There has been discouragement along the way. In addition to floods that halted operations parallel to Esopus Creek on numerous occasions and “nasty weather” that hampered work, Jameson said the railroad’s more recent presence in Kingston has met with some criticism.

Earlier in the year, for instance, neighbors at Ora Place in the city said vibration from railroad equipment caused cracked pavement there. The dead-end street, which intersects Downs Street off Broadway in Midtown, skirts the tracks of the Catskill Mountain Railroad.

Jameson said the cracking was due to “improper installation” of a sewer main “numerous” years before. After a trench is dug for a pipe material must be compacted around it to engineering specifications, he said, before a top coating is applied.

“If it’s not compacted properly, then it settles, and that’s what happened, “ he said. “It had nothing to do with the railroad.”
Environmental concerns have also been aired.

“There’s been mention of pollution from the locomotive,” Jameson said. “It’s a diesel locomotive, and it emits certain emissions just like diesel tractor-trailers and cars. If people want to say ‘You’re going to be destroying the environment by putting hydro-carbons into the air,’ well one train can haul probably the same amount that 50 tractor-trailers can, so get out the measurement stick. Let’s be realistic.”

Volunteers nevertheless, are working full steam ahead – in “high gear,” as Jameson puts it, following a vision that is not theirs alone.
“We are Ulster County’s only tourist railroad, and basically what we’re doing is polishing the diamond in the rough,” Jameson said. “This will be one of the major attractions in the Hudson Valley when it comes to completion.”

Burr Hubbell of Pawling, who belongs to the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Historical Society as well as the railroad, said the railroad will help bring back a simpler time, a time when his ancestors sent butter, wool and other products from their farm in Delaware County to market by train.

“It’s exciting for me as an historian to see the fabric of something like this preserved,” he said.

He and the other volunteers are not only looking forward to the holiday-theme train. They envision the day when the scenic tourist train will wind its way between Kingston and Phoenicia.

“We’re working both ends to the middle at this point. We’re heading east from Boiceville and west from Kingston,” Jameson said. “I’m sure at some point there will be a golden spike ceremony. Pound that last spike in. Everybody will be there, the ribbons, the bands, I mean seriously. Its almost like the Union Pacific, when East met West. That’ll be a party, let me tell you what.”

Photos and Captions

Members of the Catskill Mountain Railroad work on replacing a section of rail which passes under Col. Chandler Drive in Kingston. (Photo of work train east of Chandler Drive)

Engineer Al Schoessow of Poughkeepsie leans out of the engine’s window.

Jameson

Earl Pardini of Kingston uses a backhoe to replace some railroad ties on a section under Col. Chandler Drive in Kingston

Members of the Catskill Mountain Railroad put in newer railroad ties, right.