Work is expected to start this summer on improvements to the railroad tracks between Saratoga Springs and Corinth so that trains can travel a little faster.
At present, trains using the former Delaware & Hudson tracks through Greenfield to Corinth can only travel 10 miles per hour, according to Corinth Supervisor Richard Lucia.
Using a $1 million grant from the Department of Transportation to the town of Corinth announced last week, the tracks will be upgraded to a Class II level, which allows for speeds of between 35 and 40 miles per hour, Lucia said.
“People are upbeat about rail travel,” Lucia said about Corinth town and village residents.
In recent years very few trains have used this section of railroad track, but local officials want to improve it so scenic trains and ski trains can use it in coming years.
Lucia said those working on a new comprehensive plan for Corinth’s future see great potential for using the rail line for scenic trains and associated tourism in northern Saratoga County, as well as freight train opportunities serving the former International Paper Company mill in Corinth. The mill remains vacant, but talks continue on bringing a plastic plate and container manufacturing plant to the site.
Jon “Jack” Kelley, a Saratoga County resident who has helped to coordinate the rail improvements for the past decade, said the new state money will allow contractors to replace railroad ties, upgrade railroad crossings and improve ballast on the tracks running from Saratoga Springs to Corinth.
The town of Corinth had to use $1 million of a $2.2 million federal track upgrade grant it received three years ago to fix a major washout on the railroad tracks that happened in 2006 above Daniels Road in the town of Greenfield. Work on this repair was completed last fall.
Work is also expected to be done later this spring or early summer at the Atone Mountain Road crossing in northern Corinth so that scenic trains can run from North Creek in Warren County to Corinth this tourism season.
A not-for-profit organization called the Kayaderosseras & Hudson Railway Corp. has been created to coordinate railroad work on the tracks between Saratoga and Warren counties, Kelley said.
In late July an organization called the North American Railcar Operators Association will bring 25 small railroad motorcars, sometimes called “speeders,” to use the tracks between North Creek and Corinth.
The group customizes little motor cars that were once used routinely to inspect tracks for defects.
Use of the motorcars has been phased out over the past two decades, but enthusiasts coming to Saratoga and Warren counties renovate and customize their motor cars as a hobby.
For example, Warren Riccitelli of North Providence, R.I., association president, said one of the motor cars he uses was built in 1937.
He has installed a small, one-cylinder engine on the motor car and uses it for touring on tracks throughout the United States. It costs about $3,000 to buy, restore, and customize an old motor car, he said. The motor car is usually placed on a flat trailer and transported by truck to a railroad line location.
The association has 2,000 members across the United States. Riccitelli said he takes about a dozen weekend excursions with fellow motor car enthusiasts each year.
“It gets you outside and you see things you never saw before,” Riccitelli said.
Jerry Riegel, vice president of the Upper Hudson Railway Corp., said he hopes to get permission to run a scenic train this summer from the Amtrak station in Saratoga Springs to North Creek. This would be a one-time demonstration of what might be done regularly when improvements are made to the railroad tracks.
The Upper Hudson Railway Corp. has been operating scenic trains from North Creek south to Thurman for the past six or seven years. Last year the train was able to go all the way into Corinth to the site of the former Corinth Train Depot.
Riegel said there is an area near the old Corinth depot where the train can be turned around for its trip back north.
Riegel said he and his brother, John Riegel, who is president of the Upper Hudson Railway Corp., are happy about the track improvements in Saratoga County.
“It’s coming around,” Riegel said. “We are very excited about it.”
Categories: Schenectady County
