Telegraphed Dispatch

January 2001

Polished brasswork and clean wine-colored coaches¾these were the hallmark of the Catskill Mountain Railway, successor to the old Canajoharie & Catskill.

The Telegraphed DISPATCH is the official newsletter of the Empire State Railway Museum, Inc. Published quarterly, it provides news and information of general interest to our membership. Copyright©2001. All rights reserved. Any copying of material herein, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.All correspondence pertaining to the newsletter should be directed to the Editor, c/o ESRM.

There are but a few "active" members who appear at Phoenicia Station to tackle the various projects at hand, or handle the day-to-day business of our fine museum. We wonder if our "inactive active" members realize what they are truly missing. Those of us who do come¾even some from great distances each weekend¾and take a physical role in the work, feel we are indeed very fortunate.

All of us, in one degree or another, have a love of history and railroading, or else we would not have been attracted to the Empire State Railway Museum. Most of us, for one reason or another, were not able to pursue railroading as a means of our livelihood. It is our good fortune to be able to enjoy a hobby to a degree at a beautifully restored century-old station with an active tourist line passing by our structure.

We need not be content to read of railroading in our railfan magazines or dedicated history books, or to be restricted to an occasional fan trip, when one can afford it or can easily get to a point of interest. On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays during our season, we are railroaders.

In all honesty, most of the work to date has been tiring and unglamorous, and often goes unnoticed by a good portion of our friends and neighbors. Even some of our members haven't called on us in years.

In the past couple of years, how many of us have taken the time to sit outside the station, in the middle of a warm afternoon, and just get caught up in the beauty of the mountains and the scene?

Consider the wood shakes that cover the sides of the station and the hand-notched eave supports for the roof overhang: who made them and where? Think of the empty main line that runs past us down to the switches at the lower end of what was a large and busy railyard facility way back when. I see a mixed string of vintage rail cars sitting on a siding, awaiting much needed attention from years of neglect, and I wonder: where have they traveled and what kind of service did they see? Ponder the sights and sounds of Ulster & Delaware passenger and freight trains hustling to and from Kingston and Oneonta way back when. It takes but a moment or two and only a small amount of imagination to realize what it must have been like.

This is the time for renewing our membership, our prescription to link the past with the present. To give something of ourselves today for future generations to have tomorrow. When their turn arrives, hopefully those that follow will understand their obligations to carry on the traditions of historical railroading. As we look to increase members and excite future leaders, we must, above all, sustain our ranks in order to survive and continue the work at hand while keeping an eye on future endeavors.

When our first passenger train¾made up of restored coaches with our fully preserved Alco steam engine on the head¾leaves Phoenicia Station to run along the Ashokan Reservoir, we will be sharing a moment we have been working toward for many years. I for one want to be around for that moment and be able to say: I remember way back when.

Don't forget that our new edition of the Guide to Tourist Railroads and Museums is about ready to be shipped, so please renew your membership and renew early.

This original article first appeared in the February 1949 issue of Railroad Magazine.

Have you ever wandered over the spot where a forgotten little railroad once gashed the rocky slope or curved politely past a farmer's woodlot? Maybe you've picked up corroded spikes and a fishplate three-quarters of a century old in your rambles; maybe you've been one of the more fortunate explorers who can claim to have discovered faint traces of disintegrated stringers that once bore strap-iron rails. Whatever your luck, whether the remains of the abandoned lines consist of rusted rails like those of the Sterling Mountain Railroad in southern New York or more vague rights-of-way dating back to pioneer construction, a walk along the site of an old railroad always grips the imagination.

New York State has many such reminders of the past. Among the most unusual of these is the pike over whose right-of-way once ran two railroads, the first of which dates back more than a hundred and seventy years. On April 19, 1830, a year before the famous Dewitt Clinton puffed its way over the strap rails of the Mohawk & Hudson, the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad was incorporated at Albany. The aim of its founders was to provide a logical short cut between the Hudson River's water-borne traffic and the growing communities of the Mohawk Valley.

