2008 O&WRHS Chapter Meetings & Related Events
Meetings are the first Friday the month, except September which is held on the Friday after Labor Day.
There are no meetings in July or August and November is replaced by our Annual Banquet.
All Meetings Start at 7:30 PM
Presentations are subject to change.
Any meeting cancellations due to weather will be posted
here and/or on the
O&WRHS Yahoo Group.
Meeting Location:
Middletown Senior Center
62-70 West Main Street
Middletown New York
Saturday, May 24, 2008. - Roscoe O&W Museum will open.
Roscoe O&W Railway Museum, Box 305
Roscoe, N.Y. 12776 or call 607-498-4346.
Friday, June 6, 2008.- O&WRHS Membership Meeting & Member Flea Market & Swap
night
Friday to Sunday, June 6 to 8, 2008. - Minisink Heritage Days at Minisink
Town Hall.
Saturday, June 7, 2008. - Napanoch Days. 10 am to 4 pm at the Senior Center
on Main Street in Napanoch. O&WRHS sales table will be present.
Friday, June 13, 2008 M&NJRHS meeting at the First Presbyterian Church on
Roberts St.
Saturday & Sunday, July 5 & 6, 2008. - Roscoe O&W Festival. 10 am to 4 pm.
O&WRHS sales table will be present.
Sunday, July 27, 2008. Third Annual Middletown Railroad Day. 9 am to 4 pm at
the Mulberry House Senior Center, 62-70 West Main St., Middletown, NY.
Sponsored by the O&WRHS
Sunday, August 10, 2008 - Noon to 3pm Annual Railroad Day at NYS&W Maywood
Station NJ. O&WRHS sales table will be present.
Friday September 5, 2008. - O&WRHS Membership Meeting Program Lehigh and New
England by Peter Brill
Saturday, September 6, 2008 - Museum Annual Dinner September 6, 2008 At
Lanza?s Country Inn on Shandelee Road in Livingston Manor. Cash Bar,
Cocktails at 5:30, Dinner 6:30 Complete Dinner $25.00 per person. Entree
choices are Roast Prime Rib of Beef, Chicken Nicoise and Stuffed Sole with
Rice & Crabmeat. Send reservations by September 1, 2008 to
Roscoe O&W Rwy Museum, Box 305
Roscoe, N.Y. 12776 or call 607-498-4346
Program The O&W in Sullivan and Delaware Counties by Doug Barberio
Saturday & Sunday, September 7,8 2008. - Railroader's Weekend at the New
Jersey Museum of Transportation. www.njmt.org
Friday September 13, 2008 M&NJRHS meeting 7:30 at the First Presbyterian
Church on Roberts St.
Friday, October 3, 2008. - O&WRHS Membership Meeting Program O&W Northern
Division by John Taibi
Saturday, November 10, 2008. - O&WRHS Annual Convention. More information to
follow
NOTE: All dates and times are subject to change. Please refer to the website
and our Yahoo Discussion Group as the event draws closer to verify the
schedule and any changes.
NOTE: All dates and times are subject to change.
Please refer to the website as the event draws closer to verify the schedule and any change.
The Ontario & Western Railway Historical Society Presents
Sunday July 27, 2008
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
MIDDLETOWN SENIOR CENTER
62-70 West Main Street
MIDDLETOWN, NY
This Event is Open to Everyone!
- Admission is free but donations to the Middletown Senior Center are
welcome -
PowerPoint Presentation "The Erie Railroad in Orange County"
by Douglas J. Barberio
PowerPoint Presentation "Railroading Around Oneida"
by John Tiabi
PowerPoint Presentation "Riding the Rails" a look at O&W passenger service
by Malcolm H. Houck
PowerPoint Presentation "The Middletown Branch" by Ray Kelly
PowerPoint Presentation "Anthracite and The O&W"
by Martin Robert Karig III
B&W and color movies showing the O&W in operation. Much
of this footage is extremely rare.
