• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Current Newspaper PDF
  • Eastwick Press Info
  • Contact Us

The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

  • School News
  • Sports Outdoors
  • Obituaries
  • Letters & Comments
  • Church Directory

Corkscrew Rails And Tales: History Of The Rutland RR From North Bennington To Chatham

December 16, 2011 By eastwickpress 7 Comments

by David Flint
For those in the Taconic Valley who remember the days when the trains of the Rutland Railroad were part of the daily scene, or for those who just have a nostalgic interest in railroading, James R. “Jim” Jones has created a special treat. The radio personality, railroad buff and media professional has just put out the sixth and last in his “Rutland Remnants” DVD series, this one entitled “North Bennington, VT to Chatham, NY – Corkscrew Rails & Tales.”
Jones describes it as a documentary in the style of a Ken Burns production. “I prefer that local people tell the story, not me,” he said. Some of the local people that appear include Art Koepp of Stephentown, Carol Lobdell VanHeusen of West Lebanon, Bruce Cobb of Chatham and Bev Bowman Chiarella of Canaan.

The many twists and turns in the route combined with sometimes severe weather conditions along the “Corkscrew Division” of the Rutland Railroad led to some spectacular derailments such as this one in an undated photo from the collection of the Stephentown Historical Society.

The video starts out at North Bennington. “The railroad had a smell, and the smell was of soft coal,” recalls Jim Shaughnessy, renowned railroading author who appears in the DVD along the way as one of the expert commentators. From Bennington we head south, make a sharp right turn and start on “the many bends of the fabled Corkscrew.” Travelling west toward Hoosick, then turning south, we cross over the busy line of the Boston & Maine at

Train time at Petersburgh, southbound about 1910. Photo courtesy of James R. Jones and Jim Shaughnessy, from his book "The Rutland Road."

Petersburgh Junction. North Petersburgh was just a crossing, but down the line at Petersburgh we come to a bustling station. Then on to Berlin, which, with its agriculture and light manufacturing, was an even busier station. The daily train at Berlin, we are told, “was cause for celebration.” At Center Berlin the tracks crossed to the south side of Route 22. Trains made their way down to South Berlin, renamed Cherry Plain in 1919 to avoid confusing train orders. There was at one time a depot, a water tank and a siding at North Stephentown. Down the road at Stephentown there was also an engine house, a turntable, a creamery, a hotel and a GLF feed store. Shaughnessy recalls that there was still an agent at that station in April of 1953 just before the line shut down for good. Below Stephentown there were stations at Wyomanock, Lebanon Springs, New Lebanon, Lebanon Center, West Lebanon, Brainard, Riders Mills, Old Chatham and on down to the terminus at Chatham.
Jones flips back and forth with his pictures and stories between yesteryear and today. Rather than produce a dry documentary, he wanted to bring the railroad back to life, to let people remember how it was, how it sounded. But 1910 keeps dissolving into the present day so we can see clearly what was and what remains. He makes it human with anecdotes and tales told by local people who lived along the line as well as with commentary from former railroad employees,

Berlin southbound about 1910. Photo courtesy of James R. Jones, Tell-Tale Productions, and Jim Shaughnessy, from his book "The Rutland Road."
An accident at the Stephentown turntable. Photo courtesy of the Stephentown Historical Society.

enthusiasts and historians. Art Koepp recalled how, “You could see the tracks suspended in the air,” following one of the great floods that tore up and disrupted the rail line. Billy Chilton remembered that, “The tracks were way out in a field…all bent up.”
Koepp also recalled students coming to school in New Lebanon on the train from Chatham. The school train for some odd reason was called “the Scute.” Students also travelled to Berlin from Petersburgh and from Stephentown. Some would ride a horse to the station and stable it nearby. Coming back they would saddle up and ride home. According to railroad employee Bob Adams, in winter time it was necessary to keep a fire going in the cars over weekends so they wouldn’t freeze up.
Rutland employee George Cameron said the milk train was the “cash cow.” Milk would come all the way from Ogdensburg and points down the line to Chatham where it would be transferred to the Harlem line so as to arrive in New York City the next day.

