RAILS TO THE CATSKILLS

Railroading in the Northern and Southern Catskills

A film by Tobe Carey, DVD, 95 minutes (Willow Mixed Media)

RAILS TO THE CATSKILLS uses original footage, contemporary and vintage photographs, postcards, rare films, railfan movies, newspapers and historic archives to document the history of the dynamic railroad industry in the northern and southern Catskills. Catskill Mountain railroads have roots in the Delaware & Hudson Canal of the 1820s and the post-Civil War railroad boom. RAILS TO THE CATSKILLS explores: the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad; the New York, Ontario & Western Railway; the Ulster & Delaware Railroad; the Catskill Mountain Railway; the Otis Elevating Railway; West Shore Railroad; Delaware and Northern; Wallkill Valley; and New York Central railroads, area trolleys, and tourist railroads. The 95-minute documentary also covers the current rail vs. trail battle over use of the historic Ulster & Delaware tracks running west from Kingston to Highmount.

The film includes historians Eugene Dauner, Dale Flansburg, Robert Haines, John Ham, William Helmer, Evan Jennings, and Bob Mohowski. Music is by Dick Staber and Paul Lounsbury.

Filmmaker Tobe Carey has produced and directed popular Catskill and Hudson Valley documentaries, including Deep Water – Building the Catskill Water System (with Robbie Dupree and the late Artie Traum), The Catskill Mountain House and The World Around, Sweet Violets, and Woodstock Summer of '94.