Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) Discussion - 2017

Today the CMRR completed moving all its equipment from County-owned property in Phoenicia to CMRR owned property. Today's work included our track machines; last week we moved our full-sized railroad equipment.

See this article from last week:

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-new ... l-to-do-so" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Many thanks to the following who helped on this project: Jim Bruck, Hunter Downie, Peter Fluchere, Mark Glaser, Vince Guido, Russell Hallock, Tom Healy, Dave Heick, Dave Hilliard, Al Johnson, Ernie Klopping, John Marino, Arthur Vogel, Bryan Wade, Tom Whyte and Joe Wolf.

Many thanks to all for the successful completion of this ambitious and necessary project for the CMRR.

Ernie Hunt
President

Interesting article... I wish people wouldn't get so worried and freak out every time the railroad does something. Anyway, lets hope 2017 is a good year for the Catskills Mountain Railroad!

Hats off to the CMRR for doing the best that they can under the current situation.

It's too bad that the Freeman follows the modern news protocol where they generate the news rather than simply report it.

I would wish no one misfortune and, am glad that at least the rails are remaining, but, it might be interesting to look at the tourist revenue for Phonecia a year from now from the rail riders versus the CMRR. I hope the town remembers the revenue that the CMRR brought them while considering the urgency to remove their equipment from the CMRR's own property. So much for thinking about the future! I wonder if the Freeman would cover that.

You want to make a point, have everyone who rides wear a sticker that says "I rode the train" and ask them to wear it to any businesses they go to while they're in town. When the local businesses see how many people who come in have a sticker on, they'll have to grasp how important the railroad is.

So the cars could not stay where they were, but didn't have "permission" to move to the town. What was the group supposed to do - make them go straight up in the air?

How little weight the writer of the article gave to the 4 little words "ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY".

As an incorporated railroad, isn't CMRR governed under STB regulations? If local zoning codes and local regulations didn't prohibit this before the move, then the local authorities don't legally get a say, right? It's a railroad, storing railroad equipment on property owned by the railroad, in a locale where another railroad exists. That's probably what their lawyers told them in closed session, which is why no action is being taken by them.

The short answer is: as an intra-state [as opposed to inter-state] (hyphens added for emphasis) railroad operation disconnected from the national network, the STB does not come into play.

CMRR (and the Catskill Mountain Branch) ceased being under ICC/STB regulation on April 1, 1977.

However, today It is regulated by FRA and NYSDOT as a tourist railroad.

EH

I see an article on the west end that locals are upset with the rail bike operation and a county official let it slip that they purposely chose that group because they don't run trains. It was shared on the facebook page.

The locals are worried about, of all things, the noise of the bikes going by. You have to be kidding me.

https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/03/16/ ... ike-tours/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Olive residents upset about use of tracks for rail bike tours
by Violet Snow/March 16, 2017/3 comments

Residents of the Town of Olive are up in arms about Rail Explorers, the company whose contract with Ulster County will allow them to run tours of rail bikes down the Ulster & Delaware tracks alongside 39 homes on Cold Brook Road, near Boiceville, beginning in August or September. Cold Brook Road residents say their research shows Rail Explorers came into conflict with homeowners over their past two years of operation in the Adirondacks due to the noise of the bikes and issues with the large quantity of tourists passing by their properties. Rail Explorers moved out of the Adirondacks at the end of last year’s season.

On March 8, a meeting at the Olive Library quickly grew tense as Olive residents presented their concerns to Chris White, Deputy Director of the Ulster County Planning Department, and Rail Explorers CEO Mary Joy Lu and Managing Director Alex Catchpoole. Lu and Catchpoole defended their operation as positive and uplifting for riders, while White insisted the bikes would be more environmentally friendly and economically beneficial than the excursion trains of Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR), which Rail Explorers is displacing between Phoenicia and Boiceville...

"Not in MY back yard, you don't!!!!"

Whatta buncha azzoles!

What noise? bunch of BS liars...

Perhaps they meant that the people operating the bikes are loud and intrusive. Everyone knows how annoyingly loud tourists, heck how loud anyone, can be.

If theyare complaining about the sound of the bikes themselves, then they are just being annoying.

thebigham wrote:https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/03/16/ ... ike-tours/

Olive residents upset about use of tracks for rail bike tours
by Violet Snow/March 16, 2017/3 comments

Residents of the Town of Olive are up in arms about Rail Explorers, the company whose contract with Ulster County will allow them to run tours of rail bikes down the Ulster & Delaware tracks alongside 39 homes on Cold Brook Road, near Boiceville, beginning in August or September. Cold Brook Road residents say their research shows Rail Explorers came into conflict with homeowners over their past two years of operation in the Adirondacks due to the noise of the bikes and issues with the large quantity of tourists passing by their properties. Rail Explorers moved out of the Adirondacks at the end of last year’s season.

On March 8, a meeting at the Olive Library quickly grew tense as Olive residents presented their concerns to Chris White, Deputy Director of the Ulster County Planning Department, and Rail Explorers CEO Mary Joy Lu and Managing Director Alex Catchpoole. Lu and Catchpoole defended their operation as positive and uplifting for riders, while White insisted the bikes would be more environmentally friendly and economically beneficial than the excursion trains of Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR), which Rail Explorers is displacing between Phoenicia and Boiceville...

I love this one:

“Rail Explorers offered what we thought was a better value in terms of how many people they would employ and visitors they would bring to area,” said White at the March 8 meeting. “We like that they’re not operating heavy diesel trains.”

So Chris White is admitting that in their RFP from rail operators, they purposely chose an operator that would not operate trains on train tracks? Sounds discriminatory... Almost like the only railroad bidder (CMRR) was excluded from the process?

“Would you rather have diesel trains going by?” asked White. Several people shouted, “Yes!” Before floods washed out tracks at three points west of Mount Tremper, CMRR trains used to pass their houses three to four times a day, according to some residents, but only on weekends and never in the morning. The county will be repairing the washouts this spring and summer, before Rail Explorers begins its operation.

Remember folks, it doesn't matter what the people want.

-otto-

Well, if the people prefer the diesel trains, who are we to argue?

But I can't imagine these bike things make any noise unless you have a crowd of rowdy drunks on them.