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NYC Adirondack Division

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NYC Adirondack Division
Posted by Thendara on Monday, October 24, 2016 7:14 PM

Does anyone know where I can read the article "Pacifics to Placid" in the September 1950 issue of "Trains Magazine" currently out of print?

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Posted by wanswheel on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 12:40 PM

Philip R. Hastings (1925-1987) “who started taking railroad pictures in 1937, was widely published in books and magazines. He is remembered especially for his teamwork with David P. Morgan, Trains editor, which resulted in the magazine’s twilight of steam series from 1954 to 1958, republished as The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate and Other Tales (Kalmbach Books, 1975). Hastings received the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s national railroad photography award in 1985.”

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Posted by samfp1943 on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 9:45 PM

Thendara: First, Welcome Welcome  Not sure what you use to view here, but if you have Mozilla-Firefox. You can increase the material to be viewed size, by using the cursor on the area to enlarge, push the shift key

wanswheel

Philip R. Hastings (1925-1987) “who started taking railroad pictures in 1937, was widely published in books and magazines. He is remembered especially for his teamwork with David P. Morgan, Trains editor, which resulted in the magazine’s twilight of steam series from 1954 to 1958, republished as The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate and Other Tales (Kalmbach Books, 1975). Hastings received the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s national railroad photography award in 1985.”

 

and hit the plus sign key; that will allow you to take the print up to a manageable size...

 

 


 

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Posted by wanswheel on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 3:07 PM

Learning a little bit more about the author.

“Philip Ross Hastings was a celebrated railroad photographer with a much copied, innovative style. He was born in 1925 in Bradford, Vermont. As a child, Hastings accompanied his father to the local railroad station. He took his first railroad photo before age 10.

 

Hastings' plan to become a locomotive engineer was foiled by his bad eyesight. He enlisted in the Army in 1943. While a student at Tufts, Fordham, and New York Universities and the University of Vermont, Hastings studied both medicine and photography. He graduated from the University of Vermont as an M.D. in 1950. After college, Hastings re-enlisted in the Army and was posted in New York State, Maryland, Texas, and Washington as part of his medical training. He was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in March of 1959. Hastings received many awards as a practicing psychiatrist, and became president of the Iowa Psychiatric Society in 1971.

 

“He and his wife, Marian and their five children, Pamela, Stephen, Hugh, Doug and David settled in Waterloo, Iowa in 1959 where Hastings continued to develop his interest in photography. Hastings became a staunch supporter of the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society in North Freedom, Wisconsin and served as its board chairman during the 1980s.

 

“During the 1950s and 1960s, Hastings wrote for TRAINS magazine. He and David Morgan, editor of TRAINS, documented the end of the steam era in a series of articles. In 1985, Hastings won the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society's annual Photography Award in recognition for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in his field.

 

“Many of Hastings' photos are prominently featured in railroad books and publications. His images were compiled and printed in THE MOHAWK THAT REFUSED TO ABDICATE AND OTHER TALES (1975). Another book, PHILIP ROSS HASTINGS: THE BOSTON & MAINE: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY was published posthumously in 1989.

 

“Hastings died on February 20, 1987 in Waterloo, Iowa. In 1997, the Hastings family selected the California State Railroad Museum as the permanent home for Hastings' photograph collection, consisting of over 46,000 plus black and white negatives, 4,000 prints, and 32,000 35 mm color transparencies.”

 

AWARDS, CERTIFICATES AND DIPLOMAS

Includes awards, certificates, diplomas, plaques, and a gavel presented to Hastings over the course of his education, his stint in the U.S. Army, his career as a psychiatrist, and his work as a railroad photographer.

BOX LIST

Box 16 National Guard of Vermont and the National Guard of the United States. Honorable Discharge. Not dated.

Box 16 Community Mental Health Centers Association of Iowa Inc. And the Iowa Mental Health Authority. "Special Recognition for a Unique and Sustaining Contribution to the Community Mental Health Center Movement in Iowa." Not dated. [framed]

Box 16 The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College. Bachelor of Science Degree. June 16, 1947.

Box 16 The College of Medicine of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College. Degree of Doctor of Medicine. June 12, 1950. [framed]

Box 16 The President of the United States of America. Appointment of Philip R. Hastings as a Reserve Commissioned Officer, Grade of First Lieutenant, Medical Corps, in the Army of the United States. October 18, 1950.