The Canajorharie & Catskill obtained its charter from the New York legislature after a long and bitter fight. The project was violently opposed by the Albany interests, who feared competition with Clinton's Erie Canal. But when the bill was finally passed and the news brought to Catskill by stagecoach, it was acclaimed with great rejoicing.

The capital stock of the new railroad was to be $600,000. A subsequent act passed on April 18, 1838, authorized an issue of special certificates to the extent of $300,000, but this was in the bad days to come. The original charter provided among many other stipulations that the maximum speed of trains "is not to exceed 20 miles per hour and 5 miles per hour on crossings, and 15-minute stops are to be made at all stations."

In the silent dawn of Thursday, October 27, 1831, the citizens of Catskill were awakened by the booming roar of 13 cannon shots. An old copy of the program printed for the day shows how elaborately the occasion was celebrated. It was only the Breaking of Ground, but that meant a great deal to these people. The order of events included:

Procession will move at ringing of church bells to a lot west of Captain Allen's House where the Ceremony of Breaking Ground will be performed by the President

The yellowed pamphlets containing the Engineer's Reports are mines of detailed information on surveys and construction methods, showing that the excitement of breaking ground was somewhat premature. It was several years before actual construction could begin. Grading was done by oxen, plows, and dump carts; and local saw mills, run by water power, cut 5 x 6-inch pine crossties, and the long timbers upon which 2-1/4 x 5/8-inch-thick strap-iron rails imported from England were affixed by handmade nails. The bridges were built of stone and rough-hewn timber. Eventually 27 miles of track was laid along the winding banks of Catskill Creek to the little hamlet of Cooksburg. This trackage, by the way, out did the Mohawk & Hudson by several miles. Work through the rugged country with its dense forests, numerous bridges, cuts and fills had proved slower and more expensive than was anticipated. But at last the men and women and children of the Hudson River village (with the exception of those few who had journeyed to Albany to see the Mohawk & Hudson's Dewitt Clinton) were to have their first sight of a locomotive.

Oddly enough, the local newspapers, The Messenger and the Catskill Recorder, gave no description of the amazing new power. For this we must turn to a rare book written in German by Franz Anton Von Gerstner, an Austrian engineer who came to this country in 1839 to make an intensive study of American railroads. He died about one and a half years after his arrival in the United States; his painstaking findings were not published until 1842 when his widow turned them over to a Vienna publisher. Only a few copies of the book remain, and from one of these Walter A. Lucas, an authority on locomotive history, has made a translation of Von Gerstner's remarks about the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad.

Youth and age together. Remains of one of the stone viaducts along the Canajoharie & Catskill's winding track. Note the irregular matching of the blocks forming the voussoirs.

"The Canajoharie & Catskill," wrote Gerstner, "has one locomotive with its tender bought from H.R. Dunham & Co., New York, costing $6,300. She has cylinders 10-1/4 x 16 inches; drivers (a single pair) 4 feet 8 inches in diameter; weight, without water, 9-1/2 tons. The other rolling stock at the end of 1839 was one passenger car and ten freight cars. The greatest grade is 1 in 66 and the smallest curvature 400 feet."

Writing to the Catskill Recorder in his eightieth year, Walton Van Loan, author of A Guide to the Catskill Mountains described how in 1842 when a lad of eight, he rode on the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad. "To help start the train, Hank Hibler had to attach his horse and cart to the engine. Rails would become unfastened and bend up into snakeheads which children would swing. Edward H. Broadhurst, who surveyed the road and lived at our house, stated that the maximum ascent was 723 feet, and on a stiff grade the passengers had to alight and push the cars."

