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Station is Nehasane
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Here is the problem: You have a railroad car that
weights 50 tons, it is sitting on the rails of a dead end spur (no further
train connections) and you want to move it to a location 30 miles away.
Oh, by the way, along the route you must cross two highway bridges, each
having weight and height limits that the parlor car may exceed.
That was the dilemma the good folks at the Adirondack Museum found
themselves after having acquired a parlor car that once belonged to
financial genius August Belmont.
The museum has put together a historically powerful video presentation of
how they solved that particular problem
Their solution? They hired the local firm of W.C. Johnson & Sons.
That assignment, of course, made a lot of sense. The Johnson firm had, after
all, constructed many of the buildings in the museum’s outstanding complex,
and they enjoyed a reputation of solving the improbable and the difficult.
The museum’s story-boarded presentation, based on hundreds off photographs
by famed Adirondack photographer Ed Fynmore, depicts wonderfully the
ingenuity and the resourcefulness the local firm employed to successfully
complete the assignment, so I’m not going to dwell on it here, only to urge
you to visit the museum and see first-hand how deep go the talents in our
little community (see also Newton Greiner’s excellent article in the
February 1997 issue of this newspaper).
Railroad parlor cars such as the one acquired by the museum were a
manifestation of hose heady times when the very wealthy thought it would be
“droit” to have their own private car and private train to take them
wherever they wanted to go.
The cars were magnificent with beautiful interiors of rare woods and
sumptuous furnishings, a signature testimonial to great wealth, vision, a
sense of exploration and perhaps a bit of “show boating” thrown in.
One of the earliest proponents of this mode of travel was a neighbor of this
village, Dr. Seward Webb, who owned Nehasane Park, the 40,000-acre estate
with which so many Tupper Lake residents have had close connections over the
years. He is the same Dr. Webb whose executive ability and drive constructed
a railroad against the impossible odds through the unbroken north woods from
Remsen via Tupper Lake to Malone and thence into Montreal.
According to Henry Harter in the authoritative study of the Mohawk and
Malone railroad entitled Fairy Tale Railroad, one such journey taken by Dr.
Webb was deemed the most costly and luxurious trip that ever crossed the
continent. It was composed of Dr. Webb’s private car Ellsmere, the private
car Idler, the new observation car Na-ha-sa-ne, the private compartment car
DAPHNE, a private diner car and a combination car to carry the help and
baggage.
The tour departed from Grand Central Station in New York on March 29, 1893
and arrived back in Nehasane in June before the party went on to Dr. Webb’s
Shelburne Farms in Vermont. Along the 13,000-mile trip they visited
California, then north to Vancouver and east to the World’s Fair in Chicago.
Among many other trips, Dr. Webb also used his private car to take over 100
guests on what was an annual expedition for hunting in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Dr. Webb had set the style and it became widely copied; the August Belmont
parlor car named the ORIENTAL, which is now exhibited at the Adirondack
Museum, being one such example. These certainly were the great days of
railroad travel.
Sadly, it was not destined to last. The railway steadily lost passengers to
the automobile, improved roads and airlines. The line that once knew private
cars and prestigious sleepers was reduced to carrying four or five riders a
day. Finally, on April 24, 1965, a petition to discontinue passenger service
on its Adirondack Division was granted to the New York Central by the Public
Service Commission.
Looking back, due to the shortages of gasoline, rubber for tires and the
increased military traffic, one of the finest and one of the busiest times
for the railroad took place during the second World War.
Many servicemen and women of that time, some of them returning home after
several years of absence, will remember clearly and fondly the conductor’s
cry of “Station is Nehasane!” — a clarion call that quickened the pulse with
anticipatory excitement and the realization that in only minutes they would
be approaching Tupper Lake Junction. There, as the dawn was lighting the
sky, they would be greeted by loved ones and be home at last. |
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