Rip Van Winkle Railroads

RIP VAN WINKLE RAILROADS

by William F. Helmer

It was the most romantic era in Catskill Mountain history-the days of travel by rail and steam, when passenger riverboats plied the Hudson and glittering grand hotels crested the mountain peaks. Rip Van Winkle Railroads gives the history of the narrow gauge railroads-the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad, the Catskill Mountain Railway, the Catskill & Tannersville Railway, and the Otis Elevating Railway-that steamed through the northeastern Catskill Mountains during the nineteenth-century heyday of the grand hotels of theKaaterskill area-the Catskill Mountain House, Hotel Kaaterskill, and the Laurel House-as well as the many smaller hotels and boarding houses like the Palenville Hotel, the Antlers Hotel, the Haines Falls House, and the Hollenbeck Hotel. The narrow gauge railways were "the little engines that could." They could negotiate the steep ravines and hillsides of the Catskill Mountains and go where larger, conventional, standard gauge railways could not. And they could do so at a fraction of the construction and operating costs. They were a creative and practical solution to the problem of connecting the hotels of the mountaintop with the steamboats of the Hudson River Day Line and the Catskill Night Line and the trains of the New York Central and its West Shore division.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM
A reviewer in The New York Times wrote, "Railroad buffs - and those fascinated by the history of New York State, will find extended pleasure - in Rip Van Winkle Railroads by William F. Helmer. His book, which must have taken considerable digging to compile, is full of pictures that call up a different time, place and life."
Reaction from "railfan" media has been even more enthusiastic. A reviewer in Railroad History wrote, "Rip Van Winkle Railroads is a fascinating story. - Anyone interested in railroading in the mountainous area of New York State will enjoy this book." And a reviewer for the Bulletin of the National Railway Historical Society said, "Mr. Helmer has provided an exceptionally well-written and researched book with outstanding rail, steamboat, and hotel pictures."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor William F. Helmer is also the author of O & W: The Long Life and Slow Death of the New York, Ontario & Western Railway. His railroad scholarship is backed by practical experience. For two years he was vice-president of the Canastota & Cazenovia Railroad, which Mr. Helmer described as "an unsuccessful but spirited attempt to acquire and operate a lopped-off branch of the Lehigh Valley." He holds a PH.D from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a professor of English and chairman of the department for many years at the State University Agricultural & Technical College at Morrisville.

ISBN: 1-883789-20-6
8 x 11, 150 pages, 100+ photos, illus., maps, index
$21.95 paper

Return to Current Catalogue