Twenty miles had been graded by 1837 and in March of the same year, rails were laid over the first section and this stretch, extending to a point near Cairo, was put in operation. The first advertisement of service, printed in the Catskill Messenger, is headed by a woodcut depicting a high-stacked engine with a single pair of drivers hauling a car with a stagecoach body mounted on four wheels, and announces that "the cars will run to a point near Cairo to carry delegates to the Whig Convention." The next section was opened to Oak Hill. The engine finally puffed into Cooksburg, the northern end of construction, in 1839.Extracts from the treasurer's report of expenditures have been culled from an old scrapbook and reprinted by the Greene County Historical Association. Among them, we find such items as these:

Ambitious plans were afoot to make the Catskill & Canajoharie Railroad a link in continuous communication between New England and "the far west" of New York State. The American Railroad Journal of August 1, 1938, stated that Ezra Hawley, a prominent Catskill industrialist, was urging a tie-up with the new railroads east of the Hudson. The purpose could be accomplished by operating a steam ferry the five miles between Catskill and Hudson. At the latter point, direct connection could be made with the Hudson & Berkshire Railroad, completed to West Stockbridge, Mass., in September of 1838. According to the Catskill Messenger of May 20, 1839, the Hudson & Berkshire was operating two trains each way between its terminals. The Hudson line, however, was soon absorbed by the Western Railroad, now the Boston & Albany, and through service was provided from Boston to Hudson in 1841. A year later, the Housatonic Railroad, building northward from Bridgeport, Conn., tapped the Hudson & Berkshire.

There was an alternate proposal to construct a railroad from Canajoharie southwestward to a connection with the Erie Railroad, but this plan, like the other, was never realized. The funds necessary to extend through to Canajoharie could not be raised. Freight traffic decreased. Freshets swept away trestles and the last train went through a wooden bridge between Durham and Oak Hill in 1842. The road was sold to the Catskill Bank for $11,000 and junked by Hiram Van Steenburg. The engine was converted to stationary power for hoisting ice at the old Catskill Point icehouse.

Charles L. Barker, an old resident of Catskill, saw the engine when he was a boy, before a fire destroyed it. The only reminders left of the C & C are moss-covered stone bridge arches near Oak Hill, and dim traces of cuts and fills.

Nearly a half a century after the Canajoharie & Catskill folded; its ghosts were rudely disturbed by another railroad that plunked its ties and steel right down on the ancient line's right-of-way. The Catskill Mountain Railway came into being in 1880. The original surveyors for the C & C had done such a good job that the new road followed the old grading to South Cairo, where it diverged westward on its own right-of-way to the foot of the mountains. Three iron bridges over the Catskill Creek occupied the sites of the Canjoharie's old wooden trestles.

This new pike was the brainchild of Charles L. Beach, who was elected its first president on September 16, 1880. In his younger days, Beach had re-organized and put on an efficient basis the stagecoach lines operated over the post road between New York and Albany. For many years he had owned the historic Catskill Mountain House, one of America's most famous resorts.

Access to this imposing place, with its white Grecian columns and unsurpassed view of four states from the mountaintops, was extremely difficult. A heavy summer tourist traffic came to Catskill by steamboat, then by the Hudson River Railroad and finally by the West Shore Railroad. But at Catskill the traveler still had to board stagecoaches for the slow and laborious trip to the summit of the mountain. Toward the top, grades were so steep that passengers were obliged to alight and walk.

Bicycle-driver locomotive found on the Canajoharie & Catskill. Built by H.R. Dunham & Co., New York City, between 1836-1839.

Beach realized that a railroad in the mountains was a modern necessity. Construction was pushed ahead and in the summer of 1882 the first regular train ran over the Catskill Mountain Railway, stopping at each of the ten neat little stations between Catskill Landing and the western terminus at Palenville.

Two 4-4-0 Dickson 3-foot locomotives equipped with Eames vacuum brakes hauled the first passenger cars, which had Janney couplers with foreign type disk bumpers. The freight cars were provided with link-and-pin couplers. Subsequently, more locomotives were obtained from the Rodgers and Schenectady locomotive works, and observation cars were also added to the trains.

The Alfred Van Santford, CMR's No. 5, was built by Rodgers in 1912. After six years of dedicated service, she was sold to a distant narrow gauge line.

The little railroad achieved immediate popularity. Volume of traffic increased rapidly, and extensions of the line followed. A branch line named the Cairo Railroad was constructed from Cairo Junction north to the popular resort of Cairo. A spur was built to a shale pit near Cairo Junction from which thousands of carloads of shale were hauled down to the Kaaterskill Shale Brick Plant at Catskill.

