PHOENICIA >> The head of the Catskill Mountain Railroad says most of the railroad’s belongings that have been ordered removed from the Kingston rail yard will not be relocated to Phoenicia.
“In Phoenicia, there’s no change in operation,” Ernie Hunt said this week. “It’s going to be no different than last year.”
But Anique Taylor, who lives on Lower High Street in Phoenicia, just a stone’s throw from the railroad’s property in the town of Shandaken hamlet, has doubts.
Taylor says she has seen equipment being trucked into the Phoenicia yard over the past couple weeks. She’s also concerned about the railroad’s effort to get town approval to build more infrastructure on the site. That matter is to be discussed by Shandaken Zoning Board of Appeals during a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Town Hall on Route 28 in Allaben.
Taylor says she fears the Phoenicia site, which is occupied by both the Catskill Mountain Railroad and the Empire State Railway Museum, will become a dumping ground for all sorts of railroad relics now that a judge has ordered the railroad to clear out of the Kingston rail yard.
Hunt said the railroad, which offers scenic rides in the Kingston-Ulster and Mount Tremper-Phoenicia areas, only plans to bring a trailer filled with rare train parts from Kingston to Phoenicia, as well as the steam engine used for the railroad’s Polar Express rides. That engine is owned by the Empire State Railway Museum, Hunt said.
He said a small maintenance machine that goes up and down the tracks to get workers to locations where repairs are needed was brought to Phoenicia recently but frequently travels between there and Kingston.
In a decision dated Dec. 31, 2015, Kingston City Judge Philip Kirschner ordered the Catskill Mountain Railroad to stop using the Cornell Street rail yard in Kingston because, he wrote, the railroad couldn’t produce an approved site plan allowing it to operate at the site or get Ulster County’s consent to use the county-owned land.
Ulster County owns the full length of the former Ulster & Delaware rail line in Ulster County, and the Catskill Mountain Railroad leases sections of the track from the county.
In his order, Kirschner said the railroad must “remove all debris” from the city rail yard “to the satisfaction of the city of Kingston Building Department.”
The city filed a lawsuit against the railroad in 2013, claiming site plan approval never was given for the railroad to use the yard to store rail cars. Although the property is owned by the county, the city claimed jurisdiction because the violation was rooted in city law.
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“Catskill Mountain Railroad ordered to stop using Kingston rail yard,” Jan. 20, 2016
“Ulster County rail-trail compromise brings lengthy battle to a close,” Jan. 15, 2016
“No winner in judge’s ruling, Catskill Mountain Railroad president says,” Dec. 24, 2015
“Ulster County lawmakers amend trail policy to allow tourist trains,” Dec. 15, 2015
