The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended from Kingston Point on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

through the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

to its western terminus at Oneonta, passing through the counties of

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, Schoharie and Otsego.

History

Rondout and Oswego Railroad

During the early 19th century, waterways formed the principal transportation network in New York. An important point on this network was Rondout. Located at the confluence of

Rondout Creek Rondout Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Roc ...

and the

, in 1828 it became the eastern terminus of the

Delaware and Hudson Canal The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeast ...

. Here, cargo and passengers were transferred from canal boats to the larger vessels navigating the Hudson. By the end of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, railroads were pre-empting waterways as the preferred method of transportation. Thomas Cornell, founder of the Cornell Steamboat Company and a resident of Rondout, was among those who noticed. Although Cornell made plenty of money from shipping, he planned a railroad that would bring supplies from towns in central or western New York to his port in Rondout. So Cornell chartered the Rondout and Oswego on April 3, 1866, with himself as the first president. Rondout

With the work of surveying and acquiring rights of way completed, construction started in 1868. Cornell decided to construct this new railroad of 62- and 70- pound rail. It would go from Rondout to the busy city of Oneonta on the upper

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

, and then to Oswego on the shore of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. The R&O at long reached the summer vacation resort of

Olive Branch The olive branch, a ramus of '' Olea europaea'', is a symbol of peace. It is generally associated with the customs of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and is connected with supplication to divine beings and persons in power. Likewise, it is f ...

, near the town of Shokan, on September 30, 1869. By the next year, the first train was run and the railroad was finally operational. In 1870 the railroad was extended to

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

, where the railroad built a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

station across

Esopus Creek Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ul ...

from the village.John M. Ham, Robert K. Bucenec (2003), ''The Old "Up and Down" Catskill Mountain Branch of the New York Central'', Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Press The same year, ownership of the railroad was transferred to John C. Brodhead Delaware, Ulster & Greene County NY Railroad Information (website), ''courtesy of Phillip M. Goldstein'' and the line reached the small town of

Big Indian Big Indian is a hamlet within the Town of Shandaken in Ulster County, New York, United States. It is located along State Route 28, within the Catskill Park, west of Woodstock. The Esopus Creek flows through the area, as Birch Creek feeds in fr ...

. By 1871 construction reached Dean's Corners (now Arkville) (where it would eventually join the Delaware and Northern). However, the R&O folded upon completing construction to Roxbury, and the task of constructing the remainder of the route was left to its newly organized successor, the New York, Kingston & Syracuse (NYK&S). Rondout and Oswego -7

It was a successful railroad, with plenty of passengers coming from surrounding towns and larger cities.

Steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

passengers could dock at Rondout and transfer to the railroad. Later, passengers could also transfer at

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, first via the

Wallkill Valley Railroad The Wallkill Valley Railroad is a defunct railroad which once operated in Ulster County, New York, Ulster and Orange County, New York, Orange counties in upstate New York. Its Transport corridor, corridor was from Kingston, New York, Kingston in ...

(1872), then via the

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was a U.S. railway company active in the states of New York and New Jersey between 1885 and 1952. It was incorporated in 1885 to reorganize the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, which had originally been inten ...

(1883) and much later via the

New York, Ontario and Western Railway The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad founded in 1868. The last train ran from Norwich, New York, to Middletown, Orange County, New York, Middletown, New York, in 1957, after whi ...

(1902). From the boats, it was a short walk to the R&O station to transfer to the train. Freight was also very well-handled. Much of the freight income was made from coal shipped along the D&H Canal from the

Moosic Mountains The Moosic Mountains is a mountain range in Northeastern Pennsylvania that stretches from Scranton to Mount Pleasant Township, a distance of roughly 32 miles. The high point of the range is in Jefferson Township, at an elevation of above se ...

near

Carbondale, Pennsylvania Carbondale is a city in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carbondale is located approximately 15 miles due northeast of the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scranton in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 8,828 at the 2020 ...

