The Modest Pontiff of Delaware County

Caboose Photo Credit Lorcan Otway

ARKVILLE — On a brisk March morning, I wandered amongst the old train cars of the Delaware & Ulster Railroad. Railyards and shipyards are my idea of heaven, even on a cold morning. There were passenger cars, an ancient EMD Diesel Engine from 1948 and several humble crummies, as train men call the often red cabooses in which they lived, ate and slept on long hauls. I looked back down the track and thought of it curving from Route 28 to the cut through in Arkville to run along Route 30, past the ruins of the creamery, over many small but sturdy bridges along the Delaware River.  And I thought of ancient Rome. 

Before there was a Catholic Church, there was a functionary in Ancient Rome who maintained the roads and bridges. He was also the spiritual head of the Roman Empire. It made sense, taking care that the roads were maintained helped to spread the influence and culture far and wide. After the exceptional job Ray Pucci did as the President of the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, the newly renamed Delaware County Business Alliance, had to appoint a new president. They appointed Todd Pascarella, who, it just so happens, maintains the track, the road bed and bridges of the historic train lines which run out of Arkville. When I pointed out to him that he was in fact, a sort of "pontiff" as a result of that job, he blushed, smiled and said he would not go that far.

But, in a way we might. The job of the pontiff was to spread influence out and bring goods and prosperity into Rome. Todd is attempting to do that with the two hats he wears. We are talking in the freight shed of the Arkville Historic trainyard. It dates from 1871. Its original purpose was not to serve passengers, but to be a place to gather the produce of the region, load it onto train cars and ship it into New York or anywhere else it was needed. Down these rails steamed trains loaded with lumber, farm produce, tanning bark, as the Catskills helped to build and feed the nation. 

The story of the Catskill train lines is one of adaptation and growth, decline and rebirth. For those of us who remember our Catskill towns of the 1960s, this story is familiar, as we remember the growth of the hotels, ski lodges, golf courses and many strong family farms. Setting aside his trainman hat, and putting on his Delaware Business Alliance hat, we find Todd Pascarella hard at work helping to guide our county through a decline and into a bright new future. His goal is to inspire collective action among the businesses of all kinds, from agricultural businesses, local power companies, healthcare institutions and restaurants, museums and theaters which together are a vital part of the tourist trade. Building roads of communication between far flung businesses... (Pontiff?)

When Genie and I first came back to the Catskills, we were staying in Halcottsville. We'd often take walks along the tracks, and admire the canopy of trees and bucolic scenes of rail and streams. Then one afternoon, working in the quiet above the town, I thought I was hearing things. I distinctly heard the rumble of a train on nearby rails. Then a whistle.

I discovered that the Delaware & Ulster Railroad was working to restore the tracks that ran along Route 30, one of the most beautiful stretches of track.

The rail system has undergone changes in every epoch. After its first inception as a mover of freight, it found a new purpose as towns like Fleischmanns began to build tourist hotels. Todd tells me that in three directions from his home in Fleischmanns there can be found the foundations of former five hundred room hotels. "When I was in better shape as a golfer, I could hit a ball from my backyard into a place where one thousand rooms once stood. As the Twentieth Century dawned, trains carried city dwellers up these mountains to the resort hotels before the next iteration, the Ski lodges and their new schedule of trains. 

So, with rails now stretching into the Catskills, whole milk could be sent to far off places that had been reachable only by horse so, instead of little amounts of butter, whole milk could be sent. At first, Lumber, Coal, and Freight, rather than passengers, were carried. Starting after the Civil War in the 1860s, into the 1880s and 1890s tourism came to the Catskills as the railways built hotels and added passenger cars to the freight trains. 

Now new industries could be born, methanol and acetate, products of the wood acid factories were being shipped down these rails from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The Arkville Factory in Margaretville was owned by Treyz and later Luzerne Chemical companies. It distilled wood to produce wood alcohol, acetate of lime, charcoal, and formaldehyde.

The oldest of the Arkville Railroads rolling stock reaches back to these early days. The two flatcars which were transformed into open air passenger cars, began their lives in 1897 and 1901 as rock movers. They no doubt once carried Catskill Bluestone to NYC, to be laid down as paving stone. They now carry tourists from New York City and the world to watch the leaves change where that stone once lay. 

The crown jewel of the engineering feat and extraordinary view was the double horseshoe curve in Pine Hill. Today the tracks are gone, but the railbed gives hikers some sense of what it must have been in the 1890s to leave the smoke and brick canyons of New York City, and look out at the vista as the Hudson Valley dropped away and your train slowly climbed the switchbacks rising up into the clear mountain air.

Dr. Michael Kudish and  Burr Hubbell, are historians who have helped Todd to develop an understanding of the history of the trains in the Catskills and their place in the agricultural and tourist industries. Todd intends to expand the tourist train line and include historians both live and recorded on the trains.

"Holiday and seasonal programs will always be important." Todd explains. "We have some bigger plans for Christmas long-term which will actually take a year or two to work up to. The cold weather and elements are a real challenge, but with this year under our belt we will be on our way towards that. This year, the focus will be the fall, and the great scenery the changing leaves offer."

These mountain rail lines are special. Todd says that here the trains wind through landscapes with trails which have been etched by streams, which the tracks now follow. It is a totally different experience than the arrow straight train lines of the American plains. 

Todd points out that the train and rail trail give another view which you don't get from driving on highways. It is slower, its top speed was sixty miles per hour, but often had to slow down on curves or grades. His eyes sparkle as he describes what he sees in his mind's eye. He asks me to imagine a steam train racing through the farm lands trailing smoke and steam. He reminds me that the passengers are riding rather than watching the road, it is environmentally sound as well, in that a hundred people ride on the train.  

But bringing even modest tourist trains back to the Catskills is a daunting task. The weather is a factor which needs to be addressed. From ice to flood, these mountains take more than the usual maintenance of track. But the rewards in tourism are measurable. The plan is to keep expanding the rail service to link tourist destinations, the Hubbell Farm and Cider Press, the Union Grove Distillery, all can be stops on a vibrant tourist line. 

Delaware & Ulster Railroad Railyeard PPhoto Credit Lorcan Otway

EMD Diesel Engine (1948) Photo Credit Lorcan Otway

Photo Credit Lorcan Otway

Todd Pascarella Photo Credit Lorcan Otway