In the 1880s, the cargo began to include vacationers fleeing New York City’s summer heat and disease. Narrow-gauge tracks were built, such as the Otis Elevated leading to the Catskill Mountain House and the spur from Phoenicia that went up through Stony Clove. But eventually changes in industry led to the decline of commercial railroads, and the car and airplane took over as vehicles for vacation travel. Companies folded. Tracks decayed. Except for the freight line that still runs along the Hudson, passing through Kingston, the local lines petered out.
The remnants of those lines are today’s Catskill Mountain Railroad, which currently operates a tourist ride on a short stretch — shortened still more by Hurricane Irene — outside of Phoenicia, as well as a Kingston run. In Delaware County, the Delaware & Ulster also has a tourist line.
The problems arose in 2012, when Hein began threatening to curtail the CMRR’s lease on Ulster County tracks, due to alleged violations. A plan to replace the remaining tracks with a hiking and biking trail gained steam. The railroaders, who have invested untold hours of volunteer labor into maintaining and restoring tracks and antique trains, dug in their heels. The film documents the continuing battle.
Carey includes a section entitled “For the Love of Trains,” in which he interviews historians who have written about local railroads. For those who don’t understand why the railroaders are so passionate, these old-timers — all men — will convey the mystique.
“Sometimes [trains] seem like living things. They pant and puff and seem to breathe,” reports William Helmer, Ph.D., a Morrisville resident, nearing 90.
“I have yet to meet any young boys that aren’t captivated by trains,” comments Dale Flansburg, who maintains a little museum of railroad paraphernalia at his home in Germantown.
Photographer and author Robert Haines, born into a family of railroad engineers, supplied film footage he had taken of his father at the wheel of a train. Young Haines had opportunities to drive trains himself, and his hushed remark is, “All this power, and all you had to do was pull the throttle.”
No less an authority than Edna St. Vincent Millay is quoted as well. Her poem “Travel” ends:
My heart is warm with friends I make
And better friends I’ll not be knowing;
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.
So that’s what the rail trail enthusiasts are up against.
Does Carey worry his film will be seen as propaganda in favor of the railroaders?
He shrugs. “It is what it is. People will take it whatever way they want.”
For more information on Tobe Carey’s films, see https://documentaryworld.com/.
Can’t wait to see it!