The Putnam County Choo Choo Adventure

After reading a very good and well written report of the Putnam and Westchester trailway system, I have been hoping to give it a ride.
Yesterday morning I met a good friend and co-worker at the unfinished parking lot at the intersection of Tilly Foster Road and State Rte. 6. This parking lot is the northern terminus of the Putnam County Rail Trail. I have to say that for the most part I find rail trails to be crowded, boring and uneventful. This trailway system is, by far, the most interesting and fun rail corridor that I have ridden.
For example….



How many Rail trails need to post a warning sign like this? Well I, for one, want to ride THAT train!

We rode on down the trail to the point where it changes over to the Northern County trailway where we had a good cup of coffee at the new Starbuckish clone that will not be in business long if they continue to serve stale croissants. After a short business meeting over the coffee and marginal pastry, we continued south. I think one of the neat features of this rail trail is the grades, which brought to mind steam engines billowing black smoke and embers into the sky as they labored up the track into the station at Somers. Because of the grades, we found ourselves flying along the surprisingly smooth trail with only the occasional dog walker or runner on the path.
At about the 20 mile mark we came upon the Reservoir Bridge, where we saw the DEP out fishing or possibly getting ready to water ski.



At this point, we decided to turn back as we both had “stuff” to do in the afternoon.
We made a fast trip back with a side trip to Bikeway where my co-worker had his bike insulted while the mechanic changed out a corroded brake cable…I am still laughing about that.
Returning to Tilly Foster, we had put 40 miles on, had a good meeting and a very enjoyable morning. A quick web search today brought forth this tidbit of history

"The tracks from Carmel to Brewster were finally torn up in 1972 after a Teenager borrowed a Diesel Switcher from the yard and took a joyride over the abandoned tracks to Carmel. His trip ended when the engine crashed into some fallen trees…..Man how much fun that must have been."