Telegraphed Dispatch

October 2000

NYC no. 818 hauls an express out of Oneonta on July 6, 1938 on the former U & D

They were once as much an American institution as an A&W root beer stand or a Woolworth five and dime store. Cabooses have been an intricate part of North American railroading since the mid-nineteenth century, when railways became firmly entrenched on U.S. soil. Cabooses quickly became a familiar sight to numerous folks who encountered trains during their daily routines. For countless brakemen and conductors, the caboose became almost as familiar as their own homes. What exactly was the reason for the caboose? Think of a freight train as a sort of warehouse on the move, with seventy-five cars containing millions of dollars worth of merchandise?manufactured components, fresh produce and bulk commodities. To move this warehouse on wheels you have a locomotive manned by a crew, in essence running a business on rails. For this business you need a boss, and the boss on the railroad is the train conductor who needs an office from which to monitor the business and the crew. The caboose?is a train office.

The caboose also served as a sort of storehouse, and for the over-the-road train crews the caboose could also become a home away from home. The caboose's storehouse aspect was reflected by the provisions within: spare coupler parts, jacks, re-railing devices, oil, first-aid kit, lanterns and fuses. The crew could thus handle at least the routine problems of getting a train over the roadway.

As a home¾ well into the post World War II era?it was common for a specific caboose to be assigned to a specific conductor and at the end of the crew's run, even if the train was continuing on, the caboose with its crew was uncoupled and parked¾ instant motel.

The caboose population peaked in the late 1920s, the height of railroading's golden era, when more than 34,000 "crummies," their most common nickname, were registered to hundreds of railroads from pokey little shortlines to behemoth carriers. From the Depression to the 1980s the decline of the caboose was more or less gradual. But as the 1980s unfolded, a combination of new labor laws and advancing train operation technology doomed the caboose almost overnight. By the start of the 1990s the caboose had withered from an institution to that which is largely a memory.

Cabooses were their own worst enemy. They represented a major capital expense, especially for a large railroad requiring hundreds of cabooses. They became costly to operate, maintain, and inherently they could be dangerous for train crews. On railroad rosters, cabooses were classified as non-revenue equipment. That is, they did not generate any transportation revenues; rather they were part of the cost of doing business. The penchant for cost-cutting on the U.S. railroads is legendary, so the more expensive it became to acquire, operate, and maintain cabooses the more they became a target for railroad accountants.

In the mid-1920s, some 34,000 cabooses roamed the rails at their peak, and the numbers have dwindled ever since. In 1937 the figure had dropped to about 32,000, by 1950 about 25,000, in 1960 just over 18,000, and in 1970 about 14,000. In the 1980s some 12,000 crummies were hanging on for dear life, but the handwriting was on the wall. The 1990s brought an almost total wipeout of an icon that had been around for almost 150 years. As of the mid-1990s there were only a few hundred active cabooses on U.S. rails.

Cabooses are not quite extinct; a number of railroads still use them in a limited application. Several railroads?or at least labor unions?feel that cabooses are still necessary on runs that require a lot of switching maneuvers along with backup moves; in this case the caboose becomes a safety enhancement.

Since the 1980s, railroads have donated hundreds of retired cabooses to railroad museums, which have been pain-stakingly restored. Cabooses have popped up everywhere on inactive rails serving as chambers of commerce, visitor centers, and gift shops. In other instances cabooses have been acquired by a town or city and given a place of honor, wearing the original railroad livery simply to commemorate the road's importance to the community. Such is a fitting tribute to the importance of railroads in building this country.

In America today, the caboose is largely gone from day-to-day railroading. Due to preservation efforts and the interest of private parties and public concerns, people everywhere can still enjoy this vanishing icon of American ingenuity.

EDWARD L. MAY, was a native New Yorker and a lifelong Yankee baseball fan, who had little tolerance for overblown and overpaid .220 "hitters."

Born on St. Patrick's Day 1918 in Manhattan, Ed first began photographing the New York Central Railroad with a simple box camera back around 1930. A true railfan of the steam-powered era, he didn't cease shooting or capturing his magical railroad images until the entire NYC System was completely dieselized about 1953.

