Catskill Mountain
The Catskill
Mountain System
"Rip Van Winkle
Railroads"
Catskill Mountain
Railway - Cairo Railroad - Otis Elevating Railway - Catskill and Tannersville
Railroad
Haines Corners on the
Catskill and Tannersville Railroad. From the collection of P.M.
Goldstein.
History of the Catskill Mountain
System
Route of the Narrow Gauge
Railroads
The Little Locomotives and
Equipment
Stories of the Rip Van Winkle
Railroads
Employee Database
Suggested Reading
About the Catskill
Mountain System
The Catskill Mountain System was a
relatively short lived competitor to the Ulster & Delaware Railroad's route
to the Mountaintop Hotels in Greene County. It was built by Charles Beach, and
owned by his family, who owned the Catskill Mountain House. Comprising of four
seperate companies, the Catskill Mountain Railway, the Cairo Railroad, the Otis
Elevating Railway, and the Catskill and Tannersville Railroad, these narrow
gauge (3 feet between rails) railroads operated as one system.
Only seasonal operations, they depended
on the health of the hotel industry of the Catskills, which was floundering by
the 1910s. The entire system was closed in 1918, and torn up in 1919.
Catskill Mountain
Railroads
