Hike #1407; Goshen to Otisville

Hike #1407: 4/17/21 Goshen to Otisville with Kirk Rohn, Professor John DiFiore, Justin Gurbisz, Diane Reider, Robin Deitz, Cory Salveson, and Jim DeLotto

In keeping with all of the milestones, on this one I would finally complete hiking the entire old Erie Railroad line through Orange County, most of which is now part of the Orange Heritage Trail.

John Berringer III National RR Library

The old Erie Railroad was built across Orange County in 1841. It passed through all of the little villages such as Monroe, Greycourt, and Chester. It continued on to Port Jervis on the Delaware River.

Lori Baldwin Koroski collection

While the original main like served all of the little towns, the Graham Cutoff, opened in 1909, broke away from the original main line in Harriman and took sweeping curves for fast freight movement, bypassed most of the towns, and then reconnected with the original main line at Guymard just north of Port Jervis.

The original main line remained in service until 1983 and was removed. Despite the fact that the Graham line really didn't serve the communities, it was the one that was left in service for passengers going to Port Jervis.

1910 J E Bailey photo/Jim Hutzler collection/Steamtown NHS

Orange Heritage Trail has been developed over much of the line, and I started running hikes on it a few years ago.

Richard Samsel image

This also tied in to the Long Path and Highlands Trail series. The Long Path joins the right of way at Orange-Rockland Lake, and is moved onto the Heritage Trail more and more as new sections are developed. The trail used to be a back road walk through most of Orange County in the past. At the point that I reached there, the Long Path turned away from the rail bed in Goshen.

Joseph Schopp/Richard Ferris collection

The Highlands Trail also picks up the right of way between Orange-Rockland Lake and Oxford Depot.

By this time, I had hiked the entire right of way from Harriman to Goshen. I had already also hiked from the junction point at Guymard Turnpike all the way to Otisville.

So, the only part of the old Erie main I had to walk was from Goshen through Middletown to Otisville.

We met in the morning at Otisville at the big lot by Mick's Deli and Grocery. I had hiked the line through this area in the Fall of 2008 and really loved it. 

I figured to walk some of the old Erie we would be stuck with some parallel road walks because it was badly developed over, but we could do a good amount of it.

We shuttled to Goshen and parked at the commuter lot off of Rt 17 and walked Greenwich Ave to the north into town. I stopped in Beer World on my way in to see if there was anything of interest. I forget if I found anything good.

Once we got to the railroad bed, we began following it into town toward the old Goshen Station.

I had a million then and now history compilations to get around this spot, so I took a good amount of time there.

I had hoped that this time we would be joined by Bob McCue, a great local railroad historian, but he got behind and wasn't able to join us this time.

We continued on from the station site, which is now a police station and municipal offices. The Erie had a branch that went to the north from here on which the Lehigh and New England had trackage rights, and to the south, the Pine Island Branch was used to by the same. We had recently pretty much finished following that branch.

Lehigh and New England closed down entirely in October of 1961, after which there was little reason for the Erie to continue to maintain their branches that connected with it. 

At the end of the parking lot that is built over the old rail yard, we headed around apartments. There is a road around the right side and a paved path around the left. I'm not sure which way we're supposed to go, but either way leads to the right of way on the other side.

In this section was a section of old brick buildings to the right. This was known locally as "The Foundry". Over a century ago, this was known as the Newberry Foundry. 

The owner built the facility to fabricate pipe fittings. As I understand, the latest use for the facility was to fabricate custom automotive and construction equipment parts.

The trail became paved again, and there was a pond on the right. Pretty soon, we passed beneath the Rt 17 underpass.

Ahead, the trail had ponds on both the north and the south side. The Long Path had recently been blazed on this section now, so we were officially on part of that as well. 

The next grade crossing was 6 and 1/2 Station Road. Jim DeLotto joined up with us here having run just a little bit late.

The wetlands through this area are known as the 6 and 1/2 Sanctuary.

