Recently you posted photos of the Arcade & Attica. Here are a couple photos from when Mike Ondecker and I visited the A&A on July 23, 1973. These were both taken in Arcade, New York. In the top image, A&A Nos. 14 and 110 sit outside the old wooden engine house. Yes, No. 14 has the orange handrails. In the bottom image, A&A 111 has been making up a train.
Arcade & Attica No. 18 approaches Genesee Road near Arcade, New York, during its last run of the day.
For years the Arcade & Attica has operated its 2-8-0 Alco steam locomotive with its nose facing northward on its excursion from Arcade to Curriers.
The engine runs around the train at Curriers and returns to Arcade with its tender leading.
But on two weekends this year the New York-based tourist railroad has reversed that.
It turned No. 18 on a wye behind its shop in Arcade and ran tender first to Curriers and had the nose pointed southward for the 7.16-mile return trip.
From a photography standpoint, it is better to have the locomotive nose pointed southward because the lighting is better.
One of those weekends when the nose was pointed southward preceded Independence Day. Ed Ribinskas and I piled into Marty Surdyk’s Jeep Patriot to make the trek to Arcade for a day of steam locomotive chasing.
It had been 25 years since Marty had been to the A&A. My last visit had been in September 2012. Ed saw No. 18 pointed southward just over a month ago during Memorial Day weekend.
By the time we caught up with No. 18 it was in Curriers where the A&A excursion train has a layover.
Chasing the A&A is easy because it travels at about 10 miles per hour.
But there aren’t that many places to photograph a train en route because most of the grade crossings are in Arcade.
There is Genesee Road, but not much else. Marty thought he remembered there being two crossings, but other than Genesee Road all other crossings are on private roads outside of Arcade.
Our primary concern in chasing the first return trip of the day to Arcade was cloudy skies. Large, puffy clouds filled the sky and sun breaks were infrequent and short-lived.
Trips leave Arcade at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. After chasing the first of those, we headed for a Subway in a shopping center located next to a Topps grocery store.
Subway is Marty’s official railfanning restaurant so of course that was where we would go. He also got to eat his entire foot-long meatball sandwich.
During the Akron Railroad Club longest day outing in Bellevue Marty had ordered a foot-long meatball sub. He placed half of it on his vehicle as he was eating the other half back at the mini plant.
But the wind blew it onto the ground. In Arcade, we ate inside the restaurant and there was no danger of half of Marty’s sandwich being blown by the wind onto the floor.
Photographing at Genesee Road had reminded me of Genesee beer, a brand I’ve heard about but never tasted.
As Ed and Marty were finishing their sandwiches, I walked over to the Tops grocery store to see if I could buy a couple of “Gennies.” But Genesee beer wasn’t being sold by the bottle there or, or that matter, by the six pack.
I ended up instead buying two bottles of IPA beer from two different Buffalo craft breweries and some large chocolate chip cookies for the guys.
The A&A had already left Arcade by the time we got rolling after lunch.
By now the weather had much improved with the clouds breaking up and ushering in mostly sunny skies.
There had been a pack of railfans chasing and photographing No. 18 earlier in the day, but they were mostly nowhere to be found during the afternoon trip when the locomotive was bathed in sunlight.
We got to Curriers just ahead of the train and got photographs of it coming and going.
Then it was off to do some across the field shots from along Curriers Road.
That was followed by stops at Genesee Road, the Arcade fire station and the street south of the depot where we caught No. 18 going back to the shop.
It was an easy chase that yielded some quite pleasing images.
The train was in the station at Curriers when we first encountered it.
The first photo op at Genesee Road occurred as the sun hid behind a cloud.
Crossing Cattaraugus Creek in Arcade during the return trip.
Doing the runaround move in Arcade. After getting this image it was Subway time.
Patrons are lined up to make a visit to the cab of No. 18 during the layover in Curriers.
A baggage cart load of flowers, a depot and a steam locomotive make for a pleasing sight.
Getting underway at Curriers to return to Arcade while blowing the whistle for Chaffee Road.
Leaving behind a trail of smoke.
Yonder comes a steam train in a view that could have been made several decades earlier.
Skirting the driveway of the fire station.
The train at Curriers as seen in the sunglasses of a trainman wearing a Penn Central conductor hat.
Watching the tracks ahead from the engineer’s seat.
Back in Arcade the locomotive has cut away from its trains as passengers disembark at the station platform.
Heading back to the shop at the end of the last trip.
Yes, it’s an Alco.
At the end of the day at the shop in Arcade.
On Oct. 28 you printed my article about part of the Catskill Mountain Railroad shutting down.
We had ridden the line for our last time on Oct. 23. The very last runs were supposed to be Oct. 28, 29 and 30. As it turns out, we made the right decision riding the weekend before.
On the final trip of Friday, Oct. 28, the Catskill Mountain train derailed the locomotive and an open-air car. No one was hurt.
The train was eventually re-railed but the railroad was forced to cancel the trips for Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets had been sold in advance. People came from long distances to ride the last trains, only to have to be turned away.
It was a very sad end to a 34 year operation. Don’t take things for granted. Enjoy the moment, as it might inadvertently be the last you will get.
Nothing is more painful than saying goodbye to a tourist railroad, especially one that has been successful for 33 years.
The Catskill Mountain Railroad operates two separate segments of the New York Central’s Catskill Mountain Branch through beautiful rural New York State.
The segment that runs between Cold Brook, Mount Tremper and Phoenicia has reached the end of the line.
The railroad has endured much hardship through its existence from storms thrown at it by Mother Nature to a three-year legal battle with Ulster County, which owns the tracks.
Without going into a long-winded history about the legal battle, the railroad has lost its lease over the segment and will be shutting down this weekend.
After 150 years of trains through the Catskills, the time has finally run out. I had to take one last rides behind an ex-Long Island Railroad/ex-Staten Island Railroad S-1.
There is nothing better than a open car behind an Alco through the mountains in the fall.
The 1880s U&D station at Phoenicia houses the Empire State Railway Museum, which will remain.
It is off the beaten path, so without the train in the area there is no telling what will happen to the museum.
The other part of the CMRR will continue to operate out of Kingston, New York. Goodbye old friend. Thank you for 33 years of happiness.
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