Telegraphed
Dispatch - April 2000
News and Information from the Empire State Railway
Museum
THE TELLTALES:
News Briefs
and Noteworthy Reflections
ESRM Holiday
Party
Workin’
on the Railroad:
Family Remembered
Curator’s
Corner / Now and Then
Catskill Mountain
Railroad Gets BIG BUCKS
Grand Central
Terminal
Part Two
President’s
Message
As a youngster
of 8 or 9 years old in the 1930s I grew up next to Harvard University.
I spent a lot of summer days either swimming in the Charles River
or wandering through the museums on campus.
There were collections
of rocks and minerals, preserved animals and birds, an assembly
of glass flowers, and magnificent paintings. I did all of this alone,
looking in awe, with no one to share it with.
After high school
and a tour of duty in Korea, I started work and eventually began
a career in retailing that lasted 42 years.
With 20 years of
owning a business, I believe it has contributed to a well-rounded
education and training in being able to serve as board member, stationmaster,
and president of the Empire State Railway Museum. Due to my interest
in railroading, history, nature, and hiking, it has allowed me to
serve the museum well. The ESRM is now ready for its next phase
of growth.
We now possess
property for parking, hiking, and expanding upon. We have a secure
and beautifully restored 100-year-old train station we call home.
We have a vintage baggage car, mail car, and grain carrier, and
last but not least, a 1910 steam locomotive which will one day ride
the rails of the former Ulster & Delaware Railroad.
However, all is
in desperate need of financial backing and intense labor to further
our efforts of preservation. Support doesn’t necessarily mean
just paying our membership dues.
I guess if I had
only one wish to be granted, it would be for a group of dedicated
members to continue pushing to save a bit of history and share their
knowledge about the Catskills with all who seek it at our doors.
I thank you for
the opportunity to have served you all.
Sincerely,
Ralph Goneau
President, ESRM
The TELLTALES
News
Briefs and Noteworthy Reflections
Lakeville Elementary
Last Spring the
museum received an interesting request from the 5th
and 6th graders attending
Lakeville Elementary in Apopka, FL. A large mailing package containing
a huge banner with a letter of explanation asked the museum for
support of their project that had been well underway for a number
of years.
Principal Dr. Paula
M. Whittier explained the children where collecting items of interest
from around the country dealing with the history of railroads and
transportation. It asked for donation relating to their cause for
inclusion in the schools own museum that was to be dedicated on
April 7, 2000. Along with the banner an insta-camera was supplied
to capture their handcrafted sign in front of various stations,
museums and institutions, that would be used to fill display cases
at the school. (See photo below)
Steam Era Backhead
The museum is appreciative
to Dick Wilhelm and Ralph Goneau for making a concerted effort in
retrieving our steam era backhead from the Whippany Railway Museum
in Whippany, New Jersey. The enormous iron and steel structure complete
with working firebox, gauges, valves, levers, piping and fittings,
was once the working wall for an engineer and fireman aboard a powerful
steam locomotive. We can be thankful that the WRM took good care
of our property so that it can now become an impressive educational
tool for our organization.
The Museum ‘Road
Show’
During the month
of November 1999 a mini version of the Centennial Celebration Exhibition
took a trip to the Ulster County Office Building on Fair Street
in downtown Kingston.
With the cooperation
of Peter Carofano, Director of Ulster County Tourism, and his assistant,
Tina Iapoce, they once again were gracious with arranging for the
ESRM to utilize the glass enclosed display room in the lobby of
the building for a scaled-down photographic and static presentation.
Packed with museum
literature, various historical prints and write-ups, and three model
railroad dioramas, including the Phoenicia Gateway representation,
members Lonnie and Ruth Gale, Ralph Goneau, Dick Wilhelm and Bob
Bucenec took the better portion of a day to set up the museum’s
‘road show.’
Each year we are
lucky to be able to take advantage of the invitation extended us
by the county to share with visitors, employees, and legislators
our special form of education.
Let us hope that
we’ve had the opportunity to share with a few our information
if only to merely preserve a reflection. (See photo below)
Old Logger’s
Tales
For the past 10
years Rick Brooks, a self-professed history freak, has been researching
the Fenwick Lumber Company, a logging operation long gone since
1917 from a 2,000 acre parcel on the south side of Hunter Mountain
between Lanesville and Edgewood.