I'm guessing there used to be a station at this site at one time, but I've never seen any photos of what it would have looked like.
Pretty soon, we crossed over the Wallkill River. There were also a couple smaller lesser stream bridges in this stretch. 

Also in this next stretch, we passed the former spur to the Mid Hudson Psychiatric Center. Rails were still in place going off to the left to it, but badly overgrown

Soon, we came up to the crossing of Rt 50, once a station stop for New Hampton NY. Here, we made a pit stop at Mason's Marketplace, an old railside hotel and store that is still serving food and drink today.

The building was completed in 1866 by N. W. Talmage across form the station, which no longer stands. 

I went inside and got two hot dogs and some fries for our little break, and we sat outside. I also had some kind of beer though I don't remember what kind it was at this time.

It was at this point that the Long Path now turned away from the railroad bed.

We passed an old mile marker that I believe denoted sixty six miles from Jersey City.

Soon, we came to Ryerson Road. At this point, the trail ahead was closed down approaching the Interstate 84 underpass. We were able to walk on parallel McVeigh Road to get past the short construction spot, and got back on the newly paved trail just up ahead toward Dolsontown Road. 

We passed some more wetlands to the right, and then headed toward the north, to Middletown.

I had hiked into Middletown, quite a big town, only once before, back in the Summer of 2009 with my late friend Connecticut Joe Bukowski. It was a grand adventure where we started down in NJ on the former Hanford Branch of the New York, Susquehanna, and western Railroad, and continued on the Middletown and Unionville Railroad up to Middletown.

It was such a great day, and I figured I would make this connection to Middletown long before this. And here I was 13 years later.

We reached the end of the developed trail at Palmer Avenue in Middletown, beyond which the right of way passes beneath the Middletown and Unionville line. A covered bridge structure was under construction beneath the M&U line. This would be to keep debris from falling from the active line above onto the trail below.

We continued through, and the railbed appeared to be prepped for surfacing.

There was a missing bridge at Genung Street, and we had to climb down the abutment and back up the other side to continue. We crossed Washington Street and Houston Street, and rail development was fully underway between these points.

When we reached Sprague Avenue, there was another missing bridge, but they already had the old stone abutments capped with new large concrete boxes on which the new pedestrian bridge would sit. 

Justin is looking to have Javier kick his ass

This would make the new bridge much higher than the original railroad bridge to allow for more clearance.

Justin found a yellow bicycle that had been ditched below the right of way in some weeds, and so he pulled it out and began riding it for a little while.
Cory spent much of the hike up till this point flying his drone, which he was absolutely loving. He could get some great overhead views of everything with it. He switched off with Justin to ride the bike, and then Justin found one of those plastic face shields used by people who are super deathly afraid of covid, and wore it while he rode the bike around more. 

I started joking that some guy named Javier was going to be looking for his bike, and that he was going to be pissed and Justin was going to be in trouble. So it became known as the Javier bike.

We soon reached the former junction point with the Middletown and Unionville Railroad, and the station is still standing to the right. Ahead, the New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad started and headed north out of Middletown. This is another line that I had been following in pieces for a very long time, but I had never walked the eastern terminus yet. More for the to do list.

The old Erie line disappears into the streets of downtown Middletown from here. The parking lots along the left side of Railroad Avenue are all part of the old railroad bed, and we continued to follow it.

We stopped by the Clemson Bros. Brewery, and I figured I was going to see about getting some sort of special beer. When I got inside, I saw right away what I needed.

Middletown was settled through land patents in the 1700s, but it didn't really become a major settlement until the 1840s and the arrival of the Erie Railroad. Like the other towns of Monroe, Goshen, and Chester, there was pretty much nothing by small farming communities through the area before that.

The railroad and subsequent junctions with the other lines caused it to grow and it had become a village was incorporated as a city in 1888. 

The rail bed took us right through the center of town, past the old Green's Department Store and plenty of other cool old buildings. We then moved on toward the old station.

