Wallkill Valley Railroad

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Norfolk Southern freight near southern end of Wallkill Valley Railroad in Campbell Hall, NY

The Wallkill Valley Railroad was a small railroad that served the towns in the lower (northern) Wallkill Valley, where there were many farms, which meant plenty of farm goods to be transported.

1 History
2 Rail trail
3 Stations
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

[edit] Wallkill Valley Railroad

It was founded in 1866, and was constructed to the Erie Railroad's six-foot gauge, so it could be easier to transport goods from one railroad to the other. It was even operated by the Erie for the next ten years after its construction. It got to New Paltz in 1870, bridged the Rondout Creek in 1872, and the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Steamboat captain Thomas Cornell then became president of the railroad that same year, although people though that he bought the railroad just for his own sake. He did complete it to Kingston, but left it soon thereafter. There were then plenty of newspaper articles suggesting that it was a financial scandal, and the Wallkill Valley went bankrupt.

But Cornell purchased it again in 1877. And he had later learned, with the help of his stepson Samuel Coykendall, that the West Shore Railroad was chartering a route to New York City, and it would pass through Kingston on the way. Cornell responded to that by chartering an extension for the Wallkill Valley right into the middle of where land was already chartered for the West Shore. But what this meant to the West Shore was that they could have a new branch. The West Shore purchased the line at a price of almost $1,000,000 in 1881.

The northern end of the remaining WVRR tracks, in Walden.

[edit] New York Central

It soon became the rural Wallkill Valley Branch of the West Shore Railroad, although the locals whose profits were wiped out during the previous bankruptcy didn't agree with this. And an occasional scheme was hatched to extend it to the Pennsylvania coal mines to bring more money to the railroad. However, they never succeeded in doing so. The New York Central then bought the West Shore Railroad in 1884, and passenger service was slowly declining, as with most rural branches. Passenger service was completely abandoned in 1937.

After that, some of the previous Ulster and Delaware locomotives were sent to operate on the Wallkill Valley Branch, since they were light enough to cross the Wallkill Valley's Rosendale Bridge. But those were all gone by 1949, and the branch was soon entirely dieselized. The last regular freight train was run on the branch in 1977.

[edit] Conrail

Conrail almost entirely abandoned the branch, though it was considered briefly as a new route to Allentown, PA, via Kingston, Campbell Hall, and the L&HR. It was discovered in 1977 that the piers supporting the Rosendale Viaduct had shifted, and that repairs would not be worth the money to keep the line open. The line was soon completely abandoned, and the branch was torn out and sold for scrap except for a little spur from Walden to Campbell Hall and a team track in Kingston. The process of taking out the railroad took from 1983 to 1984.

[edit] Norfolk Southern Railway and remaining facilities

The remaining spur from DeGroodt's Paving in downtown Walden to the Campbell Hall Metro-North station is used for freight service by Norfolk Southern. The station in New Paltz remains along the trail, though the station in Gardiner burned in 2002. Walden station was moved to a village park, and remains intact.

[edit] Rail trail

The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in New Paltz.

Portions of the line in Ulster County have been converted into a rail trail. The Shawangunk Rail Trail runs from NY 208 in Wallkill to the county line; the longer Wallkill Valley Rail Trail follows the right of way from Gardiner to Rosendale.