The Empire State
Railway Museum sponsored Brooks’ third slide show presentation
on March 8 in Kingston, where he continues to look for information
and photographic images to aid in his project while educating others
and sharing his findings openly.
According to Brooks,
who has collected about 60 slides of the lumber company site, says
after a bit more investigation, a few more trips to the logging
sites, and at least one more slide presentation, he plans to complete
his documentation.
After all is complete,
Rick has aspirations of compiling a booklet for distribution to
area libraries, schools and historical societies. The Telegraphed
DISPATCH will keep you abreast of further information
regarding this labor of love.
Passenger Cars
The Catskill Mountain
Railroad has moved two former Erie-Lackawanna MU coaches up from
Kingston to sit opposite Phoenicia Station. The heavyweight passenger
cars were last used by NJ Transit in the early 80s. According to
information found inside the cars, they haven’t been serviced
since March of 1981¾ last performed at the Hoboken, New Jersey yards.
According to Earl Pardini, CMRR, the coaches will both undergo heavy
work to bring them up to spec for revenue service. Volunteers are
already well underway on this extensive restoration.
Museum
Hosts Holiday Party:
Santa
rides Catskill Mountain Railroad with fans of all ages.
What a better way
to finish off our very special centennial season and help celebrate
the holiday spirit than with an old-fashioned Christmas party.
On Sunday, December
5th, the Empire State
Railway Museum in conjunction with the Catskill Mountain Railroad,
arranged for a special visit from everyone’s’ number one
guy, Santa Claus.
Phoenicia Station
offered an inviting refuge from the nip in the air and allowed visitors
to partake of buttered popcorn, hot apple cider, cookies and candy.
The Catskill Mountain’s ‘Santa Special’ rode the
rails of the former Ulster & Delaware mainline permitting little
tikes to get their last minute requests in with the big guy while
taking in the spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.
Along with the
station decorated in a holiday array, three invited model railroaders
added something uniquely special to the festive party by having
their portable layouts running miniature trains.
To see the faces
of children (and adults) of all ages having their eyes filled with
excitement while watching the small engines and rolling stock winding
around the scenic track was indeed a sight to be hold. I’m
sure it reminded a few of the older attendees, when they first layed
eyes on the old Lionel setup under the Christmas tree, way back
when.
All three model
railroaders should be commended on bringing their creations to life
and giving up a Sunday to share them with holiday partygoers.
Pete Tassone ran
his recently finished N-scale Manhattan & Onteora Railroad.
However, from what I could see, Pete had a little too much fun playing
with his trains switching engines and cars while entertaining the
children. Pete, you should loosen up a bit.
Two Kingston Model
Railroaders, Leo Roach and Mike Rourke made their journey up to
the museum with two small but impressive layouts. Leo explained
that his layout interrupted how the great ‘Pennsylvania Railroad’
might have cut through the heart of Philadelphia with a number of
prominent structures and buildings that represented places that
his family members had been employed. That’s one way to come
up with an idea for modeling a prototype roadway.
Mike’s layout
of the New York, Ontario & Western’s Kingston Branch incorporates
the O&W and the City of Kingston’s streetcar system set
in the 1940s. Mike lives in an apartment and truly needs the portability
with his small 3’ x 5’ tabletop to impress fans where
ever he goes. If your interested, and wish a more in depth look,
Mike’s layout was written up and photographed for Model Railroader’s
special issue of ‘Great Model Railroads 2000’.
Thank you to one
and all, and to all a good night.
The ‘Fat
Man’ (Patrick Hoey) wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from
the caboose of the CMRR in front of the ESRM.
Workin’
on the Railroad
Family
Remembered
By Lonnie Gale
Lemuel
Chichester Gale circa 1925 Working in front
of the Tannersville Station¾ neat attire, prominent pocket watch, and a clean
station.
Lemuel Chichester
Gale, named after Lemuel Chichester who was a great uncle, was a
railroad telegrapher-station agent; first for the Ulster & Delaware
Railroad (1893-1932) and then for the New York Central Railroad
(1932-1943). His first post was at the Pine Hill depot and his last
was at Phoenicia Station where he passed away while telegraphing
the clearance for a mail train on May 17, 1943.
In 1915 he moved
from Pine Hill to Tannersville and was the agent there until the
Stony Clove branch was abandoned in 1940. My memories of the railroad
were in Tannersville, especially with the terminus remains of the
old Catskill & Tannersville Railroad right in our own backyard.