After the war, where he served in the 7th Armored Division in Europe, he married his wife Claire and worked in his family's cleaning business. His profession for over thirty years had been in the quality paper

field, and Ed looked forward to retirement so that his 50-year collection of railroad memorabilia, photographs and negatives could be finally catalogued and put into perfect order.

When Ed headed out to photograph lesser-known NYC branch lines, he didn't forget the Catskill Mountain Branch. He was an avid fan of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, taking an active role in the UDRR Historical Society until 1983.

John Ham, one of the Museum's knowledgeable Catskill Mountain railroad and industry historians, has graciously put together a number of powerful pictures to share with our members as a photographic tribute. Although Edward L. May is no longer with us, his historic photographs will live on to enlighten generations to come.

A Catskill Mountain Branch mixed train hauled by engines no. 814 and no. 815 heads westbound just out of Phoenicia Junction. Double-headers were common for both sides of the mountain on the mainline. This particular shot is taken from the north side of the Esopus Creek at Snyder Hollow.

The former rail yard tracks at Phoenicia Junction with Ulster & Delaware engines no. 38 and no. 41 coupled together for a double-head run going west on the main line. Engine no. 30 above is preparing to leave on the old SC&CM branch and run up through the Notch.

New York Central engines no. 800 and no. 805 (Class Fx 4-6-0 Ten Wheelers) head up a Wallkill Valley freight train out of the Kingston yard. Kingston's Union Station can be seen on the right.

Ulster & Delaware no. 34 begins to get up a head of steam to pull the "Rip Van Winkle Flyer" westbound through the mountains. Pulling out of Kingston, this multi-coach passenger train will make numerous stops along the way before reaching its final destination to Oneonta.

New York Central engine no. 2875, a L-2c class 4-8-2 type originally built at Schenectady in June of 1929, hauls a long mixed freight out of Kingston westbound. This "Mountain" type was also referred to as a Mohawk on the Water Level Route.

A train watcher's paradise would have been Kingston's Union Station, which handled nearly fifty trains daily for the Ulster & Delaware, West Shore, and Wallkill Valley railroads.

New York Central engines no. 810 and no. 812 wait patiently at Arkville while no. 816 takes on water. The third locomotive will be needed to help push this eastbound milk run over the mountain and down to Phoenicia.

New York Central engine no. 815 headed for Hunter, stops at a somewhat forlorn and weedy Kaaterskill Junction on the branch line. Within a year this portion of the railroad, the former Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain, will have been abandoned and torn up for scrap.

Before the demise of the former Kaaterskill Branch, Edgewood Station just north of Stony Clove Notch, was captured for posterity sake. Even without a train roaring by, Ed May still captures a close-to-the-heart railroad image.

New York Central engine no. 5437, a J3a class 4-6-4 type built at Schenectady in November of 1937, glistens in the afternoon sun as she runs north on the main line. This "Hudson" demonstrates the art of scooping water on-the-fly at Tivoli. Track pans were placed at intervals along the line so that trains could take on water without missing a beat. The train is No. 67, the Commodore Vanderbilt.

On September 9th and 10th the Dunellen Merchants and Professionals Association and the New York Susquehanna & Western Technical and Historical Society operated steam train excursions as the centerpiece of Dunellen "Railroad Days." The four daily round trips were run on the New Jersey Transit Raritan Valley Line from Dunellen Station into Clifton Township¾a distance of nearly twenty-five miles.

The runs westbound were hauled by NYS&W steam locomotive no. 142 and pulled eastbound by a Susquehanna

F-Unit no. 2400. Together they brought back the sights and sounds of two different railroading eras and days long gone to the excitement of young and old alike.

Dunellen owes its existence to the Central Railroad of New Jersey and was incorporated as a borough in 1886 after Jersey Central President John Taylor Johnson opened this section of Middlesex County with a railroad depot located in what locally became known as "Railroad Town."

Through the 1940s, the C.R.R. of N.J. track arrangement at Dunellen was aligned seven wide to allow numerous fast freights from the west and even B&O and Reading long-distance passenger trains to quickly bypass local commuter and freight bottlenecks on their way to the busy terminal in Jersey City.