However, passengers for mountain resorts were still obliged to de-train for carriages at Mountain House Road and Palenville station. This disadvantage was overcome in 1892 by the construction and opening of the Otis Railway, an inclined road 7000 feet long, built right up the side of the mountain, ascending from Otis Junction at the base to Otis Summit, 2200 feet above the Hudson River. The latter station was only 300 feet from the Catskill Mountain House.

Cars were hauled by double steel cables passing over an enormous drum at the top. Ascending and descending cars moved simultaneously, passing each other on a loop switch midway from the terminals. Passengers 75 to 100 to a train sat with their backs to the mountainside, looking eastward over a vast natural panorama. Flat cars carried baggage and freight.

One of the Catskill & Tannersville's second pair of 2-6-0s, the Alfred V.S. Olcott, like its mate, the Isaac Pruyn, was a Baldwin product of 1900. This F.W. Blauvelt glass plate photo was taken especially for Angus Sinclair's magazine Railway & Locomotive Engineering.

Catskill Mountain Railroad No. 1, the S. Sherwood Day, poses on the trestle across the marshes west of Catskill Landing, before a wreck ruined its diamond smoke stack. A 4-4-0 American-type built by Dickson in 1882, she eventually was retired in 1918.

The new railroads cut the trip to Catskill from New York to the summit of the mountains to less than four hours. Thus, tourists leaving Grand Central Station on the New York Central's 4 P.M. express connected with Catskill Mountain train number 15 and landed at Otis Summit in three and three-quarter hours, including the ferry transfer from Greendale Station on the NYC to Catskill Landing.

Further enterprise built the Catskill & Tannersville Railway (known locally as the Huckleberry) from Otis Summit westward through Haines Falls to Tannersville. For this heavy gradient line of 5.5 miles, two 2-6-0 locomotives were pur- chased from one of the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauges.

They were originally woodburners with driving wheels inside the frames. One of these antiques had to be scrapped and its boiler used to heat the Mountain House. But the Catskill Mountain Railway System was complete.

Year after year, it continued to prosper. Its management was efficient, its personnel courteous. No passenger was ever killed or seriously injured.

Then came the automobile to cast its blight upon the steamboats and the railroad. With the aid of convict labor, New York State built a concrete highway from Palenville up the Kaaterskill Clove to the mountaintop. As the roar of gasoline motors rose louder in the sylvan retreat, traffic on the CMR declined. Once coal-black annual reports began to show a tinge of red. On April 30, 1917, the CMR passed under control of the Hudson River Steamboat Co. In a futile attempt to keep the railroad alive, it was re-organized as the Catskill Mountain Railroad Corporation; but in 1918 the last mellow tones of the little locomotive's whistle echoed through the mountains.

The rolling stock was sold to distant narrow gauge roads in Mexico, South America and elsewhere. Rails and bridges¾except for the first bridge at Catskill which had been retained for pedestrian use¾were sold as scrap metal. Now, after three decades [1949], trees and grass have obliterated the right-of-way, and only a distinct gash up the mountainside marks the roadbed of the Otis Railway.

No memories of the CMR can fail to include its "grand old man," John Leonard Driscoll. Few rails have been as versatile, for he engineered construction, served as superintendent and demonstrated genius as master mechanic. In its 36 years of operation, the Catskill Mountain Railway never had an accident or a single engine failure. On his 100th birthday in 1937, Driscoll's Masonic Lodge presented him with an engraved bell from number 3, the Charles T. Van Sanford. When the old railroader passed away at the age of 103, the engine bell was returned to the Masonic Temple in Catskill. Highly polished and mounted on a mahogany base, with a bronze tablet, it is a treasured possession. Its tone has a remarkable mellow quality.

With their polished brasswork and glistening paint, Driscoll's locomotives were a joy to behold. All bore the names of CMR officers. The engines and the clean wine-colored coaches they hauled were the admiration of this writer, who frequently rode the Catskill Mountain trains in his younger days.

