NYC photos of the Rondout spur to Hudson River

I am looking for photos of railroad from west shore nyc and pc , conrail to kingston point from 1958 to 1980 , and schedules and records , just a fan of the old line now out of service except for a small section being used by the trolley museum of ny

What you need to find is a copy of the book "Ulster and Delaware" by Gerald M. Best which was published in 1972. I assume it is long out of print but you might find a copy in a library. You might be able to buy a copy from Ron's Books in Harrison, NY, check their website:

http://www.ronsbooks.com

I suspect the book will command a fairly hefty price if you can find one. I think this book would be your best bet for photos and information on this historic railroad line. Another book which is much more recent that will also have photos and information is the book "The Old Up and Down" which is about the Catskill Mountain Branch of which this was at one time a part of. This book by John M Ham and Robert Bucenec was published in 2003 and might still be available through a book store or hobby shop, if not again Rons Books can probably provide you a copy at a much lower price and it would be worth your while to find yourself a copy.
Noel Weaver

Thank you noel , i have the old up and down great book I will try to obtain the other book you suggested also do you recall the vidoe of the last train on the catskill mtn branch[ P.C. ] I rememenber seeing it on pbs back in the 70s right after they stoped service to stanford

jmarino wrote:Thank you noel , i have the old up and down great book I will try to obtain the other book you suggested also do you recall the vidoe of the last train on the catskill mtn branch[ P.C. ] I rememenber seeing it on pbs back in the 70s right after they stoped service to stanford

I didn't even know there was one but I guess common sense would dictate that one or more were done.
Noel Weaver

when was the track from the Kingston point to the Hudson cement plant in east Kingston installed ? and how many customers did it serve ?

A hefty price, riiiiight.

I paid $10 for mine at a show. Looking at eBay tonight I see four listed anywhere from $17.99 (buy it now for $25) to the moron price of $60 - I say that because you can go over to the Golden West Books website and buy it there brand new for $49.95. Looking at past listings that actually sold, I see copies went for $10, $16, and $20.

If I remember right there may be some new or revised content to the most recent edition, but I can't find any documentation on that short of spending a lot more time searching than I want to waste right now.

So, jmarino you can probably answer your own question for about $15 shipped if you buy your own copy of the book.

jmarino wrote:when was the track from the Kingston point to the Hudson cement plant in east Kingston installed ? and how many customers did it serve ?

I remember when it was opened, and I think it was 1957. Colonial Sand and Gravel (Generoso Pope) owned the cement plant then, and most of the traffic was inbound coal. When the New York Central built the track, they had to install a crossing of the narrow gauge railroad of Hutton Brick Company. I was told that NYC had an agreement with Hutton to pay some outrageous fee if they blocked the crossing and held up the clay train for more than a few minutes at a time.

I think Colonial was the only customer on the track. What was then known as the "U&D Yard Engine" handled the operation, and a large part of the local business in Kingston, out to the O&W yard at Fair Street and everything in Rondout.

I made one trip down the hill from Kingston and up to the cement mill with the U&D Yard crew in the summer of 1959. About a week or two before they had had a runaway on the hill with about 20 loads of coal and engine 8320. Everyone jumped except the engineer, Jack Koltz, who rode it out to a hard stop against a cut of cars at Kingston Point. I was told that the speed recorder reached 50 mph during that trip.

The usual move had the engine in the lead going down the hill to Kingston Point, and the shoving the loads up the hill to the plant. They ran around the empties at Rondout and pulled them up the hill.

- Gordon Davids

ChiefTroll wrote:When the New York Central built the track, they had to install a crossing of the narrow gauge railroad of Hutton Brick Company.

Oh, really?? Any idea where that was? Any portion of it to be found still? (I see it here: http://brickcollecting.com/hutton.htm, but no idea where the railroad would have gone. Up the hill to the quarry as shown on the USGS Topo?)

Everyone jumped except the engineer, Jack Koltz, who rode it out to a hard stop against a cut of cars at Kingston Point. I was told that the speed recorder reached 50 mph during that trip.

OMG! You mean around that S curve, too??? No wonder everyone else jumped.

shoving the loads up the hill to the plant.

Kingston Point is at the level of the Hudson, which is maybe a foot or so above mean sea level (and very tidal). According to the USGS topo, the cement plant was at 80 feet, so it was very much a hill that they had to shove up. As far as I could see when I visited it in October of 2011, the rails were still in place north of Delaware Avenue. Gonna have to do some field work on foot or my bicycle. The nice thing about exploring on a bicycle is that you don't have an empty car sitting nearby while you're exploring, you can get in and out fast, and you can go farther.

I know the tracks are there as far as north street, they very overgrown after north street I don't what is in tact , Delaware ave. crossing is covered with asphalt and track just south of that has disappeared into the tital swamp, I remember the crossing at the hutton brick yard , there is a run around right at the switch for the old cement mill still there not sure if the trolley uses it or not , thanks for the date it was built their is a photo of the tracks in use in the old up and down taken in 1979 , I heard storys about the runaway from folks I knew that worked for the railroad pretty fast for the turns

RussNelson wrote: Oh, really?? Any idea where that was? Any portion of it to be found still? (I see it here: http://brickcollecting.com/hutton.htm, but no idea where the railroad would have gone. Up the hill to the quarry as shown on the USGS Topo?)

You answered your own question - the track ran west from the plant, across the NYC line & road, over to the quarry on topo maps. The tracks in the quarry were realigned often to access the various digging areas.

If you go poke around the old Hutton buildings, there is one that looks something like a garage, only it has some rail sticking out of it. Pretty sure this was their 'engine house'. (the old factory is easy to get into - steep rock road is intact and easily bike-able, or hiked). Lots of kids up there skateboarding and people fishing on the river. I didn't try to go toward teh quarry area - when I was up there it was mid summer and seriously overgrown. I doubt there's anything back there but who knows... most of the trackage in the factory is gone though some of the buildings have rails embedded in the concrete. Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/452 ... 880808578/

There was an article about the hutton trains in Railpace, around 1990 or so. I have it scanned somewhere - if you want PM me an email address and I'll send it over (sooner or later, I'm seriously lazy with emailing!). The article has photos of the hutton train and a penn central train coming back from the cement plant lead by a gp20.

What I'd love to find out is what happened to the rail cars and 2 locomotives they had. If I recall right from the railpace article, they had around 10-15 dump cars, and 2 locomotives (#3 & 4 - plymouths). I recently saw a photo on flickr of some closed restaurant over by oneonta that had a dump car out front which looked like the ones in the RP article, though I have no way of knowing if it came from there. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/452 ... 880808578/