Haines Falls
Postcard of the former Haines Falls station
General information
LocationHaines Falls, Greene County. New York
Tracks1
History
OpenedJune 1883[1][2]
ClosedJanuary 22, 1940[3][2]
Services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Laurel House
toward Kaaterskill
 Kaaterskill Branch Tannersville
toward Phoenicia
Ulster and Delaware Railroad Station
Haines Falls station is located in New York
Haines Falls station
Haines Falls station is located in the United States
Haines Falls station
LocationNY 23A, Hamlet of Haines Falls, Hunter, New York
Coordinates42°11′45″N 74°5′29″W / 42.19583°N 74.09139°W / 42.19583; -74.09139
Area1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built1913
NRHP reference No.96000861[4]
Added to NRHPAugust 08, 1996

Haines Falls is an abandoned train station in Haines Falls, New York. It was owned by the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. The abandoned station was restored in 1999 and is one of two surviving U&D branch stations. It is now the headquarters of the Mountain Top Historical Society.[5] It is also the start of the Kaaterskill Rail Trail, a scenic hiking trail along the former railway.

History

Kaaterskill Railroad

The station was owned by the narrow-gauge Kaaterskill Railroad, MP 6.6, and was one of the busiest stations on the line. It was called Haines Corners Station, as the town's original name was Haines Corners. It was very busy and was across from a boarding house. It was near a six-span bridge, called the Girder Deck Bridge, which was the largest structure on the railroad. It was right across from another station that was owned by another narrow-gauge railroad. The KRR station soon became a station that belonged to a standard-gauge railroad called the Ulster and Delaware, which turned the Kaaterskill Railroad into a branch, and combined it with a portion of another narrow-gauge railroad, called the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railway.

Ulster and Delaware Railroad

The station, located at branch MP 18.4, wasn't changed during the period that pre-fabricated stations being erected in between the years of 1900 and 1901. However, the station was causing problems; as passenger trains grew the early 1910s, the State of New York was sending complaints that the station was too small for the town it was serving. In 1913, U&D finally gave in and tore the old station down, making way for a new one, a few hundred feet away.

This new station, branch MP 18.5, looked like the Tannersville station, but it didn't have the portico sticking out of the back. It was a full season passenger station until the New York Central purchased the U&D in 1932. This was when it became a summer-only station, with it being a flagstop in the other seasons. If a passenger were to get picked up at the station in another season, the business and income would be handled by the station agent at Tannersville.

But when the NYC was granted permission by the ICC to abandon the branches in 1939, and to scrap it in 1940, the station was abandoned. However, it was recently restored to perfect condition and painted blue. It is, at present, the headquarters of the Mountain Top Historical Society, and one of only two surviving U&D branch stations.[6]

In 2012, the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Historical Society donated 132 feet of 105lb rail to the Mountain Top Historical Society so that a display track could be built on the former railroad right-of-way besides the station.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 as the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Station.[4]

Kaaterskill Rail Trail

In 2013, a hiking track called the Kaaterskill Rail Trail was completed.[7] The first phase was a 1.5 mile section between the Mountain Top Historical Society property and DEC land at the end of Laurel House Road.[8] In 2016, further improvements were completed allowing visitors to travel from Haines Falls Station to the North/ South Lake Campground via the Rail Trail and the Escarpment Trail, with multiple views of Kaaterskill Falls accessible to the public. These upgrades also sought to improve safety at the falls, as a number of falling deaths have occurred in recent years.[9]

Bibliography

  • Interstate Commerce Commission (1940). Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States (Finance Reports). Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. Retrieved May 6, 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Hibbard, F.B. (July 3, 1883). "Kaaterskill Railroad". The New York Tribune. p. 6. Retrieved May 6, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  2. 1 2 Interstate Commerce Commission 1940, p. 156.
  3. ↑ "Mountain Branches Allowed to Suspend". The Kingston Daily Freeman. January 22, 1940. p. 1. Retrieved May 6, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  5. ↑ "MTHS - MTHS Through the Years". mths.org. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  6. ↑ John A. Bonafide (May 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Ulster and Delaware Railroad Station". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-05-08. See also: "Accompanying nine photos".
  7. ↑ New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. "Kaaterskill Rail Trail in the Catskill Mountains". New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  8. ↑ Senterman, Jeff (2016-10-21). "Kaaterskill Rail Trail in the Catskill Mountains". New York - New Jersey Trail Conference. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  9. ↑ "Kaaterskill Falls safety, public access improvements completed". Daily Freeman. 2016-11-24. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
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