Display and sales tables by many local and regional
historical and rail-related groups.
There will be vendors selling rail related publications,
memorabilia and scale models.
Food and refreshments available.
Operating model trains In N, HO and O Scale.
For updates on this event and/or other information about the
NYO&W and the O&WRHS please visit www.owrhs.org.
For directions please "google" (http://www.google.com/)
"62-70 West
Main St. Middletown NY 10940".
The Ontario & Western Railway Historical Society is Dedicated To
Preserving the Heritage of the New York Ontario & Western and Other Area
Railways.
The WOOD CHEMICAL OBSERVER ON CD
The O&WRHS has undertaken the task of reissuing out-of-print
Observers. The WOOD CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN THE DELAWARE VALLEY Observer,
written by Franklin Daniel Myers, is the second in the series to be put on
cd in readable and searchable .pdf format.
The 1985 SCRANTON DIVISION OBSERVER ON CD
The O&WRHS has undertaken the task of reissuing out-of-print Observers.
The Scranton Division Observer is the first in the series to be put on cd in
readable and searchable .pdf format.
All you need is Adobe Acrobat Reader which is free from Adobe and a CD-Rom
drive.
Please note that you can not print off of this cd nor can you export this to
another format such as .jpg or .tiff.
~ IT IS READ ONLY ~
More out-of-print issues to follow in the future, we
hope that those of you who are new will get to experience one of the most
sought after Observer the O&WRHS has ever produced. This book has been known
to fetch upwards to $70 on ebay.com and it can now be yours for $25. The
original book is pictured in the center of the photo. The Entire book was
scanned by Florida based professionally
Scandex Systems and has every
page from cover to cover.
Special thanks to Liz Cornell at Scandex for all her
assistance with this project.
Please visit the Sales Page for
ordering information!
~ SAMPLES ~
Now available at the owrhs.org sales page:
Ridin' the Rails - Passenger Equipment of the N.Y.O.& W. Ry."
The OWRHS 2007 Observer is now available to the general public through this website,
at our general membership meetings and any events where the O&WRHS sales
table will be present.
For those not familiar with this newly completed book, it is 208 pages, of
text, photos, car diagrams and a spreadsheet format roster of O&W passenger
cars from car No. 1 to No. 546; -- the last item being complete with
disposition information as available.
In putting the passenger service of the O&W in a context, as it existed from
1870 to 1953, this Observer contains overviews of
passenger service and relationship of the O&W to the Borscht Belt hotel and
resort areas of Sullivan, Ulster and Delaware Counties. Photos of O&W
passenger trains in the heady days of full system service and multiple
sections crammed with exuberant vacationers, are included along with images
from the final days of diesel powered trains to Roscoe.
Many copies of internal company communications and memos have been carefully
scripted and reproduced as images to give the reader the historic sense of
passenger operations, and being there at the time, as they developed, and
then as service and passenger trains waned and finally expired.
Of several Appendix entries is one devoted to certain abbreviations and
definitions that further clarifies and enhances reader understanding. "Ridin'
the Rails" will put the history of the O&W in a further context than has
been enjoyed on the past, and adds another chapter to the lore of this
remarkable story.
Mal Houck
$38 soft cover
($50 hard cover when available please check website)
As Concord falls, memories remain
Most buildings in complex to be demolished in 75 days
By Victor Whitman
Times Herald-Record
May 02, 2008
KIAMESHA LAKE — A black, 145-foot tall crane ripped off the "skin" of the
famed Concord Hotel yesterday.
Giant pincers grabbed at the outer shell of an eight-story building, known
as the "100" building. Over the next 75 days, more than half of the
remaining buildings of the former resort will be taken down and hauled away
in this $6 million demolition.
The Concord, modeled on Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel, once was the
jewel in the crown of hundreds of Catskills hotels with its massive pools
and 1,300 rooms, where top-flight entertainers like comedian Bill Cosby and
singer Diana Ross performed. Concord owner Louis Cappelli has been promising
for nearly a decade to tear down and rebuild the resort, which hasn't housed
a guest in more than a decade.
