Steam train delights fans in Kingston
Visitors of all ages enjoyed the sites and sound of a steam locomotive pulling Catskill Mountain Railroad’s train ride from Westbrook Lane station.
As the train left Westbrook Lane, the engineer whistled for the Kingston Plaza entrance crossing as the small 43-ton tank engine with four wheels that was built in 1923 once worked for the Viscose Company in Roanoake, Virginia chuffed along.
The steam train pulled the Catskill Mountain Flyer during rides on Saturday and
Sunday.
Fireman Patrick Connors, 19, of Buffalo shoveled coal into the firebox as train fans young and old looked on. Lacking the tender to carry coal and water that bigger steam locomotives have, passengers could peer in and snap photos of the crew at work.
Cinders rained down from above and the smell of coal and lubricating oil filled the air.
As the tiny locomotive began to climb a steep gradient off the Hurley flats, more cinders began to fly as the engineer pulled back the throttle.
Waldo Lechicky, came with his wife Sonia and son Michael to see a steam locomotive run along this stretch of tracks.
Lechicky’s wife, Sonia, an eight-grade history teacher, billed it living history and they expressed strong support for the railroad.
“This is not just looking at the past, it’s experiencing it,” Lechicky. “I wish I could bring my students to experience it.”
Tess Cullen, came with her daughter, Clara, 3, who is a big train fan, along with Clara’s friend Arden.
“We heard there was going to be a steam train and we wanted to take her for a train trip on her birthday,” Cullen said.
Suzanne and Chaim Kofinas came with their son Seth from Rockland County.
“It’s fantastic. We loved it,” Suzanne Kofinas said as the return trip crossed Washington Avenue. “The steam, the whistle, the more cinders the better.
“If you don’t get cinders you’re missing the experience.” Maijia Niemisto, of Kingston came with her children Adalais 3, and Eero, 1.
“These guys love trains,” Niemisto said.
W.J. Cook, of Kinderhook, who worked with the railroad’s crews to fix the tracks around Kingston, road with his 5-year-old black lab Baxter.
“There’s a lot of good people on the railroad,” Cook said.
Catskill Mountain Railroad Treasurer Peter Fluchere said people were coming out in droves to ride behind steam.
“You have to consider this nationally,” Fluchere said. “People love steam engines, steam engines are alive, there’s a magic to them, there’s a history.” “You’ve got to look back all the way to 1820 when the steam engine eclipsed all the canals being built, the steam engine basically built the United States and it’s our favorite son.”
He added that people love the noise, the dirt and reciprocating motion of the rods that turn the wheels.
Among the steam lovers was Connors, who was firing Saturday’s trips.
As he was shoveling coal into the firebox, he said he travels with the locomotive, which is transported on a special tractor trailer to different tourist rail operations.
Inside the cab is a dizzying array of gauges and valves along with levers for the throttle and air brakes. Heat poured out of the back of the firebox even when the door was closed, but a refreshing breeze blew in from windows on the front and side of the cab and from the back where a large bunker holds the coal.
J.M. Micheals of Shandaken, the railroad’s chief mechanical officer, said the locomotive burns bituminous coal that comes from West Virginia instead of the Anthracite coal from Northeastern Pennsylvania that was once transported to the Rondout Area on D+H Canal boats.
And he was impressed with Connors’ firing.
“You don’t want too much smoke,” Michaels said, pointing to the light gray smoke coming out the smokestack at the front of the locomotive.