You could make out where the turntable used to be and in the remains
of the small depot we raised chickens and turkeys.
During the depression
years times were very difficult. There were workweek sharing days
so that the railroad didn’t have to lay-off any employees.
This continued in 1932 when the Ulster & Delaware was taken
over by The New York Central Railroad.
I can remember
the happier days. When my father wasn’t working, we would pack
a picnic basket of goodies and walk the cinder covered track remains
of the Huckleberry Railroad (C&T). About a half-mile or so,
we would cut down through some open fields to have lunch alongside
the stream that fed Rip Van Winkle Lake.
Dad was a very
neat person, which also showed in the stations he had operated.
I have a letter dated June 17, 1911 from Edward Coykendall, General
Superintendent of the U&D, commending him on the neatness of
the station at Pine Hill and the way he conducted railroad business.
He was also very
neat in his attire. Every night before turning in or upon rising
in the morning, he would set up the ironing board with a bowl of
water and ammonia near by. He was careful to clean and press his
pants first and then check his suitcoat or sweater. A tie and a
fresh white shirt were a must. Of course the pocket watch and chain
had to be in prominent view.
Years after my
dad had passed on, Ed West, noted DEC Official, told me what trouble
my father went to arranging transportation home for him during World
War II. Ed had to get home immediately due to a death in his family
and the only way of getting there was by train. Ed never forgot
what my father did for him.
Many times while
we lived in Tannersville my father would put me on a train to visit
my grandparents in Phoenicia. I was able to ride in a coach, or
in the caboose, and sometimes even had the chance to ride in the
cab of an engine! Slim Simmons was always the engineer, Ray Baldwin
the conductor, and I can even remember Perry McDonald at times.
Yes, I can say
I was proud of my father, and looking back, enjoy the memories and
events even more so than when they actually took place.
Honored Employees
On "Old Timers
Day" July 10, 1999, during the Centennial Celebration of Phoenicia
Station, many former railroad employees were honored and remembered
by attending family members and friends.
Lester Bell, U&D
Fireman 1916-1934, represented by Harold and Margaret Bell, Fred
Brueckner, U&D, NYC Conductor, represented by Joan B. Isgro-Grant,
Ron Kent, NYC Station Agent, 1947 Davenport Center, Walter Kent,
Trainmaster out of Phoenicia, Slim Simmons, U&D Engineer and
Fireman 1917-1952, represented by Warren Simmons & Family, Edward
C. Snyder, U&D Engineer for 51 years, represented by Muriel
Snyder-Ausanio, Melvin Winchell (Father), Robert and Walter Winchell,
(Brothers) U&D 1920s, represented by Roy Winchell, John B. Winnie
(Father), U&D Station Agent, Mt. Pleasant, Howard C. Winnie
(Son) NYC Section Gang and Brakeman, represented by Grace and Bob
Winnie, George L. Woodworth, Assistant Station Agent 1900s, George
Woodworth, U&D Fireman 1916-120, Clifford Woodworth, Engineer,
Stony Clove Branch until 1940, represented by Craig Woodworth.
Curator’s
Corner
A mixed
Ulster & Delaware train hauled by engine no. 28 approaching
Phoenicia from the east. On the far right is the former McGrath
property and farmhouse¾ later belonging to Harold Ring. This structure still
stands but will probably be torn down due to the amount of deterioration.
NOW AND
THEN
On the
Ulster & Delaware Railroad
The
picture shows the U&D trestle crossing Giggle Hollow just east
of the Pine Hill Station circa 1900.
An almost
identical photograph taken in the spring of 1998. Truly amazing
what Mother Nature can do in nearly 100 years.
BIG BUCKS!
$747,799
TO UPGRADE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN RAILROAD
Initial
check presentation at the County Offices Building in Kingston. (L
to R) Peter Carofano, Ulster Co. Tourism, Senator
John Bonacic, Harry Jameson, Earl Pardini, Gladys Gilbert, CMRR
Board of Directors, and Ward Todd,
Ulster Co. Legislator.
State Senator John
J. Bonacic, along with Ulster County leaders, announced a state
and local partnership to substantially upgrade the Catskill Mountain
Railroad. The upgrade will allow the tourist train to run on five
new miles of track between Shokan and Boiceville and permit running
along the most scenic route of the former Ulster & Delaware
Railroad line. Bonacic obtained $250,000 for the railroad as part
of the Catskills Reinvestment Act. Ulster County officials have
agreed to a five-year plan, which will match a total of $125,000
in County funds also to be used in upgrading the railroad line.
