(rshsdepot) New Berlin, NY

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Donor helps railway museum purchase depot
By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau


NEW BERLIN - The Unadilla Valley Railway Museum owns its depot in New
Berlin, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.
The donor sent a bank check to the museum on the last day of 2003, and the
sale of the depot was finalized a few days ago, according to George
Wolfangle of Pittsfield, the museum's vice president.

"We were trying to buy the depot on a land contract, but it was difficult to
come up with the more than $1,000-a-month," he said Tuesday.

The museum was attempting to pay off the $50,000-plus-interest price of the
building in five years.

Last August, the museum's officers appealed to its 70 or so members for
donations so it would not default on payments.

Then last fall, the donor met with a museum member who disclosed the
financial problems in New Berlin, Wolfangle said. Within months, the check
had arrived and the pressure was off.

"We've been in this building about 31/2 years, and we wanted to start
restoring it, but that made no sense until we owned it," said Wolfangle, a
retired conductor who worked on the Port Authority Trans Hudson rail line.

Now plans for the depot, which is approximately 125-feet long and 35-feet
wide, are being made, he said. Artifacts from several different railroads,
including those that directly served the Unadilla Valley, are on display in
showcases. Telegraph keys, signs, switches, tools, and many photographs
adorn different rooms.

The museum also owns half a railroad coach it would like to move onsite and
restore, and members want to install tracks alongside the depot to show off
rolling stock, said Wolfangle.

The depot, which belonged to the Ontario and Western Railroad, was built in
1869, he said. It is built on stone piers and at one time had a slate roof.
Structurally, the building is sound, and the original layout, including the
gentlemen's and general waiting rooms, is still apparent.
In the large freight section, the museum has set up a model railroad that
shows how track and railroads were configured in New Berlin years ago.

The original Unadilla Valley Railway depot in New Berlin was razed years ago
and most tracks in the area were uprooted in about 1960, but the railway for
which the museum is named had a proud history, Wolfangle said.

An Internet site about the railroad, www.trains-n-planes.com, states that
"by the 1880s, the New York, Ontario & Western had built a branch to New
Berlin. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western had built a branch line to
Richfield Springs, the line running through Bridgewater and north. ...

"Col. Nehemiah Pierce formally put forth the idea of a Unadilla Valley
railroad, which would tie the DL&W in the north to the O&W in the south.
After ironing out many difficulties, work began in 1889 at Bridgewater," the
site states.

"By August of 1893, the rails were laid as far as Leonardsville, and the
DL&W was running two trains a week to the hamlet. A financial panic in that
year once again halted work, but by March of 1894 the financial markets had
stabilized enough that work once again began, and by September of that year,
the railroad had reached West Edmeston. As a celebration, and to re-assure
local investors, an excursion train was run out of West Edmeston; 645 people
crowded onto the excursion train, and rode north.

"By November of 1894, the railroad reached South Edmeston. In January, the
railroad was renamed the Unadilla Valley Railway Company; the name it would
keep for nearly 70 years, until the line was finally dismantled.

"In the summer of 1895, the railroad finally reached New Berlin. On July 25,
1895, the railroad officially opened, amid much fanfare, celebration, and
merriment; the population of New Berlin nearly tripled for the occasion."

Museum hours are from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday or by appointment by calling
847-8581.
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2004/04/07/brite.html

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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