, to the port at Rondout. There were also vegetables, fruit and milk from the farms in the Catskills. While steadily grading to Moresville (present-day Grand Gorge), the great number of curves and

grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

created a problem, as more digging, ties and rails meant greater costs to complete the remainder of the railroad. The railroad couldn't make enough money to pay the debt and continue building the railroad, so in 1872 Cornell appointed John A. Greene to be president pro tempore for a period of 10 years. Greene was expected to have the railroad finished to the town of Oneonta by 1874, pay all of the debts, and withstand future debts of as much as $700,000. However, the railroad was slowly losing money and eventually had to reduce service before going bankrupt in 1872. Later that year, it was re-organized as the New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad to continue with the project.

New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad

After the Rondout and Oswego railroad became bankrupt in 1872, it was quickly re-organized as the New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad (NYK&S), directed by George Sharpe. The plan of extending to Oswego was now omitted, and the new plan was to extend to Oneonta and make a sharp turn north to Earlville, where the line would make a connection with the recently constructed Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad. Construction of the railroad had begun immediately, and the railroad was extending very quickly. As of 1872, it had already reached the towns of Roxbury, Gilboa, and Stamford, with the first train arriving in the village of Stamford late that year. Reaching Oneonta would have to wait another 28 years, to 1900. This increased service provided the first real rail route into the Catskill Mountains, benefiting both passenger and freight customers. The railroad was further benefited by the many connections to other railroads, enabling passengers from as far away as

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to visit the Catskills (via the newly constructed

and its connection to the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

). Another boon to business was a ferry that ran across the Hudson to Rondout from Rhinecliff, with a

Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad (R&C) was a railroad in Dutchess and Columbia counties in New York, United States. Its line ran east from the Hudson River at Rhinecliff to Boston Corners. It was chartered in 1870 to connect the Conn ...

and

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

station (the current

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

station), connecting the cities of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

and

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

to the region. The town (and later city) of

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

(centrally located on the Hudson River) was profitable to the railroad, due to the large number of industries of the area, including cement, concrete, bricks and bluestone. Kingston was also a popular passenger stop, as people would rely on the railroad to take them around the Catskills to jobs at mills and small factories. Although this prosperity seemed good, there was bad news as well. The NYK&S still wasn't profitable enough to avoid

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

. So in 1873, the NYK&S designated the Farmers Loan and Trust Company as trustee for the first-mortgage bondholders of the railroad. While this helped for a brief time, it was only another two years until even the trustee finally couldn't manage the railroad's problems. The railroad became bankrupt in 1875 and was sold by

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

to the bank. It was re-organized as the Ulster and Delaware Railroad later that year.

Ulster and Delaware Railroad

Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad

Cornell got the idea for another railroad that would start at the U&D junction in Phoenicia and go up along the Stony Clove Valley to the bustling village of

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

. He decided to name it the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad. Unlike the U & D, it would utilize a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

which theoretically would be cheaper to build and operate. Construction started on the railroad during 1881, with Cornell's son-in-law, Samuel Decker Coykendall, supervising construction. Originally planned as a summer-only operation serving the Ulster County communities of Phoenicia and

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

, and the Greene County villages of Lanesville, Edgewood, and Hunter, the service was expanded to year-round operation. In addition to the major stations, there was a flagstop at

Stony Clove Notch Stony Clove Notch is a narrow pass, roughly 2,220 feet (677 m) in elevation located in the Town of Hunter in Greene County, New York, deep in the Catskill Mountains. It is traversed by New York State Route 214, although in the past the Ulster ...

and a station between the Notch and Hunter called Kaaterskill Junction Station (originally Tannersville Junction Station), at the junction of the Kaaterskill Railway. The difference in gauge between the U&D and SC&CM caused difficulties in transferring rolling stock from the mainline. So, in 1882, the two companies installed a Ramsey car-transfer apparatus in the yard at Phoenicia. This device allowed the standard-gauge equipment to be run on the narrow-gauge line. With the apparatus, the transfer only required about eight minutes, saving the railroads much time and money. Industries on this line included the William O. Schwartzwalder Furniture Factory, in the company-owned hamlet of Chichester. Other large companies included the Fenwick Lumber Company in Edgewood and the Horatio Lockwood & Company Furniture Factory in Hunter. The railroad was acquired by the U&D in 1892, and these industries now had a new railroad to transport their products.John M. Ham, Robert K. Bucenec (2002), ''Light Rail and Short Ties Through the Notch: The Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Railroad and Her Steam Legacy'', Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Press. . Today, the restored second Haines Falls station of the U&D railroad can be viewed at Mountain Top Historical Society in Haines Falls.