The oldest surviving engineer of the CMR is Frank Ruf, still hale and hearty at the age of eighty. He worked for the line for 30 years, four as fireman and 26 on the right-hand side of the cab. For most of this time, he handled the throttle of the number 2, the John T. Mann. "I was wedded to that engine," he remarked in a recent talk with the writer. "I never had an accident in thirty years except once while switching; then a pile of bricks rolled over the track and upset the engine."

"I crawled out without a scratch," he continued with a grin. "I had a young fellow firing for me who was keen to become an engineer. He crawled out rather slowly, I thought.

'Why the heck didn't you jump when you felt her going over?' I asked him. 'Well,' he replied, 'I was going to, but then I decided I'd better stick to her and get this new experience'!"

The upper portion of the Otis Elevated near the summit in 1902, shortly before the trestle was rebuilt. Notice the open-style passenger car with a baggage cart in tow.

The Otis Elevating Railway was one of the novel highlights of the Catskill region. This cable line commenced operations in August 1892 and provided a rail link from the Catskill Mountain Railway into the mountains. CMR's engine no. 4, the Charles L. Beach, is seen here at Otis Junction.

After experiencing technical problems, Susquehanna & Western 142 is switched onto the old Lehigh & Hudson River mainline at Sparta Junction.

Once again NYS&W no. 142 ran steam excursions this fall, from Susquehanna Transfer on the old Erie Railroad (ex-West Shore) to historic Baird's Farm in Warwick, NY, a distance of some 83.5 miles.

Due to a hot journal sustained while pulling a long and heavy train westbound up Sparta Mountain on October 28, the engine had to be set off onto the old Lehigh & Hudson River mainline at Sparta Junction, mile marker 63. After Earl Pardini rode up to Binghamton to retrieve the necessary parts, repairs were accom-

plished overnight by her volunteer crew. On Sunday morning, October 29, 142 ran light eastbound to Butler, NJ, to await the westbound excursion pulled by Susquehanna E-units. Steam fans were spared a great disappointment.

A few weeks later, on November 11, no. 142 seemed to be in tip-top shape as she headed up a special run from Utica's Falvo Station to Remsen on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. Apparently this lone trip was to make up for the DEC suspended trips scheduled earlier in the year along this restored line.

Gerald M. Best's The Ulster and Delaware...Railroad Through the Catskills presents the complete story of all the railways of the Catskill region. In pictures and with text he describes the hotels, the railroad's construction, and early operation, the famous passenger trains, and the steam locomotives. Mr. Best has written the U & D's definitive history, an intensely human story of struggle and triumph in the New York tradition.

Delaware & Ulster Railride's RS36 no. 5071 pulls a "Santa Special" back from the newly acquired U&DRR Historical Society's Roxbury Station on Saturday, December 16th. Despite cold and rainy conditions, Christmas was indeed in the air and riders enjoyed the winter scenery. Pictured here is last eastbounder approaching Halcottville near Lake Wawaka.

Although there was no snow for Santa's sleigh this year, the 'fat man' can now slap a sticker on the back of his sled that states I Tubed the Esopus. With a deluge of wet weather that lasted for nearly two days the usually tranquil Esopus Creek turned into a raging river, rising to within a few feet of the bridge leading into Phoenicia.

However, despite the heavy rain and mesmerizing fog on Sunday, December 17, the annual ESRM/Catskill Mountain RR holiday party was not dampened as the warm and cozy confines of the heated museum kept attendees' spirits high and dry.

Once again visitors and members were treated to their year-end fix of trains, both inside and out. The CMRR provided a Santa Special, making trips between Mt. Pleasant and Phoenicia, while model railroaders Pete Tassone and Leo Roach dazzled children and adults with their miniature recreations.

As Lonnie Gale carefully reviewed the rising creek to see if he'd have to walk on water to get home, Earl Pardini's squeezebox filled the waiting room with Christmas carols. Kids of all ages reaped the benefits of holiday fare with sticky fingers and smiling faces.

An eerie foglike atmosphere looms over the Forest Preserve as the 'Santa Special’ approaches Phoenicia Station.

