Interesting Eastern NG photo book reprinted to better quality.
Three-foot narrow gauge fans should take note that the following book that was printed in 2002 on semi-gloss paper, has been reprinted on coated stock in a revised edition in 2004. It is now also out of stock at the publisher but can be purchased at various dealers who have not sold out as yet. I suggest you waste little time if you think you would ever like to have this book.
The title is “LIGHT RAILS AND SHORT TIES THROUGH THE NOTCH-THE STONY CLOVE AND CATSKILL MOUNTAIN RAILROAD AND HER STEAM LEGACY “ By JOHN M.HAMM AND ROBERT K. BUCENEC. List price is $49.95 by Stony Clove & Catskill Mt. Press, P.O. Box 383, Hunter, NY 12442-0383
The 2004 revised edition had 10 additional pages of photos to a total of 280 pages and is hard bound with photo cover and no dust jacket.
This book is a photo record in geographical order of the narrow gauge branch lines that began at Phoenicia (24 miles west of Kingston, NY, by the Ulster & Delaware RR). The line used a Ramsy’s car transfer at Phoenicia and squeezed through the Stony Clove Notch and then split to reach Hunter and also east to Kaaterskill. It covers the 3’ Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Railroad and also the 3’ Kaaterskill Railroad. These later became a standard gauge branch of the Ulster & Delaware RR, and then all being branches of the New York Central.
One large 30-page chapter covers the competing 3’ narrow gauges of the Catskill Mountain Railway, the Otis Elevating Ry, and the Catskill & Tannersville Ry run by Charles L. Beach.
For the logging fans, it includes 8 photos of the largest sawmill in the Catskill mountain, one which used a horse drawn lumber tram from mill to the U&D but was also fed it logs via a 1.7 mile 3’ gage cable tramway. It logged the top of Hunter Mountain with level horse-drawn spur tracks. The cable tramway even went over and down the other side of the mountain with the top being 3760’ high. The lumber company had no locomotives and ran from 1904 to 1917 and owned no land.
The print quality of all the photos was vastly improved with the reprinted book as each photo was re-worked and the first printing has very poor dull ink on the poorer paper. This will have collector’s value in a very short time. Empire State Ry Museum has it is stock P.O.Box 455, Phoenicia, NY 12464,
www.esrm.com