John Esposito inspecting track in Stephentown. Photo courtesy of the Stephentown Historical Society.

Jones is concluding the Rutland Remnants series where it began ten years ago at a family reunion in Chatham. He has always had railroading in his blood. His grandfather was a station agent with the Canadian Pacific up by the Canadian border. His father, Robert C. Jones was a part time railroader and noted author of 24 rail books. Jim grew up in Burlington, VT, worked at radio station WJOY for five years, then got itchy feet, headed west and became a national network radio personality based in Denver. Returning to his roots in the Northeast, he formed Tell-Tale Productions and began creating professional productions from rail videos he had put together out West, then branched out to do story documentaries of various railroads in Vermont and Canada. At the Chatham reunion he decided to embark on a series on the Rutland Railroad. He started at the top with “Ogdensburg to Lake Champlain” and now has finished at the bottom with “Corkscrew Rails & Tales.” It was last but not least – the Corkscrew segment of the Rutland is his favorite, and he thinks it’s maybe the best one. He first learned about this line and this part of the country at age 10 reading Jim Shaughnessy’s The Rutland Road. He got interested in places like Stephentown, Petersburgh, Berlin and Chatham. He has been looking forward a long time to “bringing back life to something that’s been gone for 60 years – but not all gone.” A lot of the remnants continue to disappear. Stephentown’s station was torn down earlier this year. Yet some things besides just traces remain. Berlin still uses their station as a community center, known to Berliners today as the Watipi Building. Two local artists who have provided musical background for the DVD also have restored Rutland stations and made them their homes, namely piano player and piano restorer Wally Stock at the Brainard station and jazz artist Joe Finn at the Old Chatham station. The New Lebanon station still stands but in a decrepit state and covered with overgrowth.
Passenger traffic on the Corkscrew Division was discontinued in 1925. Bus service was provided up until 1931. The milk trains continued to run until, according to Shaughnessy, New York City was for some reason cut out of the New England milk shed. In 1952 the Interstate Commerce Division granted the Rutland permission to abandon the Chatham branch and on August 7, 1953, the last rail on the line was taken up. “It was sad to see – kind of a comfortable old friend disappear – is what it amounted to,” Shaughnessy said.
Passenger excursion trains ran once a year for four years starting in the fall of 1949. Passengers dressed up in Gay 90s apparel and relived the days of riding the rails from Chatham to Rutland and back.
“Corkscrew Rails & Tales” is available at local stores, including Hewitt’s Market in Berlin, and can also be purchased online at www.Vermontmadevideos.com.

This train overturned in Brainard. Photo courtesy of the Stephentown Historical Society.

 

Northbound at the Petersburgh Junction crossing the Boston & Maine RR. Photo courtesy of James R. Jones and Jim Shaughnessy, from his book "The Rutland Road."

Filed Under: Berlin, Front Page, Hoosick, Local News, New Lebanon, Petersburgh, Stephentown

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. James R. Jones says

    December 18, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    David Flint did a wonderful, thoughtful, well written piece of journalism with this piece on the new DVD covering the historic, colorful, woebegone railroad though Petersburgh, Berlin, Stephentown, New Lebanon, Brainard, and Old Chatham. His inclusion of never before seen Stephentown Historical Society iamges is a real bonus for Eastwick Press readers. I recognize a labor of love when I see it! Thanks to everyone for their wonderful reviews of the DVD, kind notes, handwritten memories and support of this effort. Jim Jones

  2. Bill Winans says

    March 16, 2012 at 7:28 am

    My family relocated to Chatham in 1968. As with any ten-year-old in a new place, the first order of business was exploration. My brother and I quickly discovered the remnants of the Rutland ROW literally in our back yard. Even though the rails had been gone for 15 years, many remnants remained, including the maintenance barn and turntable pit. We often walked miles of the roadbed. We then moved on to the stone trestle supports which still stand sentinal to this day crossing Center Street and the Stein Kill Creek. Many an afternoon was spent peering down at Route 66 traffic from the top. On the way to school every day, we often took “The Short Cut” which I later discovered was the former station siding bed. Thanks to Jim Shaughnessy’s excellent book, I finally got a glimpse of the original Chatham terminal station. Thanks for keeping the grand history of the Corkscrew Division alive.