"The Catskill Mountain Railroad serves as a tourist attraction...it
is a summer activity for families to enjoy, to learn about the history
of the railroad, and to get a scenic view of some of the most beautiful
land in the Catskills," Bonacic stated.
Currently the railroad
runs 2.8 miles from Mount Pleasant to Phoenicia. With a new crossing
over Route 28 (expected soon), laying new track, and making necessary
repairs from Boiceville to Shokan, we could see expanded train service
covering a distance of 11 miles in the very near future. Supplementing
the state and county aid, a federal grant of $372,799 was also awarded
the CMRR from Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) funds. This money
is to be used to restore 2 miles of track, install 2,250 feet of
new rail siding and upgrade parking. Earl Pardini explained that
track work will begin soon, and is expected to be completed within
a year. What does this money really mean? By springtime next year
there could be trains running on the former Ulster & Delaware
right-of-way along the Ashokan Reservoir.
Empire State Railway
Museum
Restoration
Project:
Locomotive
No. 23
The information
this month is supplied by Joe Michaels and is included as part of
his ‘Brief History of Locomotive 23". It was used to write
the article for the January 2000 issue. Until we have an opportunity
to review everything that has been done to date and a few more photographs
taken, the Telegraphed DISPATCH will
attempt to provide a chronological review according to that report.
When restoration
work began in the summer of 1996, No. 23 was completely stripped
and the boiler was needle scaled to remove rust and then preserved
by painting her with a rust-neutralizing primer. All flues were
removed, as were the superheater manifolds and hairpin elements.
Subsequently, the boiler was ultrasonically gauged to determine
the thickness and condition. The firebox flue sheet was cleaned
and inspected revealing significant radial cracks. The damaged area
was identified and cut out. A ‘knuckle patch’¾ a hot-formed flanged piece of boilerplate¾ was made by ESRM volunteers working
at the shops of the Valley Railroad in Essex, CT during May of 1998.
The smokebox was
found to be corroded to the point of being paper thin and perforated.
It was removed from the boiler, new plates rolled up by a local
shop, and has been fitted, welding the halves together and drilled
for replacement of the riveted seam. The smokebox will be permanently
secured to the boiler barrel with hot riveting¾ driving 1" diameter boiler rivets
heated in a coal fired forge and seated with an air riveting gun.
The boiler of no.
23 was found to be sitting on its bearers in such a manner that
it was not sitting true and under great strain. All fitted bearer
bolts had to be removed and the boiler jacked-up and temporarily
blocked into true alignment with the engine’s frame.
Engine 23s cab,
badly deteriorated from age and exposure, could not be left in place.
It was temporarily braced and removed for repair. As volunteers
stripped the interior woodwork, they found a set of Lake Superior
& Ishpeming train orders dated 1957.
These are the restoration
efforts through July 1999. Highlights of pending work and updates
of completed tasks will be shared in upcoming issues.
The restoration project
of Engine No. 23 will be featured on a regular basis in issues of
the Telegraphed DISPATCH. Due to the historical importance of such
an undertaking, every attempt will be made to keep the membership
well informed. Joe Michaels and Charlie Seltenick 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.
The Grandest
Terminal of Them All
Part
Two
Grand
Central Terminal fronts 42nd Street and
Park Avenue divides its traffic flow past the station on an elevated
roadway. NYC photo.
When
it was completed in 1913, Grand Central was hailed as a work of
engineering and architectural genius. It still is today, and it
is to extraordinary vision and creativity of its builders that we
owe the enduring utility of this remarkable terminal.
In 1902 the plans
to improve the Park Avenue Tunnel and expand Grand Central Terminal
was expensive. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad needed
to invest in electrifying its rails, and carve deep into the Manhattan
bedrock. The solution to the projected $80 million project budget
(roughly $2 billion in today’s terms) came from William J.
Wilgus, NYC’s chief engineer. Without steam engines, there
was no longer a need for an open rail yard. Wilgus proposed that
the tracks from 45th
to 49th streets be
built over and that real estate developers be allowed to erect buildings
over the concealed tracks. In exchange for this privilege, developers
would pay a premium to the New York Central Railroad for "air
rights." Construction in the years immediately after completion
of Grand Central Terminal would include apartment buildings like
the Marguery, the Park Lane, and the Montana, and hotels including
the Barclay, the Biltmore, the Chatham, the Ambassador, the Roosevelt
and finally the Waldorf-Astoria, completed in 1931. For many years,
Grand Central Terminal provided utilities to all these buildings,
as there were no city services available yet.