Box 16 Deaconess Hospital, Spokane, Washington. Diploma. June 30, 1951. [framed]

Box 16 Vermont State Board of Medical Registration. Registration as a Practioner of Medicine. July 15, 1952.

Box 16 The President of the United States of America. Appointment of Philip R. Hastings as a Reserve Commissioned Officer, Grade of First Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. October 16, 1952.

Box 16 The President of the United States of America. Appointment of Philip R. Hastings as a Reserve Commissioned Officer, Grade of Captain in the Army of the United States. November 20, 1953.

Box 16 American Group Psychotherapy Association. Election to Membership of the Association. October 26, 1956.

Box 16 Veterans Administration. Certificate of Completion of 36 Month Residency in Psychiatry at Veterans Hospital, Albany, New York, July 7, 1953 - July 6, 1956. January 27, 1957. [framed]

Box 16 New York State Education Department. Registered Physician in the State of New York, January 1957-December 31, 1958.

Box 16 University of the State of New York Education Department. A License to Practice Medicine and Surgery in the State of New York. March 15, 1957.

Box 17 The President of the United States of America. Appointment of Philip R. Hastings as a Reserve Commissioned Officer, Grade of Major in the Army of the United States. April 15, 1958.

Box 17 The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Certification to Practice the Specialty of Psychiatry. March, 1959.

Box 17 State of Iowa. Certificate of License, Medicine and Surgery. July 21, 1959. [framed]

Box 17 "Philip R. Hastings, President, Iowa Psychiatric Society". 1971. [gavel]

Box 17 State of Iowa Executive Department. Appointment and Commission of Philip Hastings as A Member of the Mental Hygiene Committee. September 9, 1974. [framed]

Box 17 U.S. Department of Justice. Drug Enforcement Agency. Controlled Substances Registration Certificate. October 2, 1986 and State of Iowa. Controlled Substances Registration Certificate. no date. [framed together]

Box 17 Allen Memorial Hospital, Waterloo Iowa. In Recognition of His Generous Contributions and Loyal Support. February 3, 1987. [framed]

Box 17 Iowa State Board of Medical Examiners. Renewal of License to Practice Medicine and Surgery. April 1, 1985 - March 31, 1987. [framed]

Box 18 Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. The Railroad History Award Photography Award For Significant Contribution to the Photographic Interpretation of North America's Railroading History. May 4, 1985. [framed]

Box 18 Photograph album compiled by Dr. Hastings when he was a young boy.

 

Classic Trains photo of the day caption: “Longtime Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan takes notes inside Canadian National’s roundhouse at Riviere du Loup, Quebec, during his fall 1953 “Steam Safari” with friend and photographer Philip R. Hastings. Philip R. Hastings photo”

"Nailed it."

https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/on-photography-nailing-it/

Philips has 4 photos in "Trail vs. Rail" article, Trains July 2016.

http://trn.trains.com/~/media/files/pdf/2016/trnc0716.pdf

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Posted by Thendara on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 7:39 PM

Thanks for the article and information about the author. Hoping to model part of the Adirondack Division some day.

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Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 11:43 PM

Morgan and Hastings were able to put into words and pictures the incredible changes that were unfolding rapidly. I feel very fortunate to be able to share and experience what they did ...and to see, hear and smell the last of those years. 

You simply cannot lose that historic route. It's ridiculous. 

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, October 27, 2016 7:11 AM

Ironically, I help run what may have been the last train of passenger equipment out of Lake Placid yesterday.  It was a long, slow, sad trip.

Because most of the track is OOS, the speed for most of the trip was just 10 MPH, with our average speed reduce significantly by numerous trees across the track which, of course, had to be removed before we could pass.

We'll find out in early November whether it was, indeed, the final trip.  That's when the judge is supposed to decide the fate of the rails from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid - railroad or trail?

Even being fall, with all the colors gone, the scenery is spectacular.  

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Posted by Ulrich on Thursday, October 27, 2016 9:15 AM

tree68

Even being fall, with all the colors gone, the scenery is spectacular.  

 

 

I second that.. we go hiking there and never tire of the scenery.. nothing short of spectacular any time of year. 

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Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, October 27, 2016 9:53 AM

tree68

 It was a long, slow, sad trip.

Condolences Larry. Thanks for all you did to keep it going.

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Posted by MidlandMike on Thursday, October 27, 2016 1:51 PM

Larry, when did regular service end?  Were there any fall color runs?  Trees acros the ROW seems like it may have been a while.