Cappelli bought the famed hotel in 1999 at a bankruptcy foreclosure auction
with a group of investors for $10.5 million. He later purchased the
Grossinger's resort for $6 million. Cappelli is now is planning, with
partner Empire Resorts, a $500 million to $700 million entertainment complex
with a hotel, 100,000- square-foot gambling area, convention center,
restaurants and indoor water park.
He also plans to move the racetrack on Route 17B to a site just across from
the Concord entrance. Only the two 12-story buildings towering over Kiamesha
Lake will be left standing.
These also could be demolished, but that depends on what redevelopment plan
Cappelli decides on. He might still renovate the towers. Bit by bit, pieces
of the 100 building yesterday tumbled like bread crumbs falling off a table.
The first thing to come down was the roof, which contains asbestos. That
debris will be carted off to a landfill certified to accept asbestos.
"It's about time," said Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini, in a hard hat,
watching while the crane tore into a building that has housed a million
memories.
O&W proposes condos,
stores, Owner seeks Middletown's OK for $4M plan
Developer Al Ferrante, a partner in O&W Properties, discussed onThursday his
plans to restore the former train station in Middletownto include
condominiums above a railroad museum and various shops.
Times Herald-Record/HEATHER YAKIN
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
March 03, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — The owner of the former O&W train station at Wickham and Low
avenues says he wants to put condominiums and businesses there, but a few
things stand in his way: The property is zoned industrial, damage from a
2004 fire hasn't been fixed, and the city says he owes back taxes.
Al Ferrante, a partner in O&W Properties Inc., spoke last week at a 3rd Ward
residents' meeting at City Hall. He was invited by Aldermen Ray Depew and
Miguel Rodrigues.
On the ground floor, Ferrante envisions shops, a railroad museum and a
drugstore. For the top, it's condos.
"When you buy a condo, you take care of it. It's your own," Ferrante said.
The audience was receptive to seeing the historic building restored, but
they voiced concerns. Condos are fine, said Lisa McDowell, but
she suggested that when someone buys one, they be required to live in it —
not rent it to someone else.
Pat Foti asked how many condos, and how many bedrooms they would have.
Ferrante declined to answer. Foti said there could be problems if families
with kids moved in, because the building sits next to the railroad tracks.
Ferrante said if he gets an approval, he'll put $4 million into the
building. But he's been battling the city for three years.
"I went to the Common Council many times, and I got zero, double zero,"
Ferrante said. "I am not gonna spend a dime until I know what the city is
going to do."
Audience members said that lack of spending extends to maintenance, and that
squatters and trash have been problems since the fire.
"He had that place rented," Foti said. "They had that fire, and he let it go
all to hell. You go by there now, a piece of glass will
fall on your head."
Public Works Commissioner Jacob Tawil said Ferrante is under City Court
order to board up the windows.
Resident Ken De Leeuw said he doesn't want the city to miss the boat the way
he believes it did five years ago with the old armory
building. "These men are willing to spend millions of dollars," De Leeuw
said.
Ferrante has a track record: He restored the Crawford Building on King
Street, which now houses seniors and the DMV.
According to city records, O&W Properties also owes $90,833 in back taxes
since 2005. After the meeting, Ferrante said that wasn't true — and then
reiterated that he won't spend until the city gives him
answers.
hyakin@th-record.com
Allen Frishman stands outside the former
railway tunnel along a portion of the rail trail in South Fallsburg.
For the Times Herald-Record/MICHAEL D. BLOOM
Fallsburg committee studies ways to
connect 3 towns
By Michal Lumsden
Times Herald-Record
February 24, 2008
FALLSBURG — When the Ontario and Western Railway first chugged its way
through Sullivan County in 1873, fewer than 30 houses stood in the hamlet of
Roscoe.
