Dear Friends & Neighbors,
After several years of planning and preparation, the brand new Mountaindale Railway Station will held it's Grand Opening celebration on Saturday, November 14th 2009. This municipal building features public restrooms and excellent parking access for the trail head of the Rails to Trails to Woodridge and beyond.
This facility was made possible through a New York State DOT TEA-21 Grant and in kind donations from Sullivan County, the Town of Fallsburg, and local Mountaindale businesses and civic groups. Although it is state of the art new construction, its design is based on the 1920 architectural plans of an New York, Ontario & Western Railway (O&W) building proposed for Mountaindale but never before built. When the new facility was originally proposed for Mountaindale by then County Planning Commissioner Alan Sorensen and local architect, Robert Dadras, longtime resident and train history buff, Ken Schmitt recalled having seen the old blueprints in the O&W Railway Historical Society archives in Middletown, NY. Now that these modified plans are finally completed, it's been a labor of love for Town Engineer, Will Illing to see to all the final details of design and decor. Both the interior and exterior have been painstakingly modeled after actual O&W depots of decades past.
Ken and Barb Schmitt of the Mountaindale Community Development Project have been working with Will to curate a permanent exhibit of O&W train photographs so that visitors will have a feel for the mammoth engines that rumbled past this very location in Mountaindale until the railway closed operations on March 29, 1957. Octogenarian Sid "Zelig" Blum reminisces about the unique smells and clouds of smoke whenever a train came through the small hamlet, following along the Sandburg Creek. Mountaindale is regarded by many as an enchanting, charming community. This new public building adds to its uniqueness and sense of place.New Station Sign!
[photogallery/photo00027774/real.htm]Photos By Ken Schmitt
- July, 2010
A Brand New Old Train Station Opens in Mountaindale
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