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Posted by CandOforprogress2 on Thursday, October 27, 2016 3:27 PM

Where is the court case a and who is the Judge?

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Posted by Thendara on Thursday, October 27, 2016 4:32 PM

It would be a great loss to have the Lake Placid branch tracks taken up. Rails form a significant part of the town's history. According to NYC Equipment Folder No. 1 (Effective June 23, 1929), one could board a through-service Pullman sleeping car at Grand Central Terminal at 7:10 pm (NYC Train No. 55) and arrive at Lake Placid the following morning at 7:10 am. While you slept your car would have been switched at Utica unto the NYC Adirondack Division (Train No. 5). On Fridays in the summer no less than 11 through-Pullmans left Grand Central Terminal in No. 55 bound for Lake Placid. In the same train there were also through-Pullmans to Clayton (2), Malone (1), Loon Lake (1),  Tupper Lake (1) Raquette Lake (1), Thendara (1), and Montreal (1). No. 55 must have departed New York in more than 1 section.  Keep in mind that this was summer service (May 24 - September 6). What a great summer getaway weekend that would have been! 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, October 27, 2016 6:53 PM

Through the Adirondacks to Lake Placid, and behind steam at that. Can you imagine?

Great days, great days indeed.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, October 27, 2016 7:38 PM

Regular regular passenger service (NYC) ended back in 1965.

Freight closed out in 1974.  The Adirondack Railway ran 1979-1980, primarily for the Olympics, but they did log some 16,000 passengers in the summer of 1980.

The section we traversed is out of service, with the last trip through there a month or so ago, I believe.  The "north end" only ran between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, with Rail Explorers running down as far as Tupper Lake.  

All of our problems with trees were south of Tupper.  There hadn't been time for a patrol trip ahead of time, although the line south of Big Moose had been inspected last Friday - I had some of the track out of service and let the inspector through - and there were a number of trees down there, too.

Most of it was due to a heavy snow last Saturday, and high winds on Sunday.

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Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, November 17, 2016 10:59 AM

Hope springs eternal?

Excerpt from Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Nov. 15

http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2016/11/railroads-lawsuit-stalled-again/

A railroad group’s lawsuit against a state plan to remove 34 miles of train tracks has been delayed again, this time until the end of January.

Suzanne Messer, a lawyer for the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society, said the state attorney general’s office requested the latest postponement due to issues with ownership of several parcels of land in the travel corridor. ARPS, a nonprofit group that runs tourist trains under the Adirondack Scenic Railroad name, sued the state in April, a month before Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed off on the state plan — seen by some as a compromise — to upgrade 45 miles of tracks between Big Moose and Tupper Lake and to replace the tracks with a trail between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid.

The attorney general’s office and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have been silent on the suit despite multiple requests for comment over the last two weeks. DEC spokesman Sean Mahar said his agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but he confirmed Monday that the state requested the delay “for additional time to review title on a few parcels in question, and the state looks forward to oral arguments on the January court date.”

The state recently discovered it needs to acquire fee title to three parcels around North Country Community College in Saranac Lake as well as the Lake Placid train station, which is owned by the Lake Placid/North Elba Historical Society.

Messer said state officials are trying to get the owners of those parcels to voluntarily convey ownership to the state.

“The State is seeking to obtain letters of intent from the property owners at issue, meaning that the State is attempting to acquire that property through voluntary conveyances by the property owners,” Messer wrote in an email. “The State believes it can obtain those letters of intent during the 60-day stay period.”

Messer said the railroad agreed to the delay on the condition that no railroad infrastructure is removed during the postponement. The state had previously said local municipalities could start to remove the tracks as soon as this fall, with the rest of the infrastructure to be removed next year.

Messer said the lawsuit’s hearing is now scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Jan. 30 at the Franklin County Courthouse in Malone.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, November 17, 2016 12:49 PM

wanswheel
Hope springs eternal?

Maybe.  Or maybe they're trying to wear down the RR and it's legal fund...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, November 17, 2016 1:06 PM

....from the Newswire story, sounds like the parties are also being re-introduced to the inept recklessness of PC-CR-APU land dealings with property in the station grounds aided and abetted by the clueless local clerk & recorders. 

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by MidlandMike on Thursday, November 17, 2016 11:51 PM

At least it keeps the line from being torn up for a snowmobile trail for one more winter.

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, November 18, 2016 8:49 AM

MidlandMike

At least it keeps the line from being torn up for a snowmobile trail for one more winter.

