§16 Times Change

The calendar reads 1938. The busy waiting room of circa 1920 stands empty. Not a passenger has boarded a train since 1933. The freights have stopped running. The buildings are deteriorating and the tracks filling with brush and weeds. The tons of freight and thousands of passengers carried by the lines serving Pine Plains, furnishing connections to the great world outside, have dwindled to a demand too small to sustain the cost of operation. Independent and speedy transport in the form of automobiles, buses and trucks, with public underwriting of highway building and maintenance, have superseded the dependable and popular service by rail. Fast developing, also, is the incredibly rapid air service for passengers and important freight, including the mails. The day of the picturesque and colorful railroads is drawing to a close.

No longer does the echoing train whistle alert the slumbering community to the dawning of a new day, or announce its close. Villagers have no meeting place quite like the railroad station where they could gather to discuss the news of the day and watch trains come and go. The rails have been taken up, those steel links connecting the little hamlets, one with another. Such links, high speed roads, autos and airplanes of today can never truly replace.

A fine view east of Mud Pond (Twin Island Lake) in Pine Plains looking south from Toute 199, west of Village. Top left corner, ND&C Station and Samuel Deuel yards. Upper left, P&E Junction where P&E turned east and went through Village. The P&C skirts the pond in a straight line. Right of center, S-shaped line. Top center is crossover from P&E Junction to the P&C, put in after railroads were merged. West Pine Plains Station was near present slaughter house on Route 199. Bottom center, top center, former race track, north side of Lake Road. Picture taken in middle 1940s, well after railroads had been abandoned. (V04-51.GIF)

Abandonment	Table of Contents		Acknowledgement
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