The relatively accident-free Ulster & Delaware through 1921 made for an excellent safety record, but on May 26, 1922, it was marred by the worst collision in the railroad's history. A work train running backward westerly from Halcottville toward Roxbury was struck by an eastbound coal train. The coal train, with engineer Charles Neebe, fireman Frank Morse, and conductor J. Redmond, came around a sharp curve and saw the caboose of the work train

moving toward them. Standing on the back platform of the caboose was conductor Mattice and two brakemen. They jumped off the moving train, but the six trackmen inside the caboose, supervisor William Lafferty, O. North, Fred Chase, Fred Borst, F. Louden and Abraham Johnson were instantly killed.

The 4-page report submitted by ICC Chief of Bureau Safety, W. P. Borland, can be retrieved online at http://specialcollections.tasc.dot.gov/scripts/rsi.dll?login&un=rail&pw=railpass$, enter 'ulster' in the index, then 'search' to find the contents of the original report. Other rail lines can be searched.

Local residents oversee the clean-up efforts of track crews just after the worst train wreck in the history of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad near Grand Gorge in 1922. Six employees lost their lives and five others were seriously hurt.

Hi, I have just finished reading the April 2000 issue. After having a depressing day I must say it was like a shot of adrenaline. I really enjoyed it and being a former GCT Manager, I especially enjoyed, as always, reading about the Terminal...Anyway I have alot of RR paper that you may be interested in using. I have made copies of an original request to charter the NYC and Hudson River RR dated 1830, it would make a good installment type article...Look forward to getting up to the museum soon, will bring some advertising and other papers if you are interested.

We strive to make our issues diverse and informative, not only to our membership, but to those simply interested in railroading and history in general. I'm sure curator, Lonnie Gale, will be glad to sit and review with you any information about New York railroading you're willing to share. We look forward to your visit and thank you for your response.

I can't see the photograph well enough on your website, is that an old wooden CV boxcar? Was it sitting in Willimantic, CT, back in the late 70s or early 80s? What is its number? I have a picture of a CV boxcar that sat at Willimantic for a while.

The car you referred to is a composite 'autocarrier' with vertically split clamshell doors and was built in 1926. Apparently it was also used to haul grain (or other bulk commodities), judging from load level marks painted on the inside walls. When we obtained it in 1993, it was essentially devoid of exterior markings. This car was located in Rhode Island and owned by the Seaview Transportation Co. when it was offered to the museum. It is possible that this is the car you saw earlier in CT. Today, you don't see too many of these types of railcars in your travels.

While most of you are sitting at home waiting for the next snowfall, curled up with good book or trying your hand on a new soup recipe, the Board of Directors¾specifically Lonnie Gale, our curator, and Beth Waterman, our director of education¾are hard at work and in the midst of getting next year's exhibition together.

It seems as if we just closed the museum for the winter, and enjoyed a festive holiday party. But, there is no rest for the weary, and its time to begin planning another spectacular seasonal presentation.

Similar in depth and scope to the 1999 Centennial Celebration: Catskill Villages, Railroads & Industries featuring the Ulster & Delaware Railroad and Phoenicia Station, the 2001 show will highlight the importance of the narrow gauge lines of the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain and Kaaterskill Railroads.

As Lonnie reviews files and numerous photographs that will need to be enlarged, and jots down notes for captions, Beth brainstorms and begins her clever writings for the necessary publicity to attract the membership, visitors, invited guests, and members of the press that will make this a worthwhile presentation and a huge success.

On the other hand, just as Bob Bucenec juggles volunteer responsibilities editing newsletters and working on an On3 scale model layout depicting mixed trains running between Phoenicia and Hunter, long time member John Ham is nestled in his humble abode on the mountaintop, scanning rare and nostalgic images to be included in his new book, Light Rail and Short Ties Through the Notch.

This pictorial history of the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Railroad will convey the story of the branch line that generated the economic growth of isolated valley communities while serving the transportation needs of thriving villages and established industries.

This new book should be produced in time to piggyback on this year’s presentation and serve as a cornerstone that captures Catskill Mountain railroading at its best.

If any of our members have any documents they are willing to share pertaining to the SC&CM and Kaaterskill RRs, please contact Lonnie Gale at the museum.