The old Erie Railroad station in the middle of town is now the Thrall Library. The station was built in Romanesque Revival style in 1896 to replace the original 1843 station near the same site. 

The library that took over the old station has had an addition put on the back of it, which stretches across where the railroad tracks used to go, so the entire area looks quite different.

Despite all of the crazy differences, there are still a lot of bits of history that are still in place and tied back to the development of the town.
Right across from the station is the Grace Episcopal Church, built in 1847 right across from the station. The station provided convenience of commute even back then.
Paved trail started up again across James Street from the station on the other side, but it didn't go for far.
I checked out a brewery nearby thinking that I might get something at this one, but then decided against going in and looking for something. We still had a long way to go and I honestly didn't want to wait around for anything else. This was the point where the rail bed might get questionable.

We crossed West Main Street after some parking lots, and then entered a bit of a cut on the old rail bed where there was a signal tower and some other hardware. The right of way was clear, but not developed as a trail yet. I think Justin left the Javier bike somewhere in this area.

There were some old industrial buildings to the left that I assume were probably once rail served as well. We came ahead to Harding Street and crossed, then skirted the side of a building to the right.

I was surprised to see rail still in place beside the building. It was only single track, because the building was built over the former eastbound track bed. 

It went to switched double track when we got past the end of the building. 
We passed an old coaling trestle site on the tracks in this next section, and then continued ahead. There was a reasonable enough path to follow beyond, and the tracks soon ended.
Soon, we crossed West Main Street, and continued north. We crossed Oliver Avenue, and skirted Fancher-Davidge Park and pond to the right.

The right of way still remained quite clear. We came to a clearing where it looks like a municipal road department might store stone or something. This wasn't too bad to get through, and we went around the piles at the far side to get back on the right of way beyond.

There was an old railroad phone booth to the right, made of concrete, and then the right of way went onto a causeway out in the middle of a swamp. The track bed remained clear and pretty easy to walk.

We crossed Ingrassia Road and it still remained pretty clear from here.

Then, the right of way soon reached the still very active Graham Line. 

Ahead was Bowser Road and Derby Road overpasses. This area was the settlement of Howells, a former station stop on the old main line. Apparently the Graham Line and the old main came together here, and I think the section of the original main to the west of this point might have been abandoend earlier than the stuff to the east of here near Middletown.

It definitely had less use because the only stop along the way for the old main of any real significance between here and Guymard would have been Otisville. 

We hurried along to reach the next junction point, and near an access road, the old Erie was a clear path heading off into the woods. We got on it and continued.

It was a good clear ATV trail at first, but we had to get down off of it because there is a missing bridge at New Vernon Road. We climbed right back up the other side, and the right of way was now a parking area for the Howells Fire Department.

We were only able to stay on the rail bed to McGinn Road, and it went into private land behind houses. There was no way of going through undetected, so we walked McGinn Road to the west from here. This then brought us to Rt 211 which we followed east.

There were some pretty scenes, and some old foundations along the road we checked out as we walked. 

My plan was to get back on the railroad bed when we reached the intersection with Schoolhouse Road. However, just as we were eyeing up the grade and standing near the intersection, of course a car made the turn and then went right into the driveway.

Looking dumbfounded, we all kind of just stood there at the intersection. Of all times for someone to be pulling into their driveway across the street from the access to the railroad bed, it was at this time. 
Then, they were dilly dallying in the driveway for forever, and I wasn't able to keep waiting around and looking suspicious. We had to push ahead a bit.

When we got just barely out of sight, I looked over to the very sloppy wet woods, and found a spot I could get in. The railroad bed was still right beside the road, it was just very swampy.

I got over to the grade, and then started pushing ahead. No one was going to follow us into this mess, so I figured it would be okay. Some of the group decided not to try to follow me, and they stayed out on Rt 211.

Kirk was right there with me coming through, and I think Diane followed me as well, but I'm not sure who else made the attempt right away.