In 1903, a select
group of architects were invited to submit designs for the new Grand
Central Terminal in a competition. Among them were McKim, Mead and
White, architects of New York’s Pennsylvania Station (1910),
and the adjacent General Post Office (1914), and D.H. Burham and
Company, chief planners of the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago
and architects of Washington D.C.’s Union Station (1907). The
winning submission, however, was from the St. Paul firm of Reed
and Stem. Reed and Stem had done other work for the New York Central,
and Reed’s sister was married to William Wilgus, who by the
time was the New York Central’s Vice President in charge of
construction.
In spite of these
connections, Reed and Stem could not have been ready for what was
about to happen. Subsequent to the competition, New York architects
Warren and Wetmore presented the selection committee with their
own proposal for the terminal. Warren, a cousin of New York Central
Chairman William Vanderbilt, succeeded in his appeal. In February
1904, Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem entered an agreement
to act as The Associated Architects of Grand Central Terminal. The
next six years would be spent reconciling, amending, and revising
the plans for the new Grand Central.
Construction would
last ten years. Excavation was an enormous undertaking as the grade
of the rail yard was lowered to an average depth of 30 feet below
street level. Yet, in spite of the upheaval, rail service continued
uninterrupted. Initially, trains continued to use the old Grand
Central, which was eventually razed in 1910. To make way for the
new terminal, some 180 buildings, principally dwellings, hospitals,
and churches were also razed. A temporary station in the Grand Central
Palace at Lexington Avenue and 43rd
street was used until 1912.
Grand Central Terminal
officially opened to great fanfare at 12:01 AM on Sunday, February
2, 1913, and more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on
its opening day. Although construction was not yet completed, Grand
Central Terminal had arrived and New York City would never be the
same again.
With Grand Central
acting as an anchor, development around the terminal took off. Between
1913 and 1917, the Biltmore Hotel, the Yale Club, and two office
buildings were constructed on railroad property across Vanderbilt
Avenue. During the 1920s, as hotels and apartment buildings began
to rise on the air rights, tracks of Park Avenue, skyscrapers simultaneously
sprang up along East 42nd
street. Warehouses gave way to the 56-story Chanin Building, the
54-story Lincoln Building, and the 77-story Chrysler Building. On
Lexington Avenue, the Hotel Commodore opened in 1919, and the Eastern
Offices Building, better known as the Graybar Building, was completed
in 1927, each with a passageway connection to Grand Central’s
Main Concourse.
As the neighborhood
prospered, so did Grand Central. Grand Central terminal, at various
times, housed an art gallery, an art school, a newsreel movie theater,
a rail history museum, and innumerable temporary exhibitions. All
the while, it remained the busiest train station in the country,
with a bustling Suburban Concourse on the lower level and famous
long-distance trains like the Fast Mail, the Water-Level Limited,
the Wolverine, the Yankee Clipper, the Merchants Limited, and the
famous Twentieth Century Limited departing from its Main Concourse.
In 1947, over 65 million people, the equivalent of 40 percent of
the population of the United States, traveled the rails via Grand
Central Terminal. But Grand Central Terminal was about to fall victim
to the same forces that originally enabled its construction. By
the early 1950s, as post-war America transformed itself into a nation
of suburbs and automobiles, revenues from long-distance rail travel
were plummeting. At the same time, the value of prime midtown Manhattan
real estate had risen dramatically. In 1954, the railroad resolved
to make the most of its assets, commissioning plans to demolish
Grand Central Terminal and replace it with a six million square
foot office tower.
Nothing came of
this plan. But in 1958, the railroad concluded negotiations with
developer Edwin S. Wolfson to demolish the six-story office structure
at the terminal’s rear and replace it with the 59-story Pan
Am Building. Completed in 1963, the Pan Am Building sealed off Park
Avenue, completely obscuring the view of the terminal from uptown.
Concurrently, the interior of the terminal was being parceled out
for billboards and commercial advertising, in an on-going effort
to increase revenues.
The focal point of Grand Central Terminal is the concourse, an
enormous room through which flows most of the terminal’s traffic.
Ticket windows line the south wall and in the center of the room
is the information booth with famous gold clock above it.
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