Our very own Earl Pardini heads a specialized crew and engineered 142 on all passenger trains

The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad's Chinese-built SY Class 2-8-2 is one of the newest steam locomotives in the world. Constructed in 1989 by the Tang Shun Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works not far from Beijing, China, 142 was originally constructed as no. 1647 for the Valley Railroad, a tourist line located in Essex, CT.

The Chinese SY Class engine is a redesigned manufacturing marvel based on the Pre-WWI American Locomotive Company's (Alco) original Mikados built for Japan. The design modifications migrated to Korea in the 1920s and eventually found their way to Manchuria where they became a standard Chinese engine class. These sleek and fuel efficient 90-ton locomotives share the same track gauge, air breaks, couplers and engineering details that are found on standard American built engines¾making this stock Chinese steam locomotive adaptable to U.S. rails without modifications.

At the same time that the Valley Railroad's order was being manufactured at Tang Shun, a twin sister, engine no. 1651, was produced and shipped for the Knox & Kane Railroad in Marienville, PA.

The end of the excursion in Clifton Township near Annadale Hill. NYSW no. 142 relinquishes her forward power to help in pushing the twelve-car lash-up eastbound back to Dunellen for another run.

In 1990 the Valley Railroad enjoyed running trips on six miles of track along the picturesque Connecticut River from Essex to Deep River, utilizing 1647 to haul up to six trains daily at the height of their summer tourist season. Hearing about 1647's success as a tourist magnet and nothing but good reports on how the 2-8-2 was handling herself, NYSW bought the engine in 1991¾when she joined the Susquehanna's power fleet to promote historic steam transportation and was renumbered as no. 142.

Assigned to passenger train excursion service, no. 142 headlines numerous trips in New York and New Jersey each year. With the demise or absorption of so many railroads throughout the United States, today the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad continues operating as a successful 450-mile regional freight carrier in northern New Jersey and in New York State. When engine no. 142 is not busy putting on a show to the delight of railfans, she is serviced and stored at a former Lackawanna maintenance yard in Utica, NY.

Dunellen "Railroad Days" was a huge success as this editor witnessed over the two days, with 5,000 people riding the special and many more railfans visiting trackside to capture the moment. I had the opportunity to ride in one of the former 1950s Long Island Railroad passenger coaches during a late run on Saturday afternoon. Two other classes coaches from the Southern Railroad and first class vista-dome cars from the Rio Grand. Although trips ran late due to scheduling problems with New Jersey Transit, a great time was had by all.

Earl Pardini, engineer, Al Howes, fireman, Ernie Klopping, assistant fireman, and Steve Lathrop, coal pusher, for inviting me aboard the cab for a ride east to the Plainfield yards to cross-over for westbound clearance and a run into Dunellen to pickup the next trip. The excitement of seeing the faces of all the people standing on the platform as 142 rolled by was simply electrifying.

Getting the signal to proceed west to Dunellen from the Plainfield yard as viewed from the engineer's seat.

At a Board of Directors meeting held Tuesday evening, October 10th, Lonnie Gale reported that the closing on the Cobey property adjacent to the museum had gone smoothly earlier in the day.

However, a delay might have been imminent with the legal proceedings, when, just a few days prior to closing, a discrepancy was found in the tax map indicating incorrect lot information. But with a search of the title insurance, and to everyone's surprise, a small parcel (with a privy) east of the old sandwich shop was actually included with the two other parcels that make up the estate.

As reported previously, the land is nearly an acre in size and there is a fully functional trailer with three out buildings¾a workshop, storage shack, and an old cottage¾located on the property.

The expenses for the acquisition are as follows¾Brooks survey, $500.00, Crucet legal fees, $400.00, Cobey estate purchase, $60,000.00, title, filing fees and school taxes, $988.85, closing cost adjustments, $26.79, for a grand total of $61,915.64.

In order to make the property a little more attractive to passers-by and to allow the museum to gain better exposure to High Street, member Bill Rudge has offered to designate specific trees to keep before we trim back and clean up the overgrown vegetation.