Enjoyed your October DISPATCH, especially the photos and tribute to Edward May. However, on the back cover photo of the July 1939 20th Century stating that it pulled coaches is in error. From the Century's inception and especially in the 30s, 40s, and 50s it was an all first class train, sleepers only, absolutely no coaches. In the 50s I took many business trips to Chicago and riding the always on time Century was a pleasure.

The former U&D Station at Roxbury circa 1908. Today, the station structure is unrecognizable¾ covered beneath a skin of corrugated sheet metal, but remains intact and well preserved.

The Ulster & Delaware Railroad Historical Society will purchase the former Roxbury station, and restore it to its original appearance. The depot will in part provide passenger facilities for the Delaware & Ulster Railride, and in part provide a meeting and display area for the historical society.

"The depot was the center of Roxbury's prosperity for many years, and we believe that we can once again make it a focal point of community life, and preserve this important piece of history while contributing to the modern resurgence of Roxbury," president Steve Delibert told the Catskill Mountain News back in May.

The combination freight and passenger station was built just after the Ulster & Delaware (then known as the Rondout & Oswego) arrived in Roxbury in 1872.

For over thirty years, the depot was used for feed storage, and then as an auto body shop. Fortunately, the owners were sensitive to its historical importance, and did little to alter the original structure. To get further details about this project and the society, contact them at www.udrrhs.org.

A truly nostalgic railroad photograph captured by member Gordon Roth as a postcard image for the Empire State Railway Museum's "First Steam Trip of 1963." Reminiscent of years gone by, engine no. 103, with passenger coaches in tow, poses in front of the rural station in Middletown, NY, on the Middletown and New Jersey Railway.

This is the last installment of an original piece written by Edgar T. Mead for the Trustees of the Museum and published as an informative booklet in September of 1964. We conclude with the remainder of Mr. Mead's presentation and a few commemorative photographs.

The variety of outlets for members of the Empire State Railway Museum knows no bounds. Some concentrate entirely on the locomotive (103). Others like to paint and refurbish cars. There are those who enjoy helping with the train crew and others who like to help with station chores. The talents of certain members lie in the areas of advertising, publicity, and sales. Incumbent on everyone is the business of helping with brush clearing, with which the short line railroad is plagued, and the task of trying to convey the story of our Museum efforts to the general public.

The Museum is at present administered by six Trustees, who have taken responsibility for the course and direction of the organization. Members play a vigorous role in the day-to-day decisions and activities of the Museum¾creating, working and learning. Efforts are now being made to encourage greater leadership from within the Museum, as it is evident that many jobs have fallen on the backs of too few, and too many jobs have been languishing for lack of leadership responsibility. The Museum cooperates heartily with other kinds of museums in the area, and reciprocity and mutual aid with other operating railroad museums in the East is encouraged abundantly. We find that many of our members belong to various other railroad hobby groups, a situation we find highly desirable for all.

Nor does our Museum confine itself entirely to New York State. When the newly organized Vermont Railway indicated a desire to operate an inaugural celebration with a passenger train, the Museum members pitched in and helped to create a most successful occasion. The "Special" featured two days of riding in old-fashioned wooden coaches over the entire Vermont Railway line between Bennington and Burlington, topped off by a Saturday night banquet in Rutland.

The Museum has definite needs and objectives. One of these is to attract a larger membership. We must have more persons who are willing to lend a hand around the railroad station, on the steam train, and around the shops. Our immediate objective is 200 members by our five-year anniversary on March 25th (1965).

Our second objective is a permanent site for the storage and display of big trains, models, and railroad antiquities. We have a historical obligation to present to the public the story of railroad transportation, a job that in this country has unfortunately been sketchy and unavailable to the great majority of the population. It will take tremendous financial and architectural planning but we are confident this is not totally beyond the scope of the present organization with its vigorous and imaginative nucleus.

