RAILROAD THROUGH THE CATSKILLS
by Gerald M. Best
From Chapter 7: “The Ulster & Delaware Reaches Its Goal”:
“The Coykendalls set up a program of improvements to place the railroad in a better position to take advantage of the ever-increasing popularity of the Catskills. One of Horace G. Young's last acts was to firm up the plans to build an extension from Rondout to the site of Columbus Point, there to provide a landing fro the Hudson River Day Line steamers. There had been many complaints from passengers going ashore at Rhinecliff and taking the ferryboat Transport from there to Rondout befroe boarding the Ulster & Delaware Trains. To eliminate this bottleneck, the work of building a new steamboat landing to be called Kingston Point was authorized at the 1895 U.&D. annual meeting. A railroad connection from the new landing to Rondout was also authorized but some of the land owners held out for high prices. . . . The area west of the landing was developed as a park, with an amusement section at one end, and the place became very popular with residents of the Albany area. . . . Kingston Point was only a minor improvement compared with others planned. The first was a replacement of almost all the original wooden bridges and trestles with 34 new iron bridges and to build a new repair shop at Rondout with a powerhouse and electric generator to furnish power to the new motorized equipment. . . .”
The story of the U&D begins in 1866 when Thomas Cornell's Rondout and Oswego Railroad was chartered. Although that line failed, its successor, the Ulster & Delaware, completed by Cornell's able son-in-law, Samuel D. Coykendall, succeeded in connecting Rondout with Oneonta, 108 miles through the mountains. The effect of the coming of the railroad on the subsequent history of the mountains is incalculable.
$65.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press and Golden West Books co-published reprint
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