At the suggestion of treasurer Bob Angyal, and with the agreement of the Board, a special brainstorming meeting will take place later to assess future plans before any work or changes are made to the property.

Effective the first of November, copies of The Ulster and Delaware...Railroad Through the Catskills, by Gerald M. Best, will be made available for sale from the museum gift shop by mail order. Golden West Books of California is reprinting this definitive historical reference on the U&D¾from inception as the Rondout & Oswego through its demise operating as the Catskill Mountain Branch of the New York Central Railroad.

Pricing on this hardcover re-issue, with 210 pages and more than 320 illustrations, is only $50.00, whereas first editions demand as much as $100.00 to $120.00 when you can locate them.

If you are looking for the book on the Ulster & Delaware Railroad with a great source of history on the region, or need a last minute Christmas gift, make sure you order a copy today. [For your convenience and to expedite orders, please use the enclosed ESRM order form.]

Bob Bucenec, our resident model railroader, continues work on the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain On3 scale layout at the museum.

Construction on the huge running layout¾ suspended around half of the passenger waiting room¾has been slow-going during the summer. The 122-square foot modular layout will depict the narrow-gauge branch trains of the U&D running up through the Notch from Phoenicia Junction and on into the Hunter rail yard, during the late 1890s.

Although this layout will have mass appeal to all visitors, Bob promises that fans of the railroad will easily recognize various locations and structures along the route, including a scratch-built replica of the Chichester furniture factory. The general typography has already been completed, representing the mountain terrain and the tough 3% grade climb out of Phoenicia to Stony Clove Notch.

In order to heighten the feeling of riding on the train through the picturesque countryside, Bob has mounted a small color video camera within a boxcar that will provide a live picture as the steam engine pulls a mixed train along the tracks. Locomotive and track noise will be generated and synced with train movements via an on-board speaker system¾

while two fixed-position speakers mounted in strategic corners of the room will allow visitors to be engulfed with the sounds of steam railroading.

A completion date has not yet been targeted for the model railroad, but rest assured Bob will have the project up and running for next years very exciting season and exhibition.

On Thursday evening, September 28th, during a meeting of the MountainTop Historical Society at the Haines Falls station, a young man makes his way to the front of an SRO crowd of about seventy people.

Rick Brooks of Brooks & Brooks Land Surveyors, with a binder in one hand and a laser pointer in the other, asks for the waiting room lights to be dimmed as the first projected slide hits the viewing screen¾"Catskill Mountain Railroad Logging Operations" or "Everything Rick Knows About the Fenwick Lumber Company."

I had made a special trip up from New Jersey that evening to catch what has been reported as the last official slide show and talk that Rick was to present on his findings.

What started out as a mere curiosity for Rick has escalated into a full blown investigation and a personal endeavor into a historical operation that conducted business for nearly twelve years up on Hunter Mountain. Rick explained that missing pieces of this intriguing story are finally coming together from various hidden sources to create the big picture, one that has gone virtually unwritten and that local authors and historians know very little about.

Old logging cart track wheel. One of the many Fenwick artifacts the Brooks' crew have hauled off the mountaintop.

The Fenwick Lumber Company established a state-of-the-art mill in the Myrtle Brook Valley, and shipped finished lumber out of Edgewood from 1906 to 1917. On Fenwick's mountain-top property consisting of nearly 2,000 acres, logs were delivered to the mill via a 1.7-mile-long cable tramway that led up to Hunter where a summit camp was located, and then down into Spruceton Valley. The tramway was connected to 4.3 miles of railroad spur lines and by many more miles of skid roads. Finally, with the aid of both local and foreign labor, the untouched virgin forest of Spruceton Valley could now be accessed, reduced to board lumber, and sent on to help construct the Ashokan Reservoir and supply major construction markets via the Stony Clove and Ulster & Delaware Railroads. [A Fenwick Industrial Switch was located between Edgewood and Lanesville.]

Rick's presentation gets more involved each time he gives it, due in part to new information, photographs, and promising leads that are always emerging. After finishing this slide show, Rick's plans were to take his crew, consisting of his wife and brother (and anyone else willing to make a rugged climb and pack out some heavy iron artifacts), back up the steep trail one last time to take final mapping measurements and photos.