A third objective is to make the Museum far better known in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area. To this end, the Museum has produced a series of illustrated brochures, each succeeding edition better than the preceding. It has been the organization's further good fortune to deserve coverage from time to time in leading metropolitan and suburban newspapers¾an indication, by the way, of the essential good news value of an operating steam railroad. Most young people, we find, have never traveled by a train of any kind whatsoever, and yet historians and schoolteachers tell us that a prime factor in the development of the United States of America was the steam railroad. Most young people, moreover, have never witnessed a pulsing, coal-burning steam locomotive, and there are those of us who dare to venture that a steam engine is as fascinating to watch as a jet airplane, an atomic steamship, or a diesel highway truck. It is therefore obvious that we must set out to acquaint a far wider segment of the public with our Museum efforts than we have been able to do thus far. It will require time, effort, and much money.

As we have suggested in our newsletter, we want more of our present members to come forward with ideas, suggestions, plans and (more importantly) regular personal involvement with the day-to-day Museum activities. Since we are engaged in an active phase of railroad historical preservation, it is consequently going to involve personal effort as well as considerable personal sacrifice.

It is now that the Museum must start building for the future. It must evolve into an effective self-perpetuating organization, which can display, maintain, and operate actual standard gauge railroad trains. It must develop leadership on all levels to carry out future plans and objectives. It must attract new members to carry on the workload. It must seek the aid of those who can help financially and by donation of supplies, tools, and spare parts. It must in short, carry out the mandate of its charter and its original objectives of providing a working steam train in a natural and characteristic setting as an educational asset to our nation's culture.

When excursion runs aboard 103 moved to the Valley RR in Connecticut during the early 1970s, orders are passed to engineer Bob Lyon by conductor Don Wolfgang, while ticket agent Dick Carroll waits in front of Essex station.

Railroads were the heart and arteries of the Catskill Mountains' regional economy from their origins in the 1870s, on through their peak in the early twentieth century when they carried hundreds of thousands of tourists to the area's hotels and resorts, up to their decline following World War II.

The ESRM focuses on the rich heritage of these railroads and their workers, rolling stock, and structures, as well as the effect railroads had on the region's social and economic history. ESRM's mission includes promoting interpretation of and education about the history of railroading, railroad restoration, and historic preservation of railroad culture and artifacts.

When the ESRM relocated to Phoenicia in 1985, the station, a vintage passenger and railway express depot on the former Ulster & Delaware Railroad, lay like a sleeping beauty, an impressive example of railroad depot architecture abandoned among the weeds between Route 28 and the Esopus Creek. The membership brought it back to life and in 1995 the Phoenicia Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Restoring and preserving the Phoenicia Station is an ongoing project for the Museum. Even with a healthy membership base of about 300 from which it derives its active volunteer corps, the ESRM still has multiple restoration projects and other important opportunities for volunteer involvement. Volunteers are this organization's lifeblood, and help to run the Museum's gift shop, give guided tours of the exhibits on weekends (and holidays), maintain membership records, write newsletters, plan and create seasonal exhibits, and restore engine no. 23, our 1910 Alco 2-8-0 Consolidation, is always in need in order to continue our endeavors and meet organizational plans.

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As the portion of Beth's article from Kaatskill Life and the closing comments of Mr. Mead's informative ESRM presentation, both stressed the urgency of our membership to get more involved in the day-to-day activities of carrying out organizational objectives with more personal efforts.

It's true that without monetary support, we as a society would not have the funds to do what is necessary, let alone survive. But, simply stated, it always seems that there is a core of dedicated individuals that undertake the responsibility to do it all, all the time.

When you are making out the check to renew your membership, please take a moment to ask yourself what you can do to make a personal difference this year, and offer your services as an active museum volunteer. Simply enclose a note and tell the board what you would be willing to do.

If you feel that the sacrifice would be to much, especially if you live a distance from the museum, how about making a special donation instead to any number of restoration projects that are currently proceeding or one that is planned for the near future? Anything you can do to make a difference will be much appreciated by all.

This very rare and faded image shows the Phoenicia railyard looking west from the corner of the car shop building located alongside the Ramsey Freight Car Transfer Apparatus. You can pick out the freight house, Martin Hotel, McGrath's General Store and the original Ulster & Delaware station. This photo, circa 1897, captures the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain narrow gauge scene before the line was standardized and the new U & D passenger station was erected.

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The Phoenicia Station
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