Ulster County Station Stops

For all the train buffs eagerly awaiting the release of Glendon Moffett’s* new book on the historic rail lines of Ulster County, (with a working title of Five Historic Railroads of Ulster County), I make this humble offering of station images from my postcard collection. Glendon’s book should be out in early April and will be available by contacting him after that at 691-7391. The rail companies Mr. Moffett covers are the West Shore, Wallkill Valley, Central New England & New Haven, Orange and Western, and Ulster and Delaware.

The typeface used for the title of this article is appropriately named “Hobo.” And that reminds me of a story told to me by my mother-in-law, the late Bea Wadlin, long-time historian for the Town of Lloyd, and more recently stirred in memory by her daughter, Diane, last Christmas.

Diane designed and hooked a hot-pad with a cat on it. The attached note read: “In the days of the 1930s many men took to the road during the great depression. As they went from town to town and house to house, these men left signs for other hoboes. Those signs told whether it was safe to stop at the house. If help, food and clothing were available or whether the hobo should move on.

This hobo cat was drawn in the ground near a house where a kindhearted-lady lived.”

One rendition of the image was apparently along the tracks behind Bea’s home on Vineyard Avenue. If a man came to the door, she would set out a wash bowl and towel and while they washed up, she would bring out a tray of food. She said the men were always grateful and most offered to work for their food.

The track the men followed is the same rail roadbed that crosses the Walkway Over The Hudson, and will soon continue west under Route 9W, then cross a new pedestrian bridge over Route 44/55 (Vineyard Avenue) and take you to the Hudson Valley Rail Trail. Eventually, that trail will take you to New Paltz and from there you can travel north to Rosendale, or south to Gardiner.

(By the way, the Accord station is for sale… www.accordtrainstation.com)

*Other area history books by Moffitt include Down to the River by Trolley, To Poughkeepsie and Back, The Old Skillypot and Other Ferryboats of Rondout, Kingston and Rhinecliff, andUptown—Downtown: Horsecars—Trolley Cars: Urban Transportation in Kingston, New York, 1866-1930 all published by Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, NY (see Gifts for information on Purple Mountain).

Additional Area History Books
Additional book you might find of interest include a brand new one by Edwin Millard Ford, Street Whys, Anecdotes and Lore About the Streets of Kingston, NY, (Call Edwin at 845-331-6535 for a copy); Listen To the Whistle, An Anecdotal History of the Wallkill Valley Railroad in Ulster and Orange Countiesby Carleton Mabee; Marlborough On My Mind by Marylou Mahan; and the following are from the Images of America Series Highland and The Town of Lloyd by Ethan P. Jackman;Saugerties by Edward Poll and Karlyn Knaust Elia; Plattekill by Elizabeth Werlau: Marbletown by Lucy Van Sickle, and New Paltz by Carol Johnson and Marion Ryan; soon to be released is a second New Paltz edition using new material. George Hutton’s The Great Hudson River Brick Industry is another I recommend.