"It was the railroad that built the Catskills," Wilmer Sipple, director of
the Roscoe O&W Railway Museum, said this week.
It's now been 51 years since the O&W ran out of steam. But hiking, biking
and nature enthusiasts throughout our region have worked for several years
to convert the old rail beds into recreational trails.
In Fallsburg, a corps of volunteers and town officials are looking to
eventually connect three towns by continuous trails. Fallsburg's rail-trail
advisory committee will show the public next Sunday the results of 18 months
of studying the project's feasibility.
Helen Budrock, a community planner with Sullivan Renaissance, estimates it
could take between three and five years to complete the roughly 15 miles of
potential trails in Fallsburg.
Currently, the town owns about half the O&W beds in Fallsburg. Local
businessman Howard Ingber owns several additional miles of the former rail
line, including a segment through a tunnel near Old Country Road in South
Fallsburg.
Buying the rights of way would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to Budrock. Supervisor Steve Levine said the town would consider
such a purchase, providing that grant money covers most of the cost.
Town code enforcement officer Allen Frishman, who has volunteered much of
his personal time to the trail project, said that, in addition to business
owners and community leaders, he plans to tap seasonal Orthodox Jewish
residents for donations and participation.
"They love to walk," Frishman said. "This is the perfect spot. It's
beautiful. It's off the road."
mlumsden@th-record.com
Connecting the dots
Thanks to a $26,000 New York state grant, the Fallsburg rail-trail committee
has spent 18 months studying the feasibility of connecting 24 miles of O&W
Railway beds from the Village of Liberty to Summitville, which already has
3˝ miles of trails. More than 3 miles of rail trails also already exist in
the Village of Liberty. The group Liberty Bike Trail wants to join 8 more
miles of existing and potential trails through Parksville and beyond.
Connecting the dots
Thanks to a $26,000 New York
state grant, the Fallsburg rail-trail committee has
spent 18 months studying the feasibility of connecting
24 miles of O&W Railway beds from the Village of Liberty
to Summitville, which already has 3˝ miles of trails.
More than 3 miles of rail trails also already exist in
the Village of Liberty. The group Liberty Bike Trail
wants to join 8 more miles of existing and potential
trails through Parksville and beyond.
-
The blue segment on the
map at left shows the roughly 5 miles of trails in
Fallsburg open to the public.
-
The green segment shows
the 4-mile stretch that the Fallsburg committee most
closely examined; much of it is privately owned.
-
The red segment shows where
the trail could be expanded into neighboring towns.
Biggest blockades
Securing the trail through the
O&W tunnel and crossing the Neversink River represent
the most significant obstacles to completing the trail
in Fallsburg. With state grant funds, the trail
committee hired engineers to study the tunnel and the
remains of a trestle on either side of the river just
north of the Thompson-Fallsburg line.
O&W Mural
While driving through Bloomingburg last week on my to
Moutaindale I had to do a U- Turn and double back to take some photos of
this impressive mural done by Joe Marino of
joemarinodesign.com. This Pratt
graduate did most of this mural by hand with some airbrushing. He is
quite a nice guy and told me that he really got into exploring the O&W for
this project. Awesome job Joe! I will try and get up once the snow is gone
and take some more photos, hopefully without the snow and the cars.
This is located in the parking lot of Glenn Kroll - Attorney At Law on the
right hand side as you head up the hill towards the depot.
O&W Brass Models
Rich Yoder imports O scale brass models from Korea. He is
currently working on the GE 44 tonner phase 1C which the O&W had five of.
These
will be available in two and three rail. The photo above shows the two
rail version painted in the O&W maroon scheme. The three rail model will
negotiate O27 curves. The locos will be offered painted and unpainted.
Al Seebach of the O&WCS has two phase 1C in two rail and he is very happy with
the
way they run. Below is a link to Rich Yoder's website.
www.richyodermodels.com
“A Catskill Mountain Trilogy” on DVD