The research on the local level is coming to an end, but Rick has plans to travel to Fenwick, WV, originally a company-owned town similiar in size and scope to Chichester, and where the lumber business had its roots. Then it is off to Delaware to interview Mrs. Beatrice Lynn. Her grandfather, A. Moore was the head sawer at the mill, and surprisingly she and her husband Elsworth have some rare photographs to share in exchange for information.

Rick, and all those involved in his passion, should be commended on their efforts to date and for sharing their research with all to recollect local history that might otherwise have been lost.

Rick and Patty Brooks in front of a typographic call-out map of his research area at Haines Falls station. Old logging cart track wheel. One of themany Fenwick artifacts the Brooks' crewhave hauled off the mountaintop.

Taken in September of 2000, and reminiscent of days gone by, the tracks, trestle and bridge just east of Arkville station are still intact today. The old right-of-way and suspended crossing are used by the Delaware & Ulster Rail Ride in the early fall to climb the grade to Pine Hill at Highmount for tourist excursions.

At a position slightly higher up the embankment, with no overgrowth obstructing, allowed the photographer an opportunity to capture Catskill Mountain Branch engines nos. 809 and 807 with train no. 535 drifting westbound into Arkville in July 1940.

Resort rivalry was acute in the nineteenth century in the Catskills. The famous and fashionable Catskill Mountain House, while it enjoyed a priviledged position in the Catskill hotel hierarchy, was soon but one of many lodging places. The fear among the proprietors of the older hostelries in the upper reaches of Greene County was that their Ulster and Sullivan County rivals would profit at their expense.

Particularly apprehensive was Charles L. Beach, owner of the Mountain House, whose customers faced a slow steamboat trip up the Hudson to the landing at Catskill village and then a fifteen-mile ordeal by stagecoach to the hotel. He also had to worry about a neighbor, George Harding, a Philadelphia lawyer who undertook erection of a luxurious resort facility on nearby South Mountain. While Harding's Kaaterskill Hotel might attract many to the area, it might also draw away former Mountain House patrons.

Harding's advantage was assured when the Ulster & Delaware Railroad announced the formation of the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain and Kaaterskill Railroads, to hook up with the U&D main line at Phoenicia for the run to Hunter and to the Kaaterskill Hotel. This gave Harding a direct rail line to his clientele.

To combat this threat, Beach found allies in the steamboard companies, which shared his concern about the impact of railroads on the traveling public. Officers of the Hudson River Day Line and the Catskill Evening Line joined him in promoting and constructing the narrow-gauge Catskill Mountain Railroad, to connect the steamboard dock at the village of Catskill with Palenville at the foot of Kaaterskill Clove. There passengers from the boat train transferred to the same familiar omnibuses, but for a much shorter trip than before. The smoother, faster ride on the little trains eliminated all but the short jaunt up the Mountain House Road.

Put into operation late in the summer of 1882, the Catskill Mountain Railway met some of the objections to the longer, slower Catskill village-to-mountaintop stage route. Despite these efforts the Kaaterskill Hotel and the Kaaterskill Railroad (completed in 1883) still en-joyed the advantage.

To close the rail gap between the Mountain House and Palenville, Beach and his associates conceived and then built an unconventional sort of vertical rail line, operated by a stationary engine, cables and attached passenger cars. The 1882 Otis Elevating was not only a marvel of engineering but an amusement ride that drew the curious and the adventurous just for the novelty of the thing. It was a solution, albeit a partial solution, to problems with the Catskill Landing approach to the mountains. While it gave access to the venerable Mountain House, it did not give access to the newer Kaaterskill and other inns beyond. Each of the two major hotels now had its own depot, separated by about a mile of scenery.

Realizing the desirability of the mountaintop rail link, the two companies called a brief truce. If the Otis interests would lay the track from Otis Summit station to the depot at Kaaterskill, the Kaaterskill Railroad would furnish train service over the line. It was a kind of shotgun wedding, however, for the Otis operators had earlier warned that they were about to build another new railroad, from the Summit to Tannersville, for the purpose of serving the "Resort Ridge" on the six-mile lane west from the incline.