Final years of U&D service

The U&D's peak year came in 1913, with 676,000 passengers carried up into the Catskills plus substantial amounts of freight. By the time of the Great Depression of 1929 and thereafter, most of the passenger traffic had been lost to private cars on improved highways, buses and shared limousines (called "hacks"); trucks had taken most of the non-commodity freight business; and the railroad was in serious financial trouble and a shadow of its former self. The

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

acquired the failing U&D on February 1, 1932, under pressure from the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

(see "Ulster and Delaware: Railroad Through The Catskills", by Gerald M. Best). In its latter years (the early 1950s) one morning train a day (except Sundays) ran on the route from Kingston to Phoenicia and Oneonta and one afternoon train in the east-bound direction ran from Oneonta back to Kingston. Passenger service on the route ended on March 31, 1954.

Narrow gauge rolling stock

SC&CM locomotives

PASSIM, Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain R.R. Miscellaneous Companies & Persons

Subledger The subledger, or subsidiary ledger, provides details behind entries in the general ledger used in accounting. The subledger shows detail for part of the accounting records such as property and equipment, prepaid expenses, etc. The detail would i ...

(Volume 208, unpublished), S.C.&C.M. R.R. Construction & Equipment Subledger (Volume 209, unpublished),
Penn Central Transportation Co. Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library
. (Note: the N.Y.P.L. erroneously lists the S.C.&C.M. R.R. subledgers as “Boxes” 208 and 209; they should be listed as “Volumes” 208 and 209.)PASSIM,

Kaaterskill Railroad locomotives

PASSIM, Kaaterskill R.R. Construction & Equipment

(unpublished)
New York Central R.R. Co. Records, Special Collections, Syracuse University Library
.John M. Ham, Robert K. Bucenec (2005), ''The Grand Old Stations and Steam Locomotives of the Ulster & Delaware'', Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Press

Narrow gauge coaches

The

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

that ran on the Narrow Gauge Division had been built by Jackson & Sharp Co. in 1881 and 1883. Between August 1899 and June 1900, they were sold to F. M. Hicks & Co. of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois. In May 1901, Hicks resold four of the coaches to the

White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other rail ...

(WP&YR ##218, 220, 222, and 224).''Special Report: White Pass & Yukon Route 1901'' (unpublished), and ''Record of Vouchers'' (unpublished, 1900–1901), Yukon Archives, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada Under White Pass ownership, these cars have been rebuilt several times.Before Rebuilding.
/ref> They remain in operation. After all of the rebuildings under White Pass ownership, about all that remains of the original cars are the architecture and the superstructure frames.

Gallery

File:Haines corners station.jpg, Haines Corners station File:Browns station.jpg, Brown's Station, one of six demolished for the

Ashokan Reservoir The Ashokan Reservoir (; Iroquois for "place of fish") is a reservoir in the New York City water supply system in Ulster County, New York. It receives the waters of Schoharie Reservoir, and together they provide the flow of the Catskill Aqueduc ...

File:Delaware Avenue Tunnel.jpg, Delaware Avenue Tunnel in Kingston as it appeared in October, 2018 File:Ulster & Delaware Fleischmanns Station Freight House August 19 2021 05.jpg, Ulster and Delaware Railroad Freight House in Fleischmanns, New York, photographed on August 19, 2021.

References

Bibliography

External links

Ulster & Delaware Railroad Historical Society

Rails to the Catskills
''Vimeo''
Ulster & Delaware Railroad: Photo Gallery Remnants
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulster Delaware Railroad Defunct New York (state) railroads Railway companies established in 1875 Railway companies disestablished in 1932 Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad Catskills History of Ulster County, New York Kingston, New York Former Class I railroads in the United States 1875 establishments in New York (state) 1932 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1875 American companies disestablished in 1932