  3. dave derosa says

    March 2, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    It’s odly coincident how I happened to work at Simmons Machine Tool in Menands with Gary Hewitt an RPI grad engineer, building train wheel shop equipment. Then later I happen to buy his father Leyton’s property at the lower end of Meadowlawn Cemetery in Petersburg on the Rutland Line.
    I’ve often wondered why can we be so fascinated with trains,…as I and many have become. Gravity, it is agreed is one of the strangest and most unknown things in the universe and it is largely seen that it affects us mentally. Perhaps trains with all their mass are like the planets passing by,and we naturally are pulled by them, the part of us pulled, a most central hidden part. Maybe it is the heart, that strange heart, known by heart surgeons to seem to contain a brain, and worthy of all it’s poetic attention.

  4. Bradney Thomas says

    January 14, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    The guy on the 3 wheeler is wearing a mask !!

  5. Conrad Ekstrom says

    October 6, 2021 at 7:41 pm

    Any photos of the Chatham TT and engine house?

  6. conrad victor ekstrom says

    November 11, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    I found some. thanks

  7. Fr. Andrei Alexiev says

    February 15, 2022 at 10:15 am

    I remember walking part of the old right of way in Bennington. I discovered the remains of the Corkscrew division in 1965. I have been out of Vermont for fifty years now. I last visited in the summer of 2018. Saw the plaque by the Bennington Museum describing the Corkscrew division.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

    News Categories

    Archives

        Footer

        Local News

        Moment of Silence at Tops Market

        The Tops Friendly Market in Hoosick Falls will join all Tops stores in a collective moment of silence on Saturday, May 21 at 2:30 pm, seven days after the tragic shooting in Buffalo. “The impact of this tragedy stretches across our community and nation. We stand together as we remember them and pray that their […]

        Play Ball on Troy City Streets

        By a unanimous 7-0 vote, The Troy City Council on Thursday evening, May 19, approved an amendment to what Council President Carmella Mantello referred to as “an archaic law” that said “no person shall play ball in any of the streets of the City.” In her press release, Council President Mantello said after a recent […]

        Chief Ashe Resigns and Pleads Guilty to Misconduct

        by Doug La Rocque Former Hoosick Falls Village Police Chief Robert (Bob) Ashe was arrested by NYS Police on Monday, May 16, and accused of Official Misconduct. He pled guilty that evening in Village Court to the charge, a misdemeanor. Village Court Judge Thomas Restino gave the former chief an unconditional discharge and ordered him […]

        School News

        College Signing Day – Tamarac

        On Tuesday, May 17, nine Tamarac High School student athletes signed their letters of intent, committing to play for the respective college or university they’ll be attending. The students were accompanied by their families, the Tamarac Booster Club and Tamarac High School athletic and administrative staff. Those students are:

        New Tamarac Elementary Principal

        The Brunswick (Brittonkill) Central School District is pleased to announce that Kelly Onorato has been named the new principal of Tamarac Elementary School. Mrs. Onorato, a resident of Brunswick, is currently the assistant principal at Tamarac Elementary. She replaces Mr. Richard Pogue, who is retiring after 16 years in the District. Mrs. Onorato is bringing to the […]

        Hoosick Falls CSD Budget Vote Information

        Submitted by HFCSD Communications On Tuesday, May 17, from 9 am to 8:30 pm, the Hoosick Falls Central School District will hold its budget vote in the high school gymnasium. The proposed budget of $25,348,933 will have a tax levy increase of 1.96%. Also on the ballot will be three seats on the Board of […]

        Copyright © Eastwick Press · All Rights Reserved · Site by Brainspiral Technologies