The delicate "marriage" lasted for but a short time. In 1898 the parent Ulster & Delaware widened the gauge of its Kaaterskill Branch to correspond with the main line, eliminating the need for a train change at the Phoenicia Junction. This left the Catskill Mountain-Otis Elevating Companies in a difficult situation. To preserve their narrow-gauge system and retain the traffic, the managers severed the Kaaterskill linkage and broke ground for an extension to Tannersville parallel to the existing line but on much inferior terrain. Thus the "Huckleberry," as the Catskill and Tannersville came to be known, was established.

These were good days for both businessman and traveler. The public had a multitude of choices of route and method of transportation to the prime Catskill resorts¾by steamboat, by standard or narrow-gauge railway, and an almost infinite number of combinations. No one needed to return in the same way he came. For the transportation companies and hotelkeepers, prospects were bright.

Up until the start of the Great War in 1914, the railroads did well, but thereafter they fell on bad days. The narrow-gauge Catskill Mountain lines (including the Otis and the Catskill & Tannersville) suffered most, for they were isolated from other sources of revenue and dependent upon river connection. Increasing operating costs, decreasing numbers of steamboat travelers, popularity of the motor car, and the attractiveness of more remote vacation areas all led to bankruptcy and dissolution of the narrow-gauge lines into the mountains. They were gone by 1919, leaving the Ulster & Delaware Railroad to perform its smoky duties alone on the Catskill heights.

The beginning of the "Resort Ridge" from the Catskill escarpment summit. William Henry Jackson photographed North and South Lakes on a glass negative in 1902, with the Catskill Mountain House and Otis Elevating Railway station on the left, the Hotel Kaaterskill on South Mountain, and High Peak, a thousand feet higher, in the background.

Submitted by John Ham, the above photograph has an important twofold significance to this special issue. It was shot on March 17, 1918, the day Edward L. May was born. The picture is of Ulster & Delaware engine no. 25 being used during WW I on the Central Railroad of New Jersey in Dunellen. Taken in front of the turntable site, a CNJ Camelback locomotive is parked right behind.

Our curator's favorite photograph of the Ulster & Delaware inspection engine no. 20 shown here in Kingston circa 1900. Built in Schenectady, NY, in 1896, it was often referred to as the "Coykendal Engine." Seated on the pilot is John Baker, an engineer for the U&D and later for the Catskill Mtn. Branch of the NYC. Also pictured is Robert Rinehart and Harry DeGroff. The information was supplied from a photo run in the Kingston Daily Freeman, November 3, 1949, with a caption "Railroaded Almost a Half Century", complimenting John Baker on his retirement after serving 49 years and eight months on the railroad.

Engine 23's cab as it sits on the loading dock for easier access for work to be performed to correct years of neglect.

The last few issues of the Telegraphed DISPATCH have allowed the membership to get caught up on the important restoration efforts and major steps already accomplished by the weekend warriors known as the "Steam Team." As the winter season of 2000-2001 approaches, preservation activities will slow to where various portions of the project that can proceed will be carried on indoors.

We last reported on the work that had shifted into high gear on the tender frame, but at the same time the locomotive's cab (pictured above), had been moved to the loading dock so a more secure flat surface to work on was made accessible to volunteers. The cab was excessively deteriorated with panels rusted through and some corrosion was found on structural members. New cab sides have been manufactured by Rothe Welding in Saugerties. John Dearstyne and Bill Kaba fabricated a support stand out of old boiler tubes that will allow installation of the new sides and bracing. To the uninitiated, engine no. 23 now looks like a stripped derelict hulk, not a locomotive undergoing restoration. In order to properly restore 23, it is infinitely deeper than a new coat of paint or shinning up the bell. Eventually, engine 23's frame will be removed from her driving wheels, allowing them to be transported to Steam Town, PA, for tire turning or complete replacement.

Until there is more to report on the continuing efforts, provided here are a couple of images of what the grand lady looked like years ago, and will someday, once again turn a few heads.

Unfortuantely this photo really doesn't do much justice for the " lady", as she sits in the Kingston yard waiting for the next step in her restoration effort.

