Laurel House station

Last updated
Laurel House
General information
Location Palenville, Greene County. New York
Tracks1
History
OpenedJune 1883 [1] [2]
ClosedJanuary 22, 1940 [3] [2]
Services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Kaaterskill
Terminus
Kaaterskill Branch Haines Falls
toward Phoenicia

Laurel House station, branch MP 18.5, was built as part of the three-foot gauge Kaaterskill Railroad, an extension of the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railroad. It was built so passengers could stop there and take a horse and carriage to the Laurel House, a hotel that was nearby. When it was built, it was anything but an actual station; in fact, it was nothing but a platform. When the Ulster and Delaware standard-gauged the railroad in 1899, it was replaced with an actual station. The branch it served would become an actual part of the railroad in 1903.

Contents

It was square shaped, and like most other stations on the U&D, had a built-in gutter. It was well operated until the late 1930s. That's when it became nothing but a flagstop, where one would have to wave a tin flag to get a train to stop. It was abandoned when the Kaaterskill branch was abandoned in 1939, and eventually scrapped in 1940, along with the Stony Clove Branch, and the Hunter Branch. The New York State Government decided to get rid of the station, and eventually burnt it to the ground.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of New York. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended 107 miles (172 km) from Kingston Point on the Hudson River through the Catskill Mountains to its western terminus at Oneonta, passing through the counties of Ulster, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego.

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References

  1. Hibbard, F.B. (July 3, 1883). "Kaaterskill Railroad". The New York Tribune. p. 6. Retrieved May 6, 2021 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  2. 1 2 Interstate Commerce Commission 1940, p. 156.
  3. "Mountain Branches Allowed to Suspend". The Kingston Daily Freeman. January 22, 1940. p. 1. Retrieved May 6, 2021 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg