Mountaindale Railway Station realizes a delayed dream

MOUNTAINDALE, NY — The new Mountaindale Railway Station will hold it’s Grand Opening celebration on Saturday, November 14 at 9:30 a.m., across from the post office. The municipal building features public restrooms and excellent parking access for the trail head of the Rails to Trails to Woodridge and beyond. This facility was made possible through a New York State Department of Transportation TEA-21 Grant and in-kind donations from Sullivan County, the Town of Fallsburg and local Mountaindale businesses and civic groups.

Although the building is state-of-the art new construction, its design is based on the 1920 architectural plans of an New York, Ontario & Western Railway (O&W) building proposed for Mountaindale but never built. When the new facility was originally proposed for Mountaindale by then county planning commissioner Alan Sorensen and local architect Robert Dadras, longtime resident and train history buff Ken Schmitt recalled having seen the old blueprints in the O&W Railway Historical Society archives in Middletown.

It has been a labor of love for town engineer Will Illing to see to all the final details of design and decor. Both the interior and exterior have been painstakingly modeled after actual O&W depots of decades past. Ken and Barb Schmitt of the Mountaindale Community Development Project have been working with Illing to curate a permanent exhibit of O&W train photographs so that visitors will have a feel for the mammoth engines that rumbled past this location in Mountaindale until the railway closed operations on March 29, 1957.

During the ribbon-cutting celebration, there will be speakers including John Tiabi, renowned author of numerous O&W books, and county historian John Conway, and a musical tribute to the railroad era by Paul Lounsbury, performing his original multimedia composition, “A Catskill Mountain Trilogy.”

Refreshments will be provided by the Mountaindale Action Committee and the Mountaindale Community Development Project. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information call 845/434-4747.