Beginning December 1st of every year, it is a snowmobile trail, if there's enough snow.  For the past few years, there hasn't been enough snow to ride anywhere, much less on the corridor...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by MidlandMike on Friday, November 18, 2016 8:51 PM

tree68

 

 
MidlandMike

At least it keeps the line from being torn up for a snowmobile trail for one more winter.

 

Beginning December 1st of every year, it is a snowmobile trail, if there's enough snow.  For the past few years, there hasn't been enough snow to ride anywhere, much less on the corridor...

 

Yes I knew the track was used as a snowmobile trail, but it really restricts the practical use for that.  What I was getting at was that I am sure the snowmobile advocates were not happy with losing out on another winter of a usable trail.

I am not a snowmobiler, but I am a skier.  I have visited Lake Placid in summer, and rode the Lake Placid-Saranac passenger train and hiked Mt. Marcy, but I have never skied at Whiteface.  This winter I am planning on making a ski trip there about the time of the court hearing.  I will let the hotel people know that if the rails are pulled, it will be my last trip to Lake Placid.

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, November 18, 2016 10:23 PM

Glad you posted that Mike. 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, November 20, 2016 11:44 PM

MidlandMike
What I was getting at was that I am sure the snowmobile advocates were not happy with losing out on another winter of a usable trail.

I do get their desire to see the tracks gone.  And the "trail advocates" have been trading on that desire.

What some of the smarter snowmobilers have figured out is that if the tracks come up, their trail is coming up with them.

There are folks who want the snowmobilers out of the woods, too.  But they can't get them off the corridor as long as the tracks are in place.

If the tracks come up, you will see the appearance of folks who have kept silent until then - I'm betting even building a walking trail will encounter opposition.  They've done things like that in other parts of the Adirondacks.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, November 21, 2016 3:36 AM

Repeating a posting f some time ago.  In 1968 I was on my way from Brandon, Manitoba, to Downers Grove and Westmont, IL, returning from acoustical check-out of the Brandon Perfomring Arts Center.  CP Canadian coach Brandon - Winnepeg, GN sleeper to St. Paul, and planned Morning Hiawatha to Glenview where my car was parked.  Into the Buffet-lounge area with my latest copy Trains to read during supper/dinner.  Well-dressed man alone at a table for four.  "Hi, that's a picture I took on the cover of your magazine."  I: "What, you must be Phil Hastins.  May I join you?"   During our conversation he invited me to join him for a cab ride between Crookston and Grand Forks on the E-unit, which I did.

Ended up stopping off in Milwaukee to hear Golda Meir speak at Uhlein Hall, and continuing with the Afternoon Hiawatha to Glenview.  Entrance to the sold-out hall possible because I said I was from Bolt Beranek and Newman to insure the sound system worked properly.

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Posted by MidlandMike on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 8:16 PM

Tree, yes I believe the rip-up-the-rails group is an unholy alliance between the power sports enthusiasts, cross country skiers, bikers, hikers and wilderness advocates.  Once the tracks are pulled up, they will all turn on each other.

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 8:30 PM

Anyone care to post a map of the NYC with the Adirondack Division line highlighted?

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 8:36 PM

It's not highlighted as such, but if you follow the line north from Utica to Lake Placid, it's easy to pick out:

https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/operating/opdm/passenger-rail/passenger-rail-repository/2016%20NYS%20Rail%20Map.pdf

LarryWhistling
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Posted by wanswheel on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:18 PM

It’s interesting the snowmobile association calls it “the former Webb Railroad,” as if unaware New York Central had ever existed. 

http://nysnowmobiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nyssa_magazine_1116_ezine.pdf

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Thursday, November 24, 2016 3:24 PM

Did the NYC have any named passenger trains in the Adirondack division?  Or was that part of the system freight-only?

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, November 24, 2016 3:41 PM

Passenger service ran until 1965.  I don't think any of the trains had official names - just numbers.  Given that trains often had nicknames, that's possible here, but I don't know of any.

In 1961 it was 164 and 165.

The 1957 Official Guide shows two trains each way to/from Lake Placid, #3 and #5 northbound and #2 and #4 southbound.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, November 24, 2016 3:53 PM

There was quite a bit of overnight Pullman service on the Adirondack Division in the summer of 1943--including three cars New York-Lake Placid, one car Montreal-Buffalo, and one car New York-Malone. There was also the day train between Utica and Montreal, which still ran until 1965. The Guide for July, 1943, does not show any names for these trains. 

Johnny

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