I pushed ahead quickly, and I could see some of them out on the road across the large pond that separated us.
There was an old road ahead that maps called Otis Road, and the rest of the group tried to catch up with me on that, but I didn't know they were going to make that attempt.

This section ahead had me a bit nervous. It had gotten dry, but then started getting wet again as it approached Pierson's Farm.

I tried to just push on through this next section fast. There were cows out in the fields to the right, and they started to moo when they saw us.

We hurried on through, and the right of way got really wet as we made our way toward the former crossing of Rt 211 ahead. The railroad would have passed beneath this road via a bridge that has long since been filled in. By this point, I figured that this part of the old Erie must have been abandoned probably shortly after the completion of the Otisville Tunnel. It was just in that bad shape.

There was an electric fence at the end of this section, and I carefully climbed over. Then, there was a farm access road to the left that went up to 211. We followed that, and sat alongside the road waiting for the others to come walking down. Eventually, I got a call from one of them. They had all made their way in from the road and were trying to catch up. I figured we'd see them walking the road the short distance up from there.

Cory ended up having his drone visit the cows for some footage. I didn't want to be seen there, so we moved just a little further down the road, and I instructed the others to remain quiet going through this next section.

Eventually, they all showed up and got by the fences and such. Cory decided he was going to walk the road back rather than follow any more messy right of way, which was too bad because he missed an actual good section ahead.

We cut into the woods first parallel with the railroad bed, and then gradually descended to it again when we were more out of sight from the adjacent properties.

There was a good ATV path that followed this next segment, and it led us over a causeway over a wetland lined with White Birch.

We crossed over White Bridge Road again with no incidents, crossed over the Shawangunk Kill on what must have been a high culvert, and then started passing over some disturbed area to Grange Road. There appeared to be a closed old campground to the right from here. The rail bed was a bit chewed up, and looked like dirt was borrowed from the fills for other things.

We skirted an apartment building area on the right, and then emerged at the end of a driveway and I assume a private house to the left. We just continued on past that and then passed through a sort of commercial property.

DeLotto was hurting pretty bad by this point. He'd done nearly the entire hike having not done this kind of distance for a long while, but he handled it pretty great.

I powered on ahead a bit, and we came out on Kelly Hill Road. A left turn on Wallace Road led under Highland Ave. The railroad used to share this unerpass as well heading into the Otisville yard where the station used to be. We had arrived at the lot behind Mick's to finish the hike.

The Erie Railroad once terminated here, but was extended through to Port Jervis in 1847. 

I met Cory out on the road as we were getting back, and he was flying his drone back over the right of way to find us. He was able to find DeLotto that way where Kirk and John were helping him move along.

I checked out an old coaling trestle or something that was off the edge of the lot with rails still in place while waiting for the others to arrive as well.

This had been a bit more of a brutal, long hike than I had anticipated it would be, but also a really rewarding one. It seemed like we had been hiking forever, and the scenery was constantly changing. This was one of those segments that felt like it was several different days.

I had recently found out that the 11 miles of track between Howells and Guymard has been abandoned since 1954, which confirms my suspicions that this part of the original main line was let go way earlier than the sections that are now the Orange Heritage Trail.

This had been a major loose end to tie up with regard to the railroads in Orange County.

I had been looking at these things for years, all of these lines that I dedicated so much time to following in New Jersey, I had only just begun to pierce Orange County and the tangled web of connections there.

I had followed the Middletown and Unionville, as previously stated, and stopped.
The earliest hikes on the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, which connects to this line in Greycourt, I had followed to the NY line basically and stopped. The Lehigh and New England I had only just recently finished to Pine Island and the trackage rights to Goshen. 
This hike tied together loose ends of hiking that I had not revisited since as far back as 2008. 
I had felt the inspiration to finish some of these connections when I finished the northbound Lehigh and New England, and after getting this one done, my dedication to these greater Hudson Valley rails was fully jump started.