Built for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming RR by ALCO at Pittsburgh in 1910, no. 23 is a 2-8-0 'Consolidation' type, Class SC-4. This type of engine was used in slower freight service.

No. 23 looking mighty grand as she pulls a long excursion run on the Marquette & Huron Mountain RR in July 1964.

Engine 23 sitting on a siding near Big Bay on the M&HM, years before the ESRM took possesion. Livery letters and numbers are barely visible due to exposure.

The restoration of Engine No. 23 will be featured on a regular basis. Due to the historical importance of such an undertaking, every attempt will be made to keep the membership well informed. Joe Michaels and Charlie Selteneck will provide current information, photographs and pertinent data on all aspects of this monumental task. Your continued support of this major project is needed and appreciated.

After the arrival of locomotive no. 103, a Baldwin 2-6-2 Prairie, the inspection found the engine not in seriously bad condition but not in particularly good condition either. Years of operation over fence-wire rails on a crooked 60-year-old logging line are not the greatest recommendations. From a standpoint of expense, an elaborate job of tender welding and a routinely expensive job of changing the boiler tubes for Interstate Commerce Commission inspection were the major problems. There was a long list of small but tedious jobs, such as cleaning the air-brake system, supplying new bearings and bushings for the valve and brake gear, and a thousand other necessities of similar dimension.

The now historic date of September 8, 1962, had been widely advertised as the first all-steam excursion to be run with the new engine. For weeks prior to that date the engine house lights burned well into the late hours. A part was wedged in here and another part welded up there. Once commenced, there was no rest possible. It was finally permitted to apply a fresh coat of dark green paint lined with gold trim just hours before the first steam trials. It was on Friday the 7th when Baldwin no. 103 was fired up for the first time and sent out to try her hand on a sample freight train¾a test that became the source of much wagering beforehand. That test train returned to Middletown at an unearthly late hour, due in fact, it must now be recorded, to nothing more than a tank full of extremely poor coal.

The Museum's first train the next day was, to put it mildly, exceedingly well-patronized. Late-comers were asked to return on the following day when seats might be available if purchased early enough. After all, wasn't it the first steam train in the Middletown area inover ten years? The 103 spewed coal smoke and steam, spun mightily on the hills, and was finally saved from dishonor with the help of a little red diesel which rambled along to act as a pusher on the steeper parts of the line. The weekend was judged as a grand success, and the Museum members felt encouraged to try to assemble a train of old-fashioned coaches for the 103 to pull on a regular schedule.

The summer of 1962 ushered in the first real passenger car, no. 7509, the 1915 edition Chicago & North Western Railway combination baggage-passenger coach. Not only was the coach equipped with honest-to-goodness open platforms, but after stripping off coats of cracking paint it was found that the entire interior surface consisted of a beautiful oak veneer with inlay. Thus emboldened, the volunteer car crew performed a miracle during the winter so that the old Pullman-built car was restored substantially to original condition. It was, in fact, ready by the inaugural 1963 excursions on May 4th and 5th, painted maroon, the Museum's official color and named American Heritage.

To help with the summer excursion schedule, coach no. 596 from the Lackawanna was obtained. Built also by Pullman in 1915, 596 was an open-end steel surburban coach used by the Lackawanna on its Booton Branch. Dozens of these cars had formerly composed the backbone of the Lackawanna passenger service, hauled by a 4-4-0 Mother Hubbard, or rebuilt 4-6-0 or a high-wheeler Pacific. The North Western and the Lackawanna cars formed an ideal combination, and the Museum expected some movie company to happen by to preserve this early-twentieth-century scene for the theater-going public.

A copy of an inaugural steam excursion ticket from 1962, simply designed and yet historic. Reminiscent of old railroad passes sought by memorabilia collectors today.

Six more pieces of railroad equipment were added to the growing collection. A Jersey Central wooden boxcar (no. 18049) was purchased and converted into a useful workshop and parts storage facility. Caboose no. 73 arrived from the Long Island Railroad. This particular car had been built originally by the Ontario & Western from parts of older cars and a locomotive tender. Just in time for the Middletown Diamond Jubilee ceremonies in 1963, the caboose was repainted and relettered with an original O & W and numbered 8301. A gondola car (no. 728) was bought from the abandoned Lehigh and New England for conversion into an open-top coach, a type of car that surely belongs on every operating Museum train.

