Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) Discussion - 2013

Getting Schumer off their side is critical as he's promised to twist some arms at the STB. Let him know that he's in bed with people who balance their county budget by assuming they can violate federal law, i.e. scrap a railroad before abandonment or railbanking. A good rail attorney wouldn't hurt either. And has the county filed with the STB yet?

Saturday, June 22nd

On Saturday we will be running in Mt. Tremper and Kingston.

In Mt. Tremper, George Peck plans to support the train crews through the first run, then his crew will switch to Phoenicia where they will continue work cleaning up the Phoenicia yard. Meet at 9:30am at Mt. Tremper.

I plan to lead a brush crew on Saturday. More details later. Contact me directly if you want to join up.


Sunday, June 23rd

Trains will be running in Mt. Tremper.

In Kingston, George Peck and Mark Glaser will lead a track crew starting at 9am at Cornell Street Yard. Plans are to continue installing ties west of C9 so our Kingston City Limited can go further west to Route 209.


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

The CMRR has insurance! It's in order! They could not operate tourist trains if they did not have it.

I trust they are insured - but the trail people seem to believe otherwise and are using that against cmrr publicly. Posting proof online somewhere doesn't hurt. Prove they are lying publicly. It makes all their other arguments weaker.

Instead of painting the new coach, how about wrapping it with huge graphics that read SAVE THE RAILROAD.

(Otto??)

Well first off it's good to see the railroad returning to rebuilding west of C-9 again!

Secondly I don't know if anyone saw this, but I just got the lastest edition of the NRHS News in the mail and they've created a list of the 8 most endangered railroad landmarks in the U.S. and one of the eight things on the list is the "Lion Gardiner". Now I know this might not help the CMRR in any way, but it does shed a little light on things, in that if the county got that car, (if they won their fight), they'd probably scrap it. (along with everything else) That having been said... if some attention is brought to the Lion Gardiner perhaps the CMRR could indirectly benefit in some way as perhaps then some light could also be shed on their fight with the county.

scoostraw wrote:

DogBert wrote:
2) "CMRR is currently operating a rail yard on the U&D right-of-way from Downs Street east to Cornell Street, which site is located outside the lease premises. By reason of the foregoing, CMRR is trespassing on County-owned property."

CMRR has been operating this yard for how many years with no complaint before this - seems to me you have a case under adverse possession. Which I'd push, since it would screw up part of their trail plans.

For what it's worth, that list of things presented in the lease is just a list of things required by the lease, I don't see where it specifically accused the railroad of being in default of every one of those provisions.

Judges get really pissed off when you present them with arguments that try to pull the wool over their eyes. I'm sure that the CMRR's attorney will simply say that they have been notoriously, publicly, and continually operating the Cornell Street Yard for decades, and if the county was particularly concerned, they could have said something earlier.

RussNelson wrote:Judges get really pissed off when you present them with arguments that try to pull the wool over their eyes. I'm sure that the CMRR's attorney will simply say that they have been notoriously, publicly, and continually operating the Cornell Street Yard for decades, and if the county was particularly concerned, they could have said something earlier.

The authorities certainly knew of the Cornell Street facility... Permits were secured to put up the fencing... I mean, someone had to sign off on that, right?

scoostraw wrote:Instead of painting the new coach, how about wrapping it with huge graphics that read SAVE THE RAILROAD.

(Otto??)

I'm not even sure what something like that would cost....

Otto Vondrak wrote:I'm not even sure what something like that would cost....

I wondered about that too.

RussNelson wrote:...and if the county was particularly concerned, they could have said something earlier.

The same argument could apply to not rebuilding a new mile of track per year.

airman00 wrote:Well first off it's good to see the railroad returning to rebuilding west of C-9 again!

Secondly I don't know if anyone saw this, but I just got the lastest edition of the NRHS News in the mail and they've created a list of the 8 most endangered railroad landmarks in the U.S. and one of the eight things on the list is the "Lion Gardiner". Now I know this might not help the CMRR in any way, but it does shed a little light on things, in that if the county got that car, (if they won their fight), they'd probably scrap it. (along with everything else) That having been said... if some attention is brought to the Lion Gardiner perhaps the CMRR could indirectly benefit in some way as perhaps then some light could also be shed on their fight with the county.

The County cannot get the Lion Gardiner. They do not own it. In fact, the CMRR doesn't own it.

It's owned by the Empire State RR Museum in Phoenicia. Last I heard, someone wanted to buy it and move it off the CMRR.

The bicycle lobby sure seems to have gotten to Schumer:

http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top ... -on-board/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If Schumer wants baggage cars for bikes, I'm sure he can get money allocated for that in the federal budget.

(insert smiley facing rolling on the floor cracking up here).

I wonder how many people would actually use this. Maybe one or two bikes per train I would imagine, on a good summer weekend day.