Does anyone know where I can read the article “Pacifics to Placid” in the September 1950 issue of “Trains Magazine” currently out of print?
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.”
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
and hit the plus sign key; that will allow you to take the print up to a manageable size…
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.
Thanks for the article and information about the author. Hoping to model part of the Adirondack Division some day.
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.
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.
I second that… we go hiking there and never tire of the scenery… nothing short of spectacular any time of year.
Condolences Larry. Thanks for all you did to keep it going.
Larry, when did regular service end? Were there any fall color runs? Trees acros the ROW seems like it may have been a while.
Where is the court case a and who is the Judge?
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!
Through the Adirondacks to Lake Placid, and behind steam at that. Can you imagine?
Great days, great days indeed.
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.
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 r
Maybe. Or maybe they’re trying to wear down the RR and it’s legal fund…
…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.
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.