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The Central New England Railway (CNE) Book: 25 Years on the ND&C |
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NEW BOOK ABOUT THE RAILROADS OF DUTCHESS COUNTY NY A book about the railroads of Dutchess County NY is now in the local bookstores and dealers. The size is 8.5 X 11 and it contains more than 200 pages with 150 illustrations. Many of the photos have never been published before. TWENTY FIVE YEARS ON THE ND&C Earliest railroads in Dutchess County NY were the North-South routes which served New York City, Albany and Montreal. These routes were relatively stable and successful. With that success as added incentive, an East-West railroad was chartered and built. The first 8 years of East-West railroad operations in Dutchess County NY saw turmoil, conflict and multiple financial failures. The railroad tracks that ran from Dutchess Junction on the Hudson River and Matteawan (Beacon NY) through Hopewell and Millbrook to Millerton and to Connecticut at State Line had several different names in their first few years of existence. Out of that chaos grew the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad. The ND&C RR under the leadership of John Schultze and Charles Kimball established an operation that survived through good times and bad for over 25 years until it was absorbed into the Central New England Rwy and later became part of the New Haven RR. Still later 11 miles of the old ND&C line became part of the ill fated Penn Central, next Conrail, then the Housatonic RR and currently Metro North. Recently the old headquarters building of the ND&C Railroad in Matteawan ( now part of Beacon NY ) was renovated and the workers found the railroad's record books. There are 48 volumes with 700 pages in each for a total of over 33,000 pages of office correspondence. Some of the volumes are missing and the earliest book is dated 1879; the latest is 1904. Early sections of " Twenty Five Years on The ND&C " set the stage for the entrance of the ND&C Railroad. The heart of the book is the 25 years of ND&C operation from 1879 to 1904. The ND&C record books are a window into the every day events and problems of running a railroad in the late 1800's. They contain everything from compensating farmers for cattle run over by trains to dealing with the great blizzard of March 1888 as well as ordering locomotive repair parts or reporting the office washroom drain is clogged again. After spending over a year of spare time reading the books I felt almost like Schultze and Kimball were old friends even though both have been gone for over 100 years. Sections of the book also deal with related railroads such as the Clove Branch, the Dutchess County RR , the Poughkeepsie & Eastern and the New York & New England RR ferry operations across the Hudson River. I have tried to convey some of the human side of the struggle to build a successful business. Along with that I have also tried to preserve a bit of the contribution that Schultze, Kimball and the railroads made to the world we live in today. How much different would the world be if railroads had never been invented ? ACCEPTING ORDERS VIA MAIL OR PHONE The books have been printed and distributed. Purple Mountain Press, established in 1973, is a publishing company committed to producing the best original books of regional and maritime interest as well as bringing back into print significant older works. Orders: Purple Mountain Press, Ltd. 1060 Main Street, P.O. Box 309, Fleischmanns, NY 12430-0309 To order by phone and credit card, call 1-800-325-2665 845-254-4476 (fax) Information/Editorial: 845-254-4062 E-Mail purple@catskill.net Wray and Loni Rominger, Publishers A soft cover is $22.50. ( all hard covers are sold out ) Shipping and handling will be $3.50 via US mail or $5 via UPS. The books are also available at the Oblong Bookstore in Millerton, plus bookstores in New Paltz and Pawling. It is also available from the internet on Amazon.com and the web site of the New Haven RR Historical and Technical Association http://www.nhrhta.org/ . Just click on book sales. I have had four very successful book signings. 1. At the Red Oaks Mill model train hobby shop (sold 66 copies). 2. At Barnes & Noble Poughkeepsie (sold over 50 copies). The following week it was #1 best selling non-fiction at Barnes & Noble. 3. At the Merritt book store in Millbrook 4. At the Merritt book store Red Hook. The East Fishkill library association asked me to do historical a program on 5 February 2003. The Wappingers Falls Historical Society was on May 8. The Dutchess County RR Historical Society was on June 9. Next was the Historical Society at Clinton Corners. Town of Washington Hist Soc at Millbrook 15 Jan 2004 Beekman Historical Society was on 18 May, 2004 In June 2004 I did a workshop at the NMRA Regional Conference in Fishkill. Talked to the IBM retirees luncheon and the Adriance Library Association. The Amherst RR Society is scheduled for September 2005 Bernie Rudberg phone (845) 221 9330 7 Marion Ave. Wappingers Falls, NY, USA 12590-6017 E-Mail brudberg@optonline.net |
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Fly Along the Central New England Railway! If you have "GOOGLE EARTH" installed on your computer, you can "fly" along the routes of the Central New England Railway with the "PLACEMARK" below: (Click to get GOOGLE EARTH) Talk to us about help using Google Earth© for your business presentations! | |
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We will be adding more routes Because many of the locations on our tour have varying "resolutions" of the pictures, you may need to stop the tour and adjust the height you are viewing. On several locations, you may also stop the tour and click on the placemark icon for more information. Tell us where you want to fly and give us any of your comments |
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