The fourth car to join the Empire State Railway Museum collection was one of the more interesting and most useful. It was a coach-caboose built in 1930 by the Pine Bluff Shops of the St. Louie-Southwestern, better known as the Cotton Belt. Since it had seats for 45 persons in the passenger section, we called it the world's largest caboose. In the freight section, next to the cupola, was a large wooden barrel¾obviously to assuage the thirsts and cooking requirements of branch line service in deepest Arkansas. This car, no. 2305, was brought into regular use and became very popular with crew members and guests.

On its in-plant railroad at Bridgeport, CT, the Remington Arms Company operated a 1923 Brill gas-mechanical car, and when it is replaced with a newer model, hopefully we will get a surprise. Originally designed for branchline passenger service, the car was purchased and rebuilt by the Sperry Company to become one of the first rail-detector cars. It later went to work as a freight motor car for Remington, handling explosives and ammunition. Someday maybe the car can be rebuilt to resemble the old M&U railbus.

Museum acquired LIRR caboose no. 73. A piece of rolling stock built by the O&W from old cars and locomotive tender parts, gets repainted and relettered in original livery.

One of the later additions was also perhaps the most exciting. It was a genuine heavy-weight sleeping car built by Pullman in 1925, with one drawing room, three bedrooms, and eight sections. Since the car was basically in good condition, the dream was to operate it if possible on a Class 1 railroad on excursions or rent it out to groups on a chapter basis. Since the car was equipped with air conditioning as well as steam heat, there is no real limit to its range of travel or purpose¾and how ironic that it was really the first piece of rolling stock we wanted to acquire anyway! The car was down south on Atlantic Coast line tracks, where we had obtained it, but it will be brought north later on and restored as closely to the original decor as possible. The car is certainly representative of a high point in American railroad car design.

Operating professionals of the Middletown & New Jersey and volunteer members work side-by-side to keep engine 103, the Museum's prized new possesion, in top operating shape.

In 1962, the Baldwin engine was only used a few times, but repairs and renewals during the ensuing winter gave enough confidence to advertise a regular Sunday service for the 1963 Summer and Fall season. In 1964, it was thought advisable to schedule trains on both Saturday and Sunday between Middletown and Slate Hill, a farm village five and one half miles below Middletown on Route 6 to Port Jervis. The successful custom was continued of running the first and the last steam trips all the way to Unionville, usually with a "kicker," of a special barbecue or picnic lunch. Particularly important has been the handling of special charter trains, which are generally great fun for all concerned. The Museum was most anxious to let it be known that the train was available for charters beside regular scheduled runs, thus helping to fill dead-time and supplement operating expenses.

Tickets were first sold from the business office of the Middletown and New Jersey Railway, but as of 1964 a great and fortuitous event took place. What had once been the passenger waiting room had become filled with office and locomotive supplies, but when the room was cleared out of this thirty-year accumulation, an ideal spot for tickets as well as selling concession items was provided. The Museum started with sales of color postcards and black-and-white prints, but soon branched out into all kinds of historic railroadiana.

The official headquarters of the Museum is in New York City, but members are to be found throughout New Jersey, Long Island, and northern Orange County. There are over 140 members engaged in all sorts of professional and skilled jobs. Many are students who come up for weekends to spend the night in the Museum's attractive new bunk-car, which is equipped with showers and other amenities. We find that a good many of the members are model railroaders and are thus used to the art of constructive tinkering. Some members have actual railroad experience and some are learning about railroading under the guidance of the professional staff members of the Middletown & New Jersey RR. Safety is definitely a dominant concern.

One of Ed May's favorite spots to capture his excitement of railroading on film was at Manitou, about a mile west of Fort Montgomery Tunnel. This shot taken in July 1939, is of train no. 25, the 20th Century Limited, with streamlined NYC engine no. 5447 (a J3a 4-6-4) rumbling by with a trail of sleepers under high green.

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The Phoenicia Station
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