Haines Falls station

Haines Falls is a disused train station in Haines Falls, New York. It was owned by the Ulster and Delaware Railroad.

Haines Falls
Postcard of the former Haines Falls station
Location	Haines Falls, Greene County. New York
Tracks	1
Services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station Laurel House toward Kaaterskill Kaaterskill Branch Tannersville toward Phoenicia
Ulster and Delaware Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	NY 23A, Hamlet of Haines Falls, Hunter, New York
Coordinates	42°11′45″N 74°5′29″W
Area	1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built	1913
NRHP reference No.	96000861[1]
Added to NRHP	August 08, 1996

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. The U&D finally gave in and tore the old station, making way for a new one that was a few hundred feet away in 1913.

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.[2]

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.[1]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. 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".

External links

• Ulster & Delaware